The Grind/Poker glossary
Poker glossary
Every word the coach uses in The Grind can be tapped for a one-breath definition. These are those definitions, all fifty-two of them, exactly as the game gives them. No paragraph of theory where a sentence will do.
- Board
- The shared cards in the middle. Everyone uses them to make their hand.
- Pot
- The chips everyone has bet so far. It is what the hand is worth right now.
- Stack
- The chips a player has in front of them. A short stack plays differently than a deep one.
- Blinds
- Forced bets two players post before the cards, so there is always something to play for.
- Position
- When you act in the order. Acting later is better: you see their choices before you make yours. Position is a human advantage, not a card advantage. The same hand is worth more when you act last.
- UTG
- Under the gun, the seat just after the big blind. It speaks first before the flop, with nobody else to read - the hardest chair to open a wide hand from.
- MP
- Middle position, between UTG and the cutoff. Some of the table has already spoken, but the button and the blinds are still behind you.
- CO
- The cutoff, the chair right before the button. The last seat that can still take the lead away from the button by raising first.
- Preflop
- Before any board cards. You decide based only on your two cards and position.
- Flop
- The first three board cards, dealt together. The hand opens up here.
- Turn
- The fourth board card. Bets usually grow from here.
- River
- The fifth and last board card. No more cards come. This is where hands get told the truth.
- Street
- A street is one round of betting: preflop, flop, turn, river. Bets are settled inside a street and go to the pot when it ends, and the next card only comes after everyone is square.
- Check
- Pass the action without betting, when no one has bet yet. It keeps the pot small and your options open.
- Bet
- Put chips in first. You bet for value when ahead, or to make a better hand fold.
- Call
- Match a bet to stay in the hand. You call when the price is worth what your hand can become.
- Raise
- Put in more than the current bet. It takes control and puts the decision back on them.
- Fold
- Drop the hand. You lose what you already put in and pay nothing more. The cheapest move in the game, and the most underused.
- All-in
- Push every chip you have left. Nobody can raise you off the hand after that, and there is nothing more to decide.
- Limp
- Enter the pot by just calling the big blind instead of raising. It buys a cheap look at the flop and hands the initiative to someone else.
- Open-raise
- The first raise of the hand, with nobody in before you. It takes the initiative and says out loud that the hand is worth playing.
- 3-bet
- The re-raise. Someone raises, you raise again. It is the first sign of real strength - or a real move. How a player reacts to a 3-bet is one of the loudest reads. Some fold too much to it. That is a leak you can use.
- 4-bet
- The raise that answers a 3-bet. Before the flop it is usually the last word before somebody is all-in.
- Squeeze
- A 3-bet against a raiser and at least one caller at once. It puts pressure on more than one player.
- C-bet
- A continuation bet. The player who took the lead before the flop bets again on the flop. It is the most common bet in poker. Most c-bets are not strong hands - they are the lead continuing the story. Whether to believe it is the read.
- Barrel
- Another bet on the next street after you already bet the last one. Two barrels is flop and turn; three is all the way to the river.
- Float
- Call a bet with a hand you do not believe in, planning to take the pot on a later street when he gives up. Position is what makes it work.
- Bluff
- Betting a hand that cannot win at showdown, to make a better hand fold. The whole game turns on when to believe one.
- Bluff-catch
- Calling with a medium hand only because you think they are bluffing. You are not beating value - you are catching air.
- Value
- Betting a strong hand to get called by worse. The opposite of a bluff. Most chips come from value, not tricks.
- Pot odds
- The price the pot is offering on a call. Compare the pot size to the bet you face. It is the first number to check. If the pot offers 3-to-1, you only need to be right one time in four to call profitably. The price can make a weak hand a call.
- Equity
- Your share of the pot as the cards stand: how often this hand wins if the deal runs to the end. Price is what you pay; equity is what you are buying.
- EV
- EV, expected value, is what a decision is worth on average, counted in chips: your chance to win times what you win, minus your chance to miss times what it costs. Positive means the move pays over time. Do not confuse it with the percentage score in the corner - that one grades how much value you have kept this session.
- Outs
- The unseen cards that will complete your drawing hand if they land on the board.
- Draw
- A draw is a hand that is not made yet but would be strong with one more card - four to a flush, four to a straight. You are paying for the card that finishes it, so the price has to be worth the chance.
- Straight draw
- Four of the five cards of a straight, needing one more - in sequence (open-ended) or with a gap (gutshot).
- Flush draw
- Four cards of the same suit that need one more to complete a flush.
- Overcard
- A card in your hand that is higher than any card on the board.
- Top pair
- A pