While a few of these terms might be recognized in other poker games and at other poker tables they are specific to World Of Series Poker.
 

Action

(1) One’s turn to act during a hand. (2) To bet or raise. (3) Used to describe a game in which there is a lot of betting and raising.

Ante

Usually specific to stud and mixed games, an ante is similar to a blind, but everyone has to contribute it before a hand commences. A .25 ante with 10 people playing makes the pot $2.50 before any betting starts. Antes give the pot a value right off the bat.

All-In

Committing all one’s chips into the pot. It can be an all-in bet, or an all-in call. If you lose the hand you are all-in during, you are out of the tournament. If you are all-in during a cash game you can not reach into your wallet or buy more chips to continue vying for the current pot.

Backdoor

Hitting your needed cards on the turn and the river to make your hand. For example, if there is one heart on the board and you have two in your hand and two more hearts show up on the turn and river, you have hit a ‘backdoor’ flush.

Bad Beat

Occurs when a player who initially had a substantial statistical lead over an opponent loses their hand to that opponent after the flop, turn or river.

Bad Beat Story

A retelling or recollection of a bad beat. These are often boring tales you know the end of given the opening situation. “I had AK and my opponent had 23. There was an ace on the board and the turn was a 4, and the river a 5…..

Big Blind

Like an ante, it is a posted amount that gives the pot a reason to be played for prior to any action starting. It is equivalent to one complete first round bet. It is a bet without seeing cards first, hence the word ‘blind’.

Blind

Like above, but generic to mean either the big blind or the small blind. If you are ‘one of the blinds’, you are sitting either immediately to the left of the dealer button (small blind position) or one position further left (big blind).

Board

The community cards that everyone in the game uses in combination with their pocket cards in order to make the best hand.

Bubble

In a tournament, one place before the money positions. If there are 450 people in a tournament and the top 45 get paid, then 46th place is known as ‘the bubble’.

Burn

The discarding of the top card before each betting round. In the case that there was a deck that was old and a card had a distinguishing mark on it, the burn card keeps the next card to be dealt concealed before it comes out. That way no unfair information is being intentionally or unintentionally conveyed.

Button

The position of the dealer. It is usually represented by a round disk in front of the player in question. It rotates clockwise each time the dealer shuffles for a new hand. The button is an advantageous position as the button acts last in a betting round. Also used in direct reference to said player.

Buy-In

The cost to enter a tournament, or the minimum amount you can sit down with in a cash game at a specific table stake, usually 20x the big blind. So for example, if you are at a $5/$10 table, you will need $200 to take a seat.

Call

If someone bets or raises, you can ‘call’, which says you will put in what has been bet so far and that is it.

Check

If there is no action (bet) to you, there is nothing to call. If you do not want to bet, you can just ‘check’. If there is subsequent action from your fellow players in the betting round then the action comes back to you to either call or fold.

Check-Raise

A check-raise is made when you check the first opportunity to bet and later raise any subsequent bet, in the same betting round. While it is a tactical move in tournament or cash games that can be quite effective to maximize your value in a pot or to bluff, some casinos do not allow it as it used to be considered ‘un-gentlemanly.’

Cold Call

To call two or more bets on your turn. If a pot has been bet and raised before it gets to you and you call, you are cold calling.

Connector

Sequential pocket cards. 5c6s would be connectors. If the connectors are the same suit, they are ‘suited’ connectors, for example, 5c6c.
 

Counterfeit

A duplicate card on the board that greatly devalues your hand. If you have 66 in your hand and the board is AA74 and the river card is a 7, you have been counterfeited. You had two pair, but now the board has two better pair. Any other player with a card higher than a 6 in their hand beats your hand.
 

Cut-Off

If the button is to your immediate left, you are in the cut-off position.
 

Draw

Remaining in a hand in hopes of improving it. For example, you do not have anything concrete yet, but need one or more cards for a straight or a flush. If you call (or raise) a round of betting to see if the needed card(s) come, you are known to be ‘drawing’. The two most common draws are flush draws (drawing for a flush) and straight draws (drawing for a straight). You can also draw for a three of a kind, full house or better.
 

Drawing Dead

You are drawing, but it is futile because there is not one card in the deck that can see you win with your hand. If you have two pair and hope to make a full house on the river and your opponent already has four of a kind, you are drawing dead.
 

