Poker is a strategy-based casino card game. The objective of poker is to win money by beating your opponents. You do this through various tactics and strategies to outsmart the opposition in anticipation of scooping the pot. Sure, you’ve seen poker movies like Rounders, but do you truly understand what’s happening in a poker match? To put your knowledge to the test, consider the following opening salvo in a high-stakes poker contest. To set the scene, we present an elaborate introduction and some pretty tense dialogue between the competitors:
The room is tense, filled with cigar smoke and whispered musings. Under the neon glow, a grizzled player in a Stetson leans back, smirking. “Kid, you just limped in under the gun with rags? That’s dead money if I’ve ever seen it.” Across the felt, a slick-haired player taps his chips. “You think I don’t know you’re holding the nuts? Please. I’m on the button—I’ve got position, and the flop’s giving me a flush draw.” A mountain of chips shifts as another player slides forward. “Enough chitty—I’m all in. Let’s see if that gutshot of yours gets there on the river.” The dealer burns a card, and the turn lands like a mighty hammer. A hush. A glance. A tell.
Get Into Pole Position at the Poker Table
Poker is every bit as exciting as a thrilling page-turning novel, as sublime as the most eloquent poetry, and as exciting as revving your engine in pole position at the Indy 500. It is as close as you can get to pulse-pounding entertainment in a traditional casino card game. The art of the draw is a large part of the appeal. Poker is a strategy-based casino card game where every action has consequences.
Much like Shakespeare’s famous quote in Romeo and Juliet – They stumble that run fast, every action should be carefully planned in poker games. Knowing how to play poker is important, but learning the art of decoding poker expressions is a game changer. Today, we introduce you to fascinating poker terms to help you understand the game, whether you’re on the rail, or UTG. Get ready for some explosive poker action with these big reveals.
- American Airlines – that’s colloquial for pocket Aces. It’s a pretty good hand in poker, known as a premium starting hand.
- Bad Beat – this has nothing to do with the music playing in the background, nor is it related to Michael Jackson’s hit song Beat It. A bad beat is a poker player’s way of saying that they’re having a poor run of form from a statistically strong position.
- Cooler – this is an interesting one as it describes a situation where a player has a pretty strong hand, but is bested by an even stronger hand.
- Double Barrel – just like a shotgun, this action hits twice with a continuation bet on the Flop and another bet on the Turn. The Flop represents the first three community cards. The Turn represents the fourth community card.
- Edge – Edge represents the advantage that a player has over other players at the table. It can be as a result of skill, knowledge, or position.
- Freeroll – Arguably the most popular poker tournament where players don’t pay a cent to enter a tournament, but big money is up for grabs. It’s basically a free poker tournament with real money prizes.
- Graveyard Shift – Sounds ominous right? This term is simply a late-night poker session.
- Hijack – This represents a position in a poker game that’s two seats right of the dealer button. It’s a great place to steal blinds.
- ITM – This acronym stands for in the money. When players are ITM, they are guaranteed to win a prize, like the top five players in a multi-table tournament.
- Junky – As its namesake suggests, this is a low-value hand. You can’t really play a junky hand unless you bluff your way to victory.
- Kicker – Let’s say you’re playing a game of poker and a bunch of hands have the same rank. The kicker card is the one that breaks ties between these hands. It boots you to victory!
- Lucky River – The Lucky River Card is just as it suggests – a miracle card on the River to win the hand.
Truthfully, these barely scratch the surface of the poker terms and expressions you are likely to hear in a poker game. As you navigate your way through this fascinating strategy-based card game, you will find yourself ensconced in situations where players say stuff you’ve never heard of. Still not convinced? How about these legit poker expressions? “I just got coolered after my snowmen got snapped off by a dirty diaper on the river!” or “I open-shoved with the Brunson, but the calling station runner-runnered me with a Big Lick!“