Basic Poker Terms Every Player Should Know

Poker has its own language, and it can make a simple hand sound complicated. “BTN opens, BB three-bets, flop comes monotone, he c-bets with a naked ace” is just a few ordinary actions described with shorthand. This lesson groups the terms you’ll meet most often so you can learn them together. Every term in this course also links to our glossary — hover or tap one whenever you forget it.

Key takeaways

• Seats are named relative to the button: UTG, hijack, cutoff, button, small blind, big blind.
• An open is the first raise; a 3-bet is the re-raise; a 4-bet re-raises that.
• A set uses a pocket pair; trips use one hole card with a pair on the board.
• Stack sizes are measured in big blinds (bb), so advice works at any stake.
• Equity is your share of the pot based on how often you'll win right now.

Seats and positions

Term	Meaning
Button (BTN)	The dealer position. Acts last on every street after the flop.
Small blind (SB)	One seat left of the button; posts half a big blind.
Big blind (BB)	Two seats left of the button; posts a full big blind.
Under the gun (UTG)	First to act before the flop.
Hijack (HJ) / Cutoff (CO)	The two seats to the right of the button.
In position (IP)	Acting after your opponent on the current street.
Out of position (OOP)	Acting before your opponent.

You’ll learn why these seats matter so much in Position in Poker.

UTG

HJ

CO

DBTN

SB

BB

Actions and betting words

Term	Meaning
Limp	Just calling the big blind before the flop instead of raising.
Open / open-raise	The first raise before the flop.
3-bet	A re-raise of the open. (The blinds count as the first bet, the open as the second.)
4-bet, 5-bet	Each further re-raise.
Cold call	Calling a raise when you have no money in the pot yet.
Squeeze	A 3-bet after one player opens and another calls.
C-bet (continuation bet)	A bet on the flop by the player who raised before the flop.
Donk bet	Betting into the previous street’s aggressor from out of position.
Check-raise	Checking, then raising after an opponent bets.
Barrel	Betting again on a later street (double barrel = turn, triple barrel = river).
Shove / jam	Going all-in.

Hand types

Term	Example	Meaning
Pocket pair	8♠ 8♦	Two hole cards of the same rank.
Suited	K♥ J♥	Two hole cards of the same suit (written KJs).
Offsuit	K♥ J♣	Different suits (written KJo).
Connectors	9♣ 8♦	Cards next to each other in rank.
Broadway	A K Q J T	The five highest ranks; “broadway cards”.
Top pair	A♠ Q♦ on Q♣ 7♥ 2♠	Pairing the highest card on the board.
Overpair	J♠ J♦ on 9♣ 6♥ 2♠	A pocket pair higher than every board card.
Set	7♠ 7♦ on K♣ 7♥ 2♠	Three of a kind using a pocket pair.
Trips	K♠ 7♦ on 7♣ 7♥ 2♠	Three of a kind using one hole card and a pair on the board.
Kicker	The Q in A♠ Q♦ on A♣ 8♥ 4♠	The side card that breaks ties.
The nuts	—	The best possible hand on the current board.

A set is much better disguised than trips — nobody can see it coming — and when the board pairs, other players are more likely to have trips too. We’ll use this idea again in Reading the Board.

Draws

Term	Outs	Example
Flush draw	9	Four cards of one suit
Open-ended straight draw (OESD)	8	9 8 on 7 6 2 — a 5 or a T completes it
Gutshot	4	9 8 on J 7 2 — only a T completes it
Combo draw	12–15	A flush draw plus a straight draw
Backdoor draw	—	Needs both the turn and the river, e.g. three to a flush on the flop

Outs are the unseen cards that improve you to what’s likely the best hand. You’ll count them properly in Pot Odds and Outs.

Quick check

You hold 6♣ 6♥. The flop is K♦ 6♠ 2♣. What have you made?

TripsA setTwo pairAn overpair

Check answer

Three of a kind using a pocket pair is a set. Trips would mean one of your cards matching a pair on the board.

Money and stakes

Term	Meaning
Stack	The chips in front of a player.
Effective stack	The smaller of two stacks — the most either player can win or lose against the other.
bb	Big blinds. “100bb deep” means a stack worth 100 big blinds.
Buy-in	What you pay to join a game or tournament.
Rake	The house’s cut of each pot.
NL10, NL50…	Online shorthand for No-Limit stakes: NL10 is 0.05/0.10 blinds, with a 10 buy-in for 100bb.

Measuring everything in big blinds is a habit worth building now: it means a 100bb stack plays the same way whether the blinds are 0.05/0.10 or 5/10.

Strategy words

Term	Meaning
Range	All the hands a player could have in a spot.
Equity	Your share of the pot based on how often you’d win if all cards were dealt now.
Pot odds	The price you’re getting on a call.
Value bet	Betting so that worse hands call.
Bluff / semi-bluff	Betting with a weak hand to make better hands fold; a semi-bluff also has a draw.
Fold equity	The extra value you gain because your opponent might fold.
Expected value (EV)	How much a decision wins or loses on average.
Tight / loose	Playing few hands / many hands.
Passive / aggressive	Mostly checking and calling / mostly betting and raising.
Variance	The natural short-term swings of the game.
Tilt	Playing worse because of emotions.

Quick check

Blinds are 1/2 and you have 300 in front of you. Your opponent has 150. What's the effective stack?

30015045075bb for you, 150bb for them

Check answer

You can only win or lose as much as the shorter stack has: 150 (75 big blinds).

Reading hand notation

Strategy articles use a compact notation. Now you can read it:

• AKs — ace-king suited. AKo — ace-king offsuit. AK — either.
• 77+ — sevens or any higher pair. A5s-A2s — A5s, A4s, A3s and A2s.
• KQ on K72r — king-queen on a king-seven-deuce rainbow flop (three different suits).
• Monotone — all three flop cards the same suit. Two-tone — two of one suit.

Next up: use your new vocabulary to spot the best possible hand on any board in Reading the Board.