Poker Terms – Making Sense of Poker Terminology and Poker Chat Jargon

Like most everything else, poker has its own language and terminology, and online poker has even more in-words that make sense only to those in the know. You can play poker without knowing what most of these terms actually mean. You can, but it helps if you know at least the basics. Aside from helping you to look like an experienced player, instead of a novice, it can also help if you do any reading about poker.

There is quite an amount of poker terminology, and it can seem quite daunting to a new player - almost like a foreign language! But you can break it down into easy to manage segments. Learn the basics first - there is not that much - and the rest will most likely naturally follow. Then get to grips with the abbreviations used at the poker tables in the chat box, and before you know it, you'll be talking like a world champion poker pro.

First things first; the deal, the flop, the turn, the river. These are terms you really do need to know. The deal - every one in the game gets dealt two cards. The flop - the first three community cards dealt face up in the middle of the table. The turn is the next card, or fourth card, dealt, also face up in the middle of the table. And last, is the river. That is, you guessed it, the last community card dealt face up in the center of the table.

That's not so complicated after all. They are really just 'trade' names for the cards that are dealt.

Next, the 'blinds'. They are basically just bets. Why are they called 'blinds' then? Well, they are bets that you must make before seeing your cards, so they are 'blind bets'. Small blind and big blind? The big blind is twice the size of the small blind, that's all. Call, fold, raise? Ok, 'call' is not really obvious; it just means to match any bet made. To Fold simply means to 'fold' your hand, or choose to not continue playing that particular 'hand' or game. To Raise is obviously to increase the bet, or bet more. To check is to not bet

It might seem like a lot, but after very few hands most players have picked up the basics. Those few terms will be enough to know in order to sit and play a game of poker. Of course it gets more complicated than that. The thing is, you can sit at an online poker table and nobody else know know that you have not a clue what term means what. At an online poker table you can just point and click. It would help if you knew that clicking on the Fold button meant to 'muck' or 'throw in' your cards, but after doing that once or twice you'll figure it out.

The tricky thing about online poker rooms is that the players do like to chat with each other - in the chat box - and lots of these players use abbreviations for the most common phrases in use. This can be really hard to pick up on, especially for players whose first language is not English. But you know what? If you do not understand anything you can always ask. OK it might give away the fact that you are a new player, but when you are a world champion professional player - you can still ask! Then they will not know what hit 'em!

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Source by Jared Maher