Poker Glossary

Structure typically refers to the features of a poker tournament including level times, blinds, antes, and payouts. It would also refer to any additional features of the tournament such as it being a bounty tournament or a tournament that offers rebuys/addons. Structure may also refer to the distribution of card ranks within our hand. For example, imagine the following preflop hand in PLO; T876. We can describe this as a starting hand that has a gap at the top of its structure.

A string bet is a betting action in live poker games that is illegally split into multiple components. The classic example is the statement “I call your bet….and raise you another 50”. In its current form, the player will be forced to just call the bet, since this is what was announced initially. There are many other ways to string bet, such as placing one chip into the pot and then trying to place additional chips afterwards; only the first chip will count. Repeated string bets could be considered an attempt at angle shooting by the other players at the table.

A straight flush in poker is made by holding 5 cards in rank order, all of the same suit, e.g. 5,6,7,8,9 all of spades. The strength of the straight flush is determined by the card at the top of the structure with the King-high straight flush (9,T,J,Q,K) being the strongest possible straight flush. The Ace-high straight flush in poker is technically even stronger but is given the name ‘royal flush’ as opposed to straight flush. The straight flush is one of the strongest hands in poker, losing only to higher ranked straight flushes or the royal flush.

A straight in poker is made by holding 5 cards in rank order with zero gap, e.g. 5,6,7,8,9. The strength of the straight is determined by the card at the top of the structure with the Ace-high straight (T,J,Q,K,A) being the strongest possible straight in the vast majority of poker variants. A straight beats three-of-a-kind but loses to a flush.

A straddle is an optional blind payment made before any cards are dealt. It is typically twice the size of the big blind and acts as a third blind. (So we now have, small blind, big blind and bigger blind aka straddle). This type of straddle (third blind) is referred to as the classic straddle but there are other different types of straddle.

Stealing in poker, refers to an attempt to pick up the pot on the first betting round by making a raise in late position. For example, in Hold’em, a steal is any open-raise made from either the cutoff, button or small blind. The term stealing generally carries the connotation of trying to pick up the pot with a hand that is not especially strong. However, since we can’t see our opponent’s cards, any late position open is referred to as a steal attempt.

Find the meaning of the term "stand pat" in poker and learn how it can be used as an advanced bluff line in draw games.

Stack to Pot Ratio (or SPR for short) describes the relationship between what is currently in the pot to what is remaining in the effective stacks. For example, if there is $100 in the middle and $400 remaining in the effective stacks, the SPR is would be 4. The stack to pot ratio carries important strategic implications; the lower the SPR the wider we can profitably commit all of our chips.

A squeeze refers to a raise made when facing a bet plus a call from our opponents. Although the terminology could technically be applied to any such situation, it’s most commonly used to describe preflop situations in Omaha and Hold’em. I.e. it’s typically a 3bet made after there is an open-raise and at least one caller before us. It’s named squeeze because the initial open-raiser has to worry about the fact that he is not closing the action if he decides to call the squeeze. He is ‘squeezed’ between the 3better and initial caller.

A split pot poker variant is where the two halves of the pot are awarded based on different hand rankings criteria. For example, in Omaha Hi/Lo split half of the pot is awarded to the best high hand while half of the pot is awarded to the best low hand. Winning both halves of the pot is referred to as scooping, but on many occasions there will be a split pot.

Split in Stud games refers to a pair on third street where one card of the pair is exposed as an upcard. If both cards of the pair are downcards, this is instead referred to as a wired pair which is typically considered stronger than a split pair due to its concealed nature. Split can also refer to split pot games (see split pot). Finally, the term split can be used interchangeably with tie in the case of two players holding the exact same hand at showdown.

The position at the poker table to the direct right of the button. Also the name of the mandatory blind payment the player in this seat makes at the start of every hand.

Small bet refers to the smaller of two bet sizes used when playing a poker game with a fixed limit betting structure. Depending on the betting round and variant in question, either the small bet or big bet will be used. As an example, in fixed limit Hold’em, the small bet is used on the first two betting rounds (preflop and flop) while the big bet is used on the last two betting rounds (turn and river).

Slowroll refers to the act of taking a long time to make an easy call when closing the action on the river. The extra time taken to make the easy call serves no strategic purpose aside from trying to upset our opponent which is considered a mild form of cheating (i.e. angle shooting). Taking a long time to reveal the winning hand at showdown is also considered a form of slowrolling. Perhaps our opponent has even started to rake in the chips before we hit him with the news that we had him beat all along. Taking a long time to act with a big hand when not closing the action is a legal part of the game and is referred to as ‘holywooding’.

Slowplaying is the act of playing a strong made hand in a passive manner for the purpose of deception. Passive play is characterized by checking and/or calling as opposed to betting/raising which is referred to as fastplaying. The hope is that our opponent may decide to launch a big bluff at the pot or not give our bets and raises credit on the later streets.