Poker Glossary

A bounty is a prize that is won for knocking out a player either from a knockout tournament or a bounty tournament. In knockout tournaments players receive a small bounty (monetary prize) every time they knock another player out of the tournament. This is all added together along with any prize pool payments to make a total payout at the end of the tournament. Bounty tournaments are very similar but the bounty is often considerably larger and awarded for knocking out a specific player (or players) usually a celebrity or high profile player.

A bot is a non-human poker player. It’s a piece of software that makes automated decisions at the poker table based on the code it has been given by a bot developer. Bots are very useful for learning about and studying the game of poker, but not all bots are a good thing. In the online world, bots are commonly used in online poker games to try and cheat legitimate players out of their chips. Of course, if they are caught, the poker room will ban the bots since they are against the terms and conditions of most poker sites. The term bot may also occasionally be used to describe a human player who has a rigid, robotic playing style and plays very long sessions.

A boat is simply a nickname for a full house in poker. This particular nickname may even be used more commonly than the actual hand name itself, pesumably because it’s easier to say than “full house.”A boat is made when we hold 3 cards of one rank and two cards of another, for example QQQJJ. This hand would be described as a boat “Queens full of Jacks”.

In poker the term board refers to any group of cards visible to the entire table. In community card games such as Hold’em and Omaha, the term board is used to describe any of the flop, turn or river cards visible to the entire table. In poker games such as stud the term board can be used to described any of each players available upcards which are visible to the entire table.

To bluffcatch in poker means to call a bet with a hand that will only win if our opponent is bluffing. The term bluffcatcher refers to the type of hand we hold when bluffcatching, typically a mid-strength or weak holding. Once a hand is strong enough to start beating some of our opponent’s legitimate made hands, it should no longer be referred to as a bluffcatcher. Bluffcatching is an important aspect of poker – if we don’t bluffcatch in the right situations our opponent will be able to get away with bluffing too often.

In poker, the term blocker refers to a card in our hand that makes certain hands for our opponent less likely. For example, if we hold AK preflop in Hold’em, it makes it less likely that our opponent holds AA. Ordinarily there are 6 different ways to make AA, but since we hold one of the Aces (i.e. we have a blocker), there are now only three ways for our opponent to make AA. We can express this by saying that we “block” our opponent’s AA combos. The technical term for blocking is card removal effect.

Find the meaning of the term "blind" in poker. Discover common blind bets such as the dark-bet and the straddle.

In poker, a blank is a card that doesn’t connect in a meaningful way with any of the other available cards. It’s typically a low card that doesn’t complete any available draws. For example, if the flop texture in Hold’em is KQJ two-tone, an unsuited Deuce (two) on the turn might be referred to as a blank.It doesn’t make any higher pair possible or complete any available straight and flush draws.The term brick is commonly used interchangeably with blank.

The big blind is the position at the poker table to the direct left of the small blind. This position pays the mandatory big blind payment preflop.

A big bet is the larger of two different fixed bet sizings used in fixed limit poker games. A big bet is twice the size of the big blind in game such as fixed limit Hold’em and Omaha. Depending on the betting round, either the small bet sizing or the big bet sizing will be used. In Hold’em, the small bet sizing is used on the flop while the big bet sizing is used for the turn and river.

In poker, the term bet means to wager our chips by placing them into the centre of the table. Although raises and calls are both types of bet, the term bet is generally used to describe a situation where we make the first wager on the current betting round. For example, if we make the first wager on the flop, it’s described as ‘making a bet’. All further bets on that betting round will typically be described either as raises or calls. In more general terms betting refers to the activity of making wagers on the outcome of any event, whether it be a card game or something completely unrelated.

The term bankroll in poker refers to the amount of money a player has that he has available for playing poker with. Many professionals prefer to keep their bankroll separate from the funds that they need for day to day living. Their decisions regarding which games to play will be based (in part) on the size of their bankroll. The skill of making good use of funds set aside for poker is called bankroll management.

A barrel in poker is a bet made after also taking the last aggressive action on the previous betting round. For example, if we make a continuation bet on the flop in Hold’em, a second bet on the turn can be referred to as a “barrel” or a“turnbarrel”. The terms double-barrel and triple-barrel are also commonly used to describe a spot where we bet two or three times consecutively.

A bad beat in poker is where we lose a hand despite being a considerable favourite to win. A typical bad beat in Hold’em might involve two players getting all of their chips in on the turn. Although player one is a 95% favourite to win the pot, player two catches a lucky river card and wins the entire pot. (This is commonly referred to as a “suckout”). This is just one variant however, there are a number of different scenarios that players refer to as bad beats.

A backraise is a raise made after already making a call earlier on the same betting round. It’s considered a tricky or deceptive line, since we decided not to raise when first given the opportunity. We decided to just call and only re-raise after someone behind us to decides to raise. The most common example in No Limit Hold’em is where a player calls against an open raise preflop but then decides to 4bet when facing a squeeze.