Poker - Terminologies

Poker is a fun activity among your friends. Poker is also something a person can do in a casino without friends. I will cover all the things you need to say to be effective with your English at the poker table.

There are many different poker games. I will not cover the different types of poker games, but feel free to learn about them through poker books or other poker web sites. For this lesson, I will use Texas Hold 'em as the example game because of its popularity.

First, let's look at some terminologies:

No Pair - A hand without anything.
One Pair - Having two of the same card
Two Pair - Having two sets of pair
Three of a kind - Having three of the same card
Straight - Having five number or face cards in a row
Flush - Having all 5 cards with the same suit
Full house (another name is 'boat') - Three of a kind and a pair together
Four of a kind - Four of the same card
Straight flush - Five number or face cards in a row all in the same suit
Royal flush - 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace all in the same suit

Wheel - A straight consisting of Ace, 2, 3, 4, and 5

Betting

Check - When it is your turn and you don't want to bet anything
Call - When someone in front of you bets and you want to match to stay in the game. Other terminology for call is 'see.'
Fold - Dying or forfeiting your hand because you don't want to pay anymore. Other terminologies for this are, mucking your hand, dying, and out.

"I fold."
"He mucked his hand."
"I'm out."

Raise - When someone in front of you bets and you want to put in more money.

"I see (call) your ten, and I raise you another ten."

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