Flop

The first three board cards dealt out after the first round of betting is complete.
 

Gutshot

A straight completed from inside by one possible card. For example, if your pocket cards are 56 and the flop shows 4-8-K, a 7 and only a 7 on the turn or river would complete your “gutshot” straight. It is the opposite of an open-ended straight, which is completed by any one of two cards from the outside. A gutshot is half as likely to hit than an open-ended.

Heads-Up

Playing a pot or tournament against only one other player.
 

Implied Odds

Taking future calls from your fellow players into consideration when you are drawing to something. If you hit it, you expect they will call with their hands. These funds are speculative and not concrete as they are not in the middle yet and will not be unless you hit your card and they call your bets.
 

Kicker

If you have the same hand as another player at showdown, the one with the highest kicker wins the pot. If the board is 7-7-5-5-2, and you have AK and your opponent has KQ, you win on the account of your ace…your ace ‘kicker’. The highest card completing a five card hand is the only determination between winning and losing in this example.
 

Limp

Slang word for calling, implying it is not an aggressive move.
 

Limit

A structure of the game in which bets and raises are capped at a fixed amount.
 

Muck

All the discarded cards in a hand. If a player folds, he tosses his hand ‘into the muck’.
 

No-Limit

A structure of the game implying that you can bet up to your whole stack on your turn. There is a minimum to what you can bet, but not a maximum.
 

Nuts

The best possible hand one can have at a given moment. It is dynamic. On the flop you could have 77 with a board of 7-6-2. You have the nuts at this point as trip 7’s would be the best possible hand. If the turn card is a 5 for example, you would no longer have ‘the nuts’ as that honour now goes to anyone holding 89, making a straight. (maybe no one has it of course) If the river was the last 7, you would again have the nuts as your hand is the best possible hand.
 

Offsuit

Holding pocket cards of different suits.
 

Open-Ended

A straight completed from the outside by one of two possible cards. For example, if your pocket cards are 56 and the flop shows 4-7-K, either a 3 or an 8 on the turn or river would complete your open-ended straight. The opposite of a gutshot straight, which is completed by only one possible card from the inside. An open-ended is twice as likely to hit than a gutshot.
 

Orbit

After each player at a table serves as the dealer for a hand, this is known as completing one orbit – or one turn around the table where all players were positioned differently. Each time the button passes by you is a complete orbit.
 

Out

A card that improves your hand to the winner. If all the money is in the middle and you turn over KK and your opponent has AA, you need one of the two remaining Kings, or one of your two ‘outs’ to beat your opponent.
 

Overcards

Having cards higher than the board cards or your opponent’s pocket. If it is heads up and someone’s all-in for example, the two remaining players would expose their cards. In a situation where it was a pair of sevens vs AK, we would refer to the AK as ‘overcards’.
 

Pocket

The cards in your hand that are not part of the community cards. In hold’em, it is your two down cards while in Omaha, it is your four down cards. Also known as hole cards.
 

Pot-Committed

A situation that likely requires you to call due to the amount of money in the pot vs. your remaining stack of chips. In these situations, it makes no sense to fold.
 

Pot-Limit

A structure of the game where bets and raises are capped by the current size of the pot.
 

Pot Odds

The ratio of money in the pot compared with what you need to call to keep playing. For example, suppose there is $100 in the pot. Somebody bets $10, so the pot now contains $110. It costs you $10 to call, so your pot odds are 11 to 1. Do you think the odds of your hand being the best are greater than 11 to 1? If so, you should call. Or if you are getting the same 11 to 1 and you do not have a made hand but the odds of drawing to a better hand are better than 11 to 1 it would also be correct to call.
 

Rake

The amount that the house takes out of a poker hand for its share of spreading the game.
 

Ring Game

A standard poker game where money is wagered during each hand.
 

River

The final card of the five community cards.
 

Rock

A reference to a ‘tight’ player. A rock can sit at a table orbit after orbit without playing for a pot. When he enters a pot, he has got the goods.
 

Satellite

A tournament with a smaller buy-in that pools all the entrants’ funds and awards seats to a higher-value tournament rather than cash. For example, a $500 satellite that awards a WSOP Main Event seat ($10,000 value) would award one seat for every 20 entrants in the satellite tournament. Satellites allow players the chance to enter into an expensive tournament by winning or finishing high in a less expensive tournament.
 

Semi-Bluff

A bluff with a hand that has potential to improve should the bluff itself be ineffective.
 

Set

Having a pocket pair that hits on the board making three of a kind.
 

Short Stack

Having less chips than the rest of the players at the table or other tournament players in the case of a tournament.
 

Showdown

After the final round of betting, players turn their hands face up. A poker hand only goes to showdown if there are callers on the last round of betting, or someone is all-in prior to the last betting round.
 

Side Pot

As opposed to the main pot. If one or more players is all-in, the pot to which the all-in players contributed is the main pot. A side pot is created from any additional money bet by the remaining players.  There can be many side pots if there is more than one all-in player. An all-in player is only eligible to win a pot to which he has contributed.
 

Sit and Go

A poker tournament that starts whenever a specified number of players have registered. As the name suggests, you ‘sit’ (register) and when there are enough of your fellow players to start the game, you begin, or ‘go’.
 

Slow Play

In an attempt to have other players stick around and possibly call your bets, you play your hand less aggressively than warranted. For example, if you flop a full house it is unlikely anyone is going to beat your hand. Slow playing the hand may allow the other players to make their hands and therefore continue to call your bets.
 

Small Blind

The smaller of two blind bets. The position to the immediate left of the dealer button position, and to the right of the big blind position.
 

Split Pot

When two or more players make the same hand and the pot is divided between equivalent high hands.
 

Straddle

An optional pre-deal bet, typically made by the player to the left of the big blind. The straddle bet amount is twice the big blind (same as a legal raise). The straddler earns ‘the option’ from the big blind. He may re-raise when the action comes around to him. A straddle is a cash game convention and is not usually permitted in a tournament.
 

String Bet

Placing a bet on the table in a staggered motion or more than one motion. String bets are not allowed and the dealer will expunge the added amount of the bet if he determines a bet to be a string bet. It is not permitted for reason that it could be used to gauge the reaction of other players to a raise before you commit the entire intended amount of the raise.
 

Tell

An interpretation made of a physical action or betting pattern that seemingly reveals how strong or weak a hand is. The best players do not provide many tells themselves and have an ability to detect tells of their opponents in order to determine how to play a hand.
 

Tilt

Usually the result of taking a bad beat or continued beats, a player is said to be ‘on tilt’ when he plays with reckless abandon. Presumably, the origin of this term is a comparison to tilting a pinball machine.
 

Time

Requesting more time to think. A player calls for time to avoid the dealer killing the hand due to inactivity. Conversely, a player that takes excessive time to make decisions may have a ‘clock’ called on them by the other players who seek to keep the flow of the game going.
 

Top Pair

A pair with the highest card on the board. A 347 flop, for example, if you have A7, you have top pair with an ace kicker. If you had a pair greater than sevens in your pocket cards, you would have an ‘over-pair’.
 

Tournament

A poker game involving one or more tables of players who each begin with a fixed amount of tournament chips who play until they have either lost that amount, or are the last player remaining who holds all the chips, or until the remaining players enter into an agreement to end the game. In a tournament, players buy-in for a certain amount which goes into a prize pool that is distributed, usually among the final 10% of the remaining players. You can not get up with your chips and leave the game like a cash game. You are in the tournament until its conclusion: a winner is crowned or a consensual deal is made between a small number of remaining players.
 

Trips

Three of a kind.
 

Turn

The fourth community card. Put out face up, by itself. Also known as "fourth street."
 

Under the Gun 

Player sitting in the first-to-act position. It is the position immediately left of the big blind pre-flop, and it is the person who is left of the button post-flop and subsequent betting rounds.

 

World Series Of Poker - One of the best known names in the entire poker world.  The ONLINE POKER TERMS are direct from their site.

World Series Of Poker reached the top of the poker ladder with the faithful players, winners and viewers of their games and tournaments.  These are the terms you'll find on their site along with information on most any poker, casino or game of chance.  Any links on this page will take you to World Series Of Poker where you can play in dozens of games, improve your skills, learn more about each game and hopefully win the pot of your life.  World Series Of Poker is practically a household word among those who enjoy poker; whether you're playing for fun, playing with real money for huge winnings or if you simply enjoy watching the excitement presented to you by World Series Of Poker.