Playing Online at US Poker Sites: Know the Terminology

Playing poker online at US poker sites can be a lot of fun – and quite profitable – but if you’re a beginner there are a few things you should know before you hit the PLAY button. Among the most important things to know are the terms and lingo that players use to refer to specific things. Knowing poker terminology will help you follow any chatting, pick up on tips and appear more experienced – and as anyone who has played at US player poker sites can tell you, inexperienced players are targeted by sharks. When you sound like you know what you’re talking about, you’re far less likely to become a target.

Obviously, there are hundreds of poker terms used in online US player poker rooms, and a lot of them are game-specific. These are some of the most common poker terms you’ll run across, complete with definitions.

All In

When a player bets all of his chips on a hand, he’s said to be going “all in.” Unless you’re holding an absolutely sure thing, going all in is a risky move – when you bet it all, you can lose it all. When another player goes all in, he’s either got a really, really good hand – or he’s bluffing.

Ante

Perhaps one of the most familiar of all poker terms, the ante is the amount that each player must put into the pot in order to participate in a hand. The ante will vary from game to game, even on the same US poker sites, with many of them offering some no-ante games to entice newer players to play.

Big Blind – Small Blind

In games with a flop, such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha, there are forced bets, called “blinds.” They are placed by the two players to the left of the dealer, with the first player placing the big blind and the second placing the small blind. The amounts of the blinds are generally determined ahead of time, with the small blind generally being half the amount of the big blind. The purpose of the blind is to control the length of time it takes to play a hand and, in higher stakes games, to eliminate those with small chip stacks.

Boxed Card

Sometimes in shuffling, a card accidentally gets turned face-up. Different poker rooms have different rules for what happens with boxed cards. Most often, they are placed to one side and not used in the game. Of course, this is an impossible scenario when you’re playing online since all the shuffling and dealing on US player poker sites is done virtually, via software, so there are no actual cards to get boxed.

Table Stakes

Flop, Turn and River

In community games like Texas Hold’em, the flop, the turn and the river refer to the three runs of cards that are dealt face up to the table and that can be used by all of the players to form their best hand.

Before you start playing poker in earnest on US poker sites, familiarize yourself with some basic poker terminology so that you understand what’s going on around you and can play a more effective, winning game.