Poker Terminology And Slang To Know Before You Start Playing

Updated: August 2, 2023

You’ve made the first step towards the success – you’ve decided to play online poker. Well done! Before you kick off your next adventure, we’ll make sure you know the essential poker vocabulary. Read on!

Ante – a fee that each player at the table incurs on each hand, whether or not they are involved in it.
Pay Off – entering an auction when the bidder has a hand that you cannot beat but the pot is large enough to make it worth it anyway.
Ring Game – a regular, normal game of poker, not a tournament. Also known as a live game due to the use of real money, not tournament chips.
River – the fifth and last community card face up. It is also called “the fifth street”. The metaphors using the word “river” are one of the most used phrases in the poker world, such as “he drowned in the river”.
Rainbow – flop of three different suits, making it impossible to make a flush on the fourth card. It can also be a five-card table where there are no more than two cards of one suit, making it impossible to form a flush.

Post – to place a blind bet, usually required when a player is playing for the first time in the room. The blinds may also be required if a player changes his seat in such a way that he is avoiding the blinds.
Rock – a player who plays very passively, not creatively. She/he only raises when he has the best hands. Such players are very predictable: if she/he raises at the end, you can throw almost any cards except the best hand on the board.
Runner – usually the phrase “runner-runner” is used to describe a hand made only by collecting the appropriate cards at the fourth and fifth card.