Poker Glossary — 60 Terms Every Player Should Know

Basic terms — hand structure

These are the words you'll hear at every table, in every format.

• Hole Cards — your two private cards
• Flop / Turn / River — the community cards
• Showdown — revealing cards at the end of the hand
• Pot — the accumulated pool
• Blinds — mandatory bets before cards are dealt
• Ante — a small mandatory payment from every player
• Straddle — a blind raise before the deal

Actions and bets

The words that describe what you did and why.

• C-Bet — a continuation bet from the preflop raiser
• Donk Bet — a bet out of position against the aggressor
• Check-Raise — checking and then raising the opponent's bet
• Overbet — a bet bigger than the pot
• Float — calling with a bluff plan to take the pot later
• Squeeze — a 3-bet after an open and a caller

HUD statistics

The numbers that describe an opponent in one sentence.

• VPIP — the percentage of hands a player voluntarily puts money in
• PFR — the percentage of hands they raise preflop
• AF — a measure of aggression
• 3Bet% — 3-bet frequency
• WTSD — how often they go to showdown
• Fold to C-Bet — how often they fold to a continuation bet

Advanced strategy concepts

The words that separate a hobbyist from a studying player.

• GTO — a balanced strategy that cannot be exploited
• Exploitative — play that exploits a specific opponent mistake
• Range — the set of possible hands a player could have
• Equity — the winning percentage of a hand against a range
• EV — the expected monetary value of a decision
• ICM — the value of chips in a tournament in money terms
• Polarized — a range of very strong hands or bluffs

Money and community terms

The commercial side of the game.

• Rake — the house's commission from the pot
• Rakeback — a partial refund of the rake
• Buy-in — the entry amount for a table or tournament
• Bankroll — the dedicated funds for playing
• Freeroll — a tournament with no entry fee
• Bad Beat — losing a hand that was a big favorite

How to remember it all without memorizing

Don't study a list. Each session, pick 3 terms, look for them in your actual hands, and write one sentence about each. After a month, the whole glossary feels natural.