The cards and the board
A poker hand history is easier to follow once its terms are separated into cards, actions and structure. These explanations describe standard community-card poker, especially Texas Hold’em. A word can carry a more specific meaning in another variant.
- Hole cards
- The cards dealt privately to an individual player. Hold’em gives each player two.
- Board
- The shared community cards. The board is not a player’s complete hand by itself unless those five cards are their best combination.
- Flop, turn and river
- The first three community cards, the fourth card and the fifth card respectively. Each is followed by a betting round if the hand continues.
- Street
- A stage of the hand, such as the flop or turn. “Next street” refers to the following stage.
- Suited and offsuit
- Cards sharing a suit are suited. Starting cards of different suits are offsuit. Two black cards are not necessarily suited: spades and clubs are separate suits.
Made hands and possibilities
- Draw
- A holding that may improve to a particular hand when more cards arrive. Four hearts are a possible flush draw, not a completed flush.
- Kicker
- A side card inside a five-card hand that may decide a tie between matching hand categories and ranks.
- Pocket pair
- Two Hold’em hole cards of the same rank, such as 8♠ 8♦.
- Set and trips
- Both describe three of a kind. A set usually means a pocket pair matching one board card; trips usually means one hole card matching a pair on the board.
- The nuts
- The strongest hand possible in the stated situation. A hand can be the nuts on the flop and stop being the nuts when the board changes.
Action and chips
- Check and call
- Check when no additional amount is owed; call to match an outstanding amount. They are different actions.
- Bet and raise
- A bet opens a round’s voluntary betting. A raise increases the amount currently faced.
- Fold
- Give up the hand and its claim to the pot. Earlier contributions stay in the pot.
- All-in
- A player has committed all the chips they have available in the hand.
- Pot and side pot
- The pot holds chips committed to the hand. A side pot separates further contributions between players when another player is all-in for less.
Seats and structure
- Button
- The marker for the nominal dealer position. It determines the action order together with the blinds.
- Under the gun
- The first seat to act before the flop in the usual game with at least three players.
- In position
- Acting after a particular opponent. The relationship can change depending on who is still in the hand.
- Big blind, or BB
- A forced bet and a useful unit of measurement. A 200-unit stack at a two-unit big blind is 100 BB.
- Buy-in
- The amount used to enter a game. In a tournament, distinguish the entry price from the tournament-chip stack received.
If a description still feels unclear, write down the cards and actions it refers to. “A set on the turn” identifies a hand formation and a stage; it does not specify an entire betting history. Read the Hold’em walkthrough to see the terms used together.
