Poker Articles

Freshman Poker (#10)
By Jan Fisher

With all of the words that we already have looked at, it is amazing to me that we are only up to the D's! If I were learning a foreign language, I would look at a list such as this and probably decide to remain with English. With poker, that won't work. You must know the lingo so that you can amaze, delight, and or bore all of your friends with poker stories and bad beat tales.

You also will be able to understand what is going on at the table, as there is more jargon than I ever realized before trying to put together this basic primer. As you play and become more familiar with these terms, you will find that when someone says to you something like the following to you, you will understand it.

A preview of what you may hear…"Wow, The dealer put out the flop, a rainbow of rags, and it was check raised and re-raised before it got back around to me. I capped it and we took the turn three-handed. Spiked an ace there, another hammered round of betting, and rivered a deuce. Can you imagine that slow-roller coming all that way with pocket ducks?"

In order for you to properly define this statement (trust me, it doesn't matter what it means, it merely was an example) let us get on with the alphabet!

Dead hand - a hand that cannot win or has become fouled for any one of several reasons

Dealer - Croupier who runs the game or the position of the player who gets the last card and acts last during the hand in question

Dealer button - the same as the button; position of the last player to act

Decision - the determination made by the person representing the house to resolve a conflict in the game

Deuce - two

Discard - throw away a hand

Discard pile - the muck; the pile of cards in front of the dealer where the dead cards go before being reassembled for the next hand's shuffle

Doorcard - the first upcard (third street) in stud

Double belly-buster - also double gut-shot; a straight draw in which hitting either one of two inside cards makes the hand

Double nuts - the same as nut-nut; in a split pot game, the best possible hand both high and low

Double up - to get all of your chips in the pot, get called, and win: same as doubling through

Downcards - holecards in stud

Drawing dead - drawing to a hand that even if you made, would be no good as you already are beaten

Drawing hand - a poker hand that needs to be completed by drawing a card or cards, the opposite of a made or pat hand

Draw out - overtaking a better hand by drawing a card to beat it; outdrawing a made hand

Draw to - drawing a card(s) to make a specific hand

Duck - deuce or two; slang term

Duke - big hand, usually the nuts; same as big duke

Dummy up - be quiet, the conversation in over

Early position - the position to the immediate left of the blinds or dealer; one of the first to act in each betting round

Eight or better - the qualifier in a high-low split game; the low hand's biggest card may only be as high as an eight to be eligible to win the low end of the pot

86 - to exclude or bar; not allowed to patronize

Exposed card - a faceup card in a stud game or a card that is inadvertently turned up by a player or dealer

Okay, so here is more to work with. I hope that you are playing some and starting to hear this stuff. I promise, I am not making it up! These are all regular terms, many of which you will hear on a daily basis. You will hear them all at one time or another. Hope that the game is starting to make sense and that you are feeling more comfortable when in the cardrooms. Class dismissed!

Please email me with any terms you are unclear of or with your poker related questions. I will answer any emails that I receive. Write to me at Jan@PokerPages.com