Poker Lingo

Action: It is your turn to act.  The dealer will say “Your action, sir,” when a participant doesn’t realize that it’s his or her turn.

Ante: A little amount of money deposited into the pot by each player at the start of each poker hand.

Burn: This describes the procedure of issuing the top playing card from the deck, face down.  This is carried out between each betting round before handing out the next community card(s).  This acts as a security against players recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board.

Complete Hand: A hand that’s made up out of all five playing cards – a flush, straight, full house or a straight flush

House: The institution that runs the poker game

Inside Straight: A hand containing four cards needed to fill a straight apart from one in the middle.

Kicker: A playing card in a player’s hand that is made use of as a tiebreaker when two players have poker hands that are of identical value.

Muck: The playing cards before the dealer that have been burned or folded during the hand.

Open-ended straight: A poker hand of four consecutive cards that requires an additional card at either end to make a straight.

Pocket: The playing cards in your possession that only you are able to observe.

Protect: The act of keeping your hand by putting a poker chip on them so that the hand is not fouled by a discarded hand or inadvertently mucked by the dealer.

Quads: Four cards of the same ranking.

Rank: The numerical value assigned to a card (not the suit).

Tell: A clue or hint that a player unknowingly reveals concerning their hand.

Toke: A small portion of the pot that a winning player may present to the dealer (a sort of of tip).

Trips: Three of a kind.

Variance: The up and down value of a players bankroll, wider swings in your funds means your variance is higher.