When you’re playing poker, you may come across words that are unfamiliar. To help you learn the lingo of poker, we’ve developed a handy glossary of poker terms. To help you understand the relationships between these terms, we’ve built links between many of them. Simply press your browser’s ‘back’ button to return to your previous position in the glossary.

Q

Quads

Four of a kind.

R

Rainbow

Where the flop comes down all different suits, so the odds of hitting a flush are much lower.

Raise

To increase the previous bet.

Rake

The small charge made by the house in cash games, normally 5% of the pot, up to a maximum of a few dollars.

Rank

The value of each card and hand.

Re-buy

Enables a player to buy back into a tournament (normally the first hour) if they were to lose all their chips. This is only applicable to tournaments explicitly stated as a re-buy tournament.

Re-raise

When someone has already raised the bet, and you raise it further.

River

The last community card, also known as ‘5th street’.

Royal flush

An ace high straight (A-K-Q-J-10) of the same suit. The best possible hand in poker.

Runners

The amount of players taking part in a tournament.

S

Satellite

A mini-tournament you play to qualify for a larger tournament.

Shark

A player deemed to be a winner who grows his bankroll by feeding from “Fish”.

Short stacked

In tournaments, when your chip stack is quite small compared to other remaining players.

Showdown

When all active players turn their cards face-up after the final betting round to see who’s won the pot.

Side pot

A separate pot that comes into play when one or more players are all-in.

Small blind

The amount put in the pot by the person immediately to the left of the dealer (button), before the cards are dealt.

Sit & Go

A single-table tournament, normally with 10 players.

Starting cards

The two cards dealt to each player before betting starts.

Starting hand value

All starting hands have a value, based on how likely they are to win the pot. The best would be a pair of aces is the best, followed by K-K, Q-Q, A-K and so on.

Starting stack

The amount of chips each player begins with, in a tournament.

Straight

Five consecutive cards of any suit.

Straight flush

Five consecutive cards of the same suit.

Suited connectors

Two consecutive cards of the same suit, for example 9 and 10 of hearts.

T

The action

The action is on you means it is your turn to call, pass, raise or fold.

The board

When the flop, turn and river cards are all on display, this is known as the board.

Turn

The fourth community card that starts the third round of betting.

U

Under the gun

The first person to act in a betting round. Or, to put it another way, the first player left of the button still holding cards.

V-W

Variance

The range of results you can expect over a given time period.

Wheel

A straight including the cards ace to five.