Poker Glossary – Terminology: K Thru Z
Our Poker Glossary – Poker Terminology is a list and meaning outline of the words, phrases, slang/jargon vocabulary and terminology that is used in Poker Rooms and Gambling Halls around the world. Continued from Poker Glossary: A Thru J
KANSAS CITY LOWBALL: A form of draw poker low also known as deuce-to-seven, in which the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 and straights and flushes count against you.
KICKER: The highest unpaired card that helps determine the value of a five-card poker hand.
KILL (OR KILL BLIND): An oversize blind, usually twice the size of the big blind and doubling the limit. Sometimes a “half-kill” increasing the blind and limits by fifty percent is used. A kill can be either voluntary or mandatory. The most common requirements of a mandatory kill are for winning two pots in a row, or for scooping a pot in high-low split.
KILL BUTTON: A button used in a lowball game to indicate a player who has won two pots in a row and is required to kill the pot.
KILL POT: A pot with a forced kill by the winner of the two previous pots, or the winner of an entire pot of sufficient size in a high-low split game. (Some pots can be voluntarily killed.)
LEG UP: Being in a situation equivalent to having won the previous pot, and thus liable to have to kill the following pot if you win the current pot.
LIVE BLIND: A blind bet giving a player the option of raising if no one else has raised.
LIST: The ordered roster of players waiting for a game.
LOCK-UP: A chip marker that holds a seat for a player.
LOWBALL: A draw game where the lowest hand wins.
LOWCARD: At seven-card stud, the lowest upcard, which is required to bet.
MISCALL: An incorrect verbal declaration of the ranking of a hand.
MISDEAL: A mistake on the dealing of a hand which causes the cards to be reshuffled and a new hand to be dealt.
MISSED BLIND: A required bet that is not posted when it is your turn to do so.
MUCK: (1) The pile of discards gathered facedown in the center of the table by the dealer. (2) To discard a hand.
MUST-MOVE: In order to protect the main game, a situation where the players of a second game must move into the first game as openings occur.
NO-LIMIT: A betting structure allowing players to wager any or all of their chips in one bet.
OPENER: The player who made the first voluntary bet.
OPENER BUTTON: A button used to indicate who opened a particular pot in a draw game.
OPENERS: In jacks-or-better draw, the cards held by the player who opens the pot that show the hand qualifies to be opened. Example: You are first to bet and have a pair of kings; the kings are called your openers.
OPTION: The choice to raise a bet given to a player with a blind.
OVERBLIND: Also called oversize blind. A blind used in some pots that is bigger than the regular big blind, and usually increases the stakes proportionally.
PASS: (1) Decline to bet. In a pass-and-out game, this differs from a check, because a player who passes must fold. (2) Decline to call a wager, at which point you must discard your hand and have no further interest in the pot.
PAT: Not drawing any cards in a draw game.
PLAY BEHIND: Have chips in play that are not in front of you (allowed only when waiting for chips that are already purchased). This differs from table stakes.
PLAY THE BOARD: Using all five community cards for your hand in hold’em.
PLAY OVER: To play in a seat when the occupant is absent.
PLAYOVER BOX: A clear plastic box used to cover and protect the chips of an absent player when someone plays over that seat.
POKER GLOSSARY: Gambling Gurus Poker Glossary and Poker Playing Terminology
POSITION: (1) The relation of a player’s seat to the blinds or the button. (2) The order of acting on a betting round or deal.
POT-LIMIT: The betting structure of a game in which you are allowed to bet up to the amount of the pot.
POTTING OUT: Agreeing with another player to take money out of a pot, often to buy food, cigarettes, or drinks, or to make side bets.
PROPOSITION BET: A side bet not related to the outcome of the hand.
PROTECTED HAND: A hand of cards that the player is physically holding, or has topped with a chip or some other object to prevent a fouled hand.
PUSH: When a new dealer replaces an existing dealer at a particular table.
PUSHING BETS: The situation in which two (or more) players make an agreement to return bets to each other when one of them wins a pot in which the other plays. Also called saving bets.
RACK: (1) A container in which chips are stored while being transported. (2) A tray in front of the dealer, used to hold chips and cards.
RAISE: To increase the amount of a previous wager. This increase must meet certain specifications, depending on the game, to reopen the betting and count toward a limit on the number of raises allowed.
RERAISE: To raise someone’s raise.
SAVING BETS: Same as pushing bets.
SCOOP: To win the entire pot in a high-low split game by a wager or showdown.
SCRAMBLE: A facedown mixing of the cards.
SETUP: Two new decks, each with different colored backs, to replace the current decks.
SIDE POT: A separate pot formed when one or more players are all in.
SHORT BUY: A buy-in that is less than the required minimum buy-in.
SHOWDOWN: The showing of cards to determine the pot-winner after all the betting is over.
SHUFFLE: The act of mixing the cards before a hand.
SMALL BLIND: In a game with multiple blind bets, the smallest blind.
SOFTPLAY: To show favoritism to a particular opponent by checking throughout a deal whenever heads-up. This refusal to bet with a good hand or bluff with a bad hand when facing a certain person, however motivated, is still improper poker behavior. Softplaying is actually a form of collusion, and may be penalized as such.
SPLIT POT: A pot that is divided among players, either because of a tie for the best hand or by agreement prior to the showdown.
SPLITTING BLINDS: When no one else has entered the pot, an agreement between the big blind and small blind to each take back their blind bets instead of playing the deal (chopping).
SPLITTING OPENERS: In high draw jacks-or-better poker, dividing openers in hopes of making a different type of hand (such as breaking aces to draw at a flush).
STACK: Chips in front of a player.
STRADDLE: An additional blind bet placed after the forced blinds, usually double the big blind in size or in lowball, a multiple blind game.
STRAIGHT: Five cards in consecutive rank.
STRAIGHT FLUSH: Five cards in consecutive rank of the same suit.
STREET: Cards dealt on a particular round in stud games. For instance, the fourth card in a player’s hand is often known as fourth street, the sixth card as sixth street, and so on.
STRING RAISE: A wager made in more than one motion, without announcing a raise before going back to your stack for more chips (not allowed).
STUB: The portion of the deck which has not been dealt.
SUPERVISOR: A cardroom employee qualified to make rulings, such as a floorperson, shift supervisor, or the cardroom manager.
TABLE STAKES: (1) The amount of money you have on the table. This is the maximum amount that you can win or lose on a hand. (2) The requirement that players can wager only the money in front of them at the start of a hand, and can only buy more chips between hands.
“TIME”: An expression used to stop the action on a hand. Equivalent to “Hold it.”
TIME COLLECTION: A fee for a seat rental, paid in advance.
TURNCARD: The fourth board-card in hold’em or Omaha.
UPCARDS: Cards that are dealt faceup for opponents to see in stud games.
WAGER: (1) To bet or raise. (2) The chips used for betting or raising.
Poker Glossary: A Thru J
*This Poker Glossary was provided by Robert’s Rules of Poker at www.pokercoach.us
