Poker Phrases

Action: The time a player is to do something.  A participant might say to the dealer “Who has the action” should they have forgotten whose turn it is.

Ante: The small portion of a wager put down by all players to build the pot at the beginning of each poker hand.

Burn: This is the process of issuing the top playing card from the deck, face down.  This is performed between each betting round prior to dealing the next community card(s).  This acts as protection against a player recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board.

Complete Hand: A poker hand that is made up out of all five cards – a flush, straight, full house or a straight flush

House: The establishment that runs the poker game

Inside Straight: A set of cards consisting of four playing cards required to make a straight with a single card in the middle absent.

Kicker: A card in a player’s hand that is used as a tiebreaker whenever two players have poker hands that are of identical value.

Muck: A pile of cards either burned or folded in front of the dealer.

Open-ended straight: A hand of four consecutive playing cards that requires an additional playing card at either end to make a straight.

Pocket: The playing cards that only you can see.

Protect: Putting a chip on your cards to signify that you are still in the game to make certain that your set of cards is not inadvertently mucked by the dealer or fouled by a discarded hand.

Quads: Four of a kind.

Rank: The worth of the card (not the suit).

Tell: A clue or tip-off that a player accidentally reveals about their poker hand.

Toke: A small percentage of the pot that a winning player may give to the dealer (a kind of tip).

Trips: Three playing cards of the same value.

Variance: The up and down value of your bankroll, wider swings in your bankroll means your variance is higher.