Most Common Poker Terms and Lingo

If you watch any sort of poker television show you will have heard numerous poker terms throughout the programme. If you are new to poker you will likely have been thinking to yourself, "what the hell does that mean". The same goes for the text written in an online poker chat box.

We will start off with common terms found in a chat box on an online poker site.

"nh" – nice hand
"gh" – good hand
"vnh" – very nice hand
"gg" – good game
"nf" – nice fold
"gb" – good bet
"brb" – be right back
"utg" – under the gun
"lol" – laugh out loud
"ty" – thank you
"iirc" – if I remember correctly
"bb" – big blind
"sb" – small blind
"hu" – heads up
"sh" – short handed
"fr" – full ring
"nl" – no limit
"fl" – fixed limit
"pl" – pot limit
"ss" – short stack
"ft" – final table
"br" – bankroll

There you have a number of the most popular abbreviations you will find at an online poker chat box. Now onto the poker lingo.

Aces Up – when you hold two pair, one pair being aces

All-in – when a player bets all of his chips

Bad beat – when a player loses a pot when he was mathematically a big favourite to win

Bankroll – the amount of money a player has at an online poker site

Big Slick – nickname for the hand AK

Bubble – the last place which does not cash in a tournament

Continuation bet – making a follow on bet after raising the hand pre-flop

Donkey – somebody who is unskilled at poker, a losing player

Final table – making the last table of a tournament

Heads Up – play takes place with just two people at the table

In the money – when finishing inside the prize structure during a tournament

Kicker – when holding a pair, a kicker is the other remaining card you hold

Limp – limping is just calling a minimum bet or blind

Muck – folding your hand without showing the table what you were holding

Nuts – the best possible hand from the cards available

Outs – the amount of cards one can hit to give them the winning hand

Push – going all-in. Putting all your chips into the middle

Rake – the money the site takes from each pot

Rakeback – A percentage of the rake given back to the player.

Set – making three of a kind

Tilt – making rash decisions after taking a bad beat

WTSD – went to showdown, the amount of times a player has taken a hand to the showdown