Just as every sport has, Poker has it’s own unique phrases and sayings that any outsider would have a hard time to understand. Fortunately we’re here to help you out and give you the lowdown and all the most common phrases you’re likely to hear at a poker table, be it Online Poker or live at a casino!
The first one we’d have to mention is the one you’ll here the most and that’s “all in”. This simply means that the player is putting all his chips in the middle - no mucking about here! The second thing to learn should be the names of each position at the table. The big blind and small blind are simply called the blinds.
The dealer seat will be called the “button” and the player who is first to act in the hand is known as “under the gun”. After this terms get more general as the players first to act are known as being in early position while the players who are last to act are said to be in later position.
Generally players always prefer playing in late position as it gives them an advantage! “The nuts” in poker is has in fact nothing to do with the things that grow in trees but simply means you have the best possible hand that can be made at this time. An example of this would be to have JT on a 23789 board where no flush is possible - JT is the nuts! a “gut shot” is where a player only has one particular card to make their hand, for example if a player could only make a straight if the 7 came down then he would have a gut shot to the 7.
After this you will not hear too many phrases about what is going down at the poker table and more just the slang terms for the cards themselves. Here they are mainly humorous names that players have come up with that has stuck over the years.
A pair of Aces pre-flop you will hear being called “bullets” while a pair of Kings may be referred to as “Cowboys”. A pair of Jacks is commonly known as “fishhooks” and finally a pair of 2’s will be called “ducks”. The last one we’ll mention is not one that is used to often but is certainly our favourite one and that would have to be J5 - which is known as the Jackson 5! Overall you won’t be too lost when you sit at a card table to play poker whether you know the slang or not, however when it comes to it it’s probably better to know them just so you don’t stand out as a new player if for no other reason!
