Basic Poker Terminology for Ultimate Beginners

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Poker is becoming one of the most viral pastimes, and there are plenty of reasons why. The skill game is a fairly accessible recreation: there are several online platforms to play poker and win real money out there. Whether you're playing for fun or for the winnings, you can develop extremely good strategy skills to be used in different walks of life as well. The reasons may vary, but one thing is for sure if you are a complete novice, there are certain poker basics you need to cover first.

Without further ado, let's learn the basics before you embark on your gaming adventure.

Basic Poker Definitions

Some standard poker terms that you will often deal with may seem all Greek to you now. So first, let's break down the go-to terminology before you start practicing.

Poker Hand Rankings

Poker Hand: Poker hand refers to the five cards that are held in the game. Every game features the same hierarchy of poker hands. Based on this hierarchy, there can be different types of poker hands:

• Royal flush - Poker hand with A, K, Q, J, and 10 in the same suit
• Straight flush - Poker hand in with five consecutive cards of the same suit
• Four of a kind - Poker hand with five cards of the same rank
• Full house - Poker hand that contains three of the same cards and one pair
• Flush - Poker hand with any five cards of the same suit
• Straight - Poker hand with five consecutive cards that do not belong to the same suit
• Three of a kind - the one that has three cards of the same rank
• Two pair - Poker hand made of two different pairs of cards
• Pair - Poker hand that has two cards of the same rank
• High card - If you don't have any of the hands mentioned above, the highest card of the hand plays

Community Cards: The cards dealt in the center of the table face up and used by all players in making a better hand.

Hole card: In stud poker, this is the card that is dealt face down, and the player must not display it before the showdown.

Flop: The first three community cards being dealt down once the players complete the first round of betting.

Board: Board features the community cards that players use to combine with their pocket cards and form a better hand.

There are several other notions related to the community cards and the poker hand, but these ones will help you get started.

The Go-to Poker Terminology List

Now you know what you are playing with, but let's master the how-to part as well with a handy poker glossary.

Ante: Ante is the small bet that every player must make before the cards are dealt.

Blinds: The main difference between blind and ante is the former is not necessarily made by every player. There are two types of blinds: the small and the big blinds. The player sitting directly to the left of the dealer button pays the small blind, and the next player(on the left) pays the big blind. Some games such as Omaha and Texas hold 'em may be played with no antes and let the players fold the hand without placing a bet.

Pot: Antes, bets, raises, and re-raises make up the pot that the winner claims after the hand is finished.

Bring-in: The player who shows the worst upcard in the stud game has to pay the bring-in—the forced bet. The player can choose to either pay the bring-in amount or complete to the small bet amount.

Buy-in: This is the required fee to enter a poker tournament or the minimum amount one has to pay to take a cash game seat.

Let's learn some more basic poker terms for taking action in a betting round.

Bet: The process of placing the first wager is making a bet.

Call: To call means to pay to match the previous bet or a raise made by another player.

Raise: If a player wants to increase the existing bet's size in the same betting round, he raises.

Re-raise: When a player wants to bet after someone has bet and another player has raised the bet, he needs to re-raise. So, this is the third bet in the same betting round (bet → raise → re-raise).

Cap: Cap refers to a restriction on the number of raises a player is allowed to make in a betting round. There are usually three or four raises allowed in a single betting round.

Check: The player checks when no bets are made, and he passes the action to the next player.

Push: This means going all-in. If the player pushes, he bets all the chips or pushes them into the center of the table.

Fold: To fold means to give up on the hand. In this case, the player tosses the cards into the muck or says that he folds his hand when it's his turn to act.

The betting round will be completed either when everyone folds to someone's rais or bet or when all players have placed equal bets of equal. If no one calls a raise or bet, the pot goes to the player.

At the very beginning of your poker journey, you may want to start with the most popular and so far the trendiest poker game, aka Texas Hold 'em. You might have heard about this one from TV shows such as the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. This form of poker has been all the rage for a while. Omaha High comes second after Texas Hold 'em with its popularity among the exclusive selection of poker games on top online betting websites. Practice makes perfect, so go ahead and find your ideal platform to master your new knowledge base and start snagging big wins.

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