Poker Glossary

Sizing in poker refers to the size of a bet, either in big blinds, a monetary amount, or a percentage of the total pot. Bet sizing in poker is an extremely important part of the game and can make the difference between a winning and losing player.

A sit and go is a type of poker tournament that begins as soon as all players are registered. It differs from regular poker tournaments that start at specified time regardless of how many players are registered. Required number of entrants for a sit and go range from 2 to hundreds. Sit and gopayout structures may vary, for example, double or nothing sit and go’s reward exactly half of the entrants with double their buyin amount.

Find the meaning of the term "side pot" in poker along with important strategy concepts such as the “dry side pot”.

Showdown occurs at the end of a poker hand where all remaining players must reveal the strength of their hole cards. At this point, the player with the strongest hand will win the entire pot. If two or more players have the same hand at showdown then the pot is split equally between all winners. The term showdown values means that hand is strong enough to occasionally win at showdown, even if not an especially strong hand overall.

To shove in poker means to bet or raise all-in. It is used interchangeably with poker terms such as ‘push’ and ‘jam’. The term is naturally most popular in games with a no limit betting structure because players have the option of going all-in at any time.

A short stack is any player that has less than the usual amount of chips for a certain game. As an example, in cash games, many players rebuy if their stack falls short of 100bb. As such, any cash game player with a stack less than 100bb may be referred to as a short stacker. Professional short stackers are players who deliberately buy in with a smaller than average stack in order to exploit the fact that they have explicitly studied short stack strategy.

Set is the name given to three of a kind made using a pocket pair in the hole. If the three of a kind is not made with a pocket pair, it is more commonly referred to as ‘trips’. The term set is most commonly used in the Hold’em and Omaha variants of poker. Sets are generally stronger than trips since they are more disguised (two of our cards in the hole, rather than one).

A semi bluff is a bluff made with a hand that has potential to improve to a strong hand. The most obvious examples are bluffs made while holding flush draws, open-ended straight draws and gutshots. Semi bluffs are always more profitable than pure bluffs, because we essentially have two chances to win the pot. Either our opponent folds, or he calls and we make our strong made hand.

A scare card is card that potentially makes our opponent less comfortable about his situation (and hence more likely to make the fold when facing aggression from us). The term originated with Stud games where we are dealt an Upcard that is of high rank and/or co-ordinates with the rest of our board. It’s often used by Hold’em players describe a turn or river card which has higher rank than any other card on the board, although the concept of scare cards typically fits better to Stud games than Hold’em.

A satellite in poker is a type of poker tournament that awards tickets to an even bigger tournament as prizes. Satellite tournaments are also sometimes referred to as “qualifiers”. They allow players without a large bankroll to potentially be able to enter tournaments more expensive buyins.

Run it Twice means to deal two board runouts once players are all in. Each runout is worth half the pot. Running it twice is a popular option amongst professional players because it helps to reduce variance (without affecting the profitability of the situation). To reduce variance even further players sometimes elect to run the board three or even four times, with each run being worth an equal segment of the pot.

Runner runner in poker refers to catching two required cards, one after the other, in order to complete a strong holding. It is most frequently used to describe catching running cards on the turn and river in Hold’em and Omaha. For example, we hold QJ on a T52 texture in Hold’em. It’s possible to catch runner runner straight on a number of different board runouts.

Rundown is the term given to a PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) starting hand where the cards are in consecutive rank order. For example, T987 is referred to as a “Ten high rundown”. Rundowns may also have one or more gaps in them. T976 is referred to as a “Ten high rundown mid gap”.

Royal flush is the best possible hand in poker variants that used the high hand ranking system. It is comprised of the Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace all of the same suit. It is technically a type of straight flush, but it beats all other straight flushes. In games where it is possible for two players to make the royal flush at the same time, no specific suit takes precedent; a royal flush will always chop with another royal flush.

Rock is the name given to an exceptionally tight poker payer who does not enter the pot with many hands. Rock is sometimes used interchangeably with the word nit, although there are varying opinions on the exact difference between a rock and a nit if any. A common opinion is that a rock exists somewhere between a TAG (tight aggressive) and a nit. The best counter-strategy against a rock is to steal a lot of pots on the first betting round but give up quickly when facing aggression.