| All In: | Betting everything that you have in front of you. |
| Alligator Blood: | A compliment given to an outstanding player who proves himself unflappable under great pressure. |
| Ante: | A small, forced bet that everyone at the table is required to pay before each hand (in games with an ante). |
| Bankroll: | The money a player uses to play poker with as opposed to the money he lives on. |
| Base Deal: | Cheating by dealing from the bottom of the deck. |
| Blind Bet: | A blind bet, or blind, is a forced bet that must be posted before you see any cards. |
| Berry Patch: | An extremely easy game. |
| Bluff: | A bet with a weak hand (typically a busted hand), usually intended to get other players to fold. |
| Broadway: | An Ace high straight. |
| Bullets: | A pair of aces in the hole. |
| Bump: | To raise. |
| Bust: | To run out of money, especially in a tournament. |
| Burn: | To discard the top card from the deck, face down. This is done between each betting round before putting out the next community card(s). It is security against any player recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board. |
| Buy: | To buy a pot is to make a bet large enough that other players would be unlikely to call. |
| Call: | To call is match the current bet. |
| Catch: | When the cards are treating you well, you are said to be catching cards. |
| Check: | If there has been no betting before you in a betting round, you may check, which is like calling a bet of $0, or passing your turn. |
| Cowboys: | Kings. |
| Cut: | After the cards are shuffled but before they are dealt, usually the deck is split in the middle and the halves are reversed. |
| Down to the felt: | Totally out of money, broke. |
| Fast: | To play fast is to play aggressively. |
| Fast company: | Seasoned veterans who know what's going on in the gambling world. |
| Fifth Street: | The fifth card dealt in a hand of stud poker. |
| Fish: | A poor player. A sucker. |
| Flop: | The first three community cards dealt in Hold 'Em. |
| Fold: | To abandon your hand, usually because someone else has made a larger bet than you are willing to call. |
| George: | A poor player. |
| Glimmer: | Money. |
| Grinder: | An un-ambitious player who only hopes to win a little money each day. |
| Gutshot: | An inside straight draw. |
| High Society: | The highest denomination of chips in a card room. |
| Ladies: | Queens. |
| Live card: | A card that has not been seen. |
| Live game: | A game with lots of betting action. A 'loose' game. |
| Lock: | A hand that is guaranteed to win at least part of the pot. |
| Make: | To (non-specifically) make a hand means to get a decent hand that has a shot at winning the pot. |
| Maniac: | A player who plays extremely loose and aggressive, often raising with just about anything. |
| Mechanic: | A cheater who manipulates the cards to his benefit when dealing. |
| Mechanic's grip: | The way a cheater holds the deck to facilitate his manipulations. |
| Muck: | The pile of folded and burned cards in front of the dealer.
Example:"His hand hit the muck so the dealer ruled it folded even though the guy wanted to get his cards back." Also used as a verb - "He didn't have any outs so he mucked his hand." |
| No-limit: | A betting structure in poker that allows for the player to wager any amount he has in front of him. |
| Nuts, the: | The top hand. |
| On the finger: | Money given on credit. |
| Paint: | A Jack, King or Queen (i.e. a card with a picture on it). |
| Passive: | A style of play that is characterized by reluctance to bet and raise. |
| Play on your belly: | To play straight up without cheating. |
| Rag: | A card, usually a low card, that, when it appears, has no apparent impact on the hand. |
| Railroad bible: | Deck of cards. |
| Raise: | After someone has opened betting in a round, to increase the amount of the bet os to raise. |
| Rake: | The percentage of a pot that the house keeps. |
| Represent: | To play as if you hold a certain hand. For instance, if you raised before the flop, and then raised again when the flop came ace high, you would be representing at least an ace with a good kicker. |
| River: | The final (seventh) card dealt in a poker hand. |
| Rolled Up: | In Seven Card Stud, three of a kind on the first three cards are called rolled up X's, where X is the rank of the cards. |
| Round: | A round can refer either to a round of betting or a round of hands. |
| Rounder: | A player who knows all the angles and earns his living at the poker table. The absolute opposite of a 'sucker.' |
| Slow rolling: | An antagonistic way of revealing that you have the winning hand a little at a time. |
| Snap Off: | To beat someone, often a bluffer, and usually with a not especially powerful hand, is to snap them off. |
| Soft: | Easy |
| South: | Fold. |
| Splash the pot: | To throw, instead of place, ones chips while betting. This is frowned upon because it may obscure the amount of money actually wagered. |
| Straighten Out: | To introduce an acquaintance to an underground poker club. |
| Straight Flush: | A hand consisting of five cards of consecutive ranks of the same suit. |
| Tap: | To bet the amount of an opponent's entire stack, forcing him to go 'all in' if he calls the bet. |
| Tapioca: | Out of money. |
| Tell: | An unconscious gesture that reveals information about your hand. |
| Tight: | Conservative. |
| White meat: | Profit. |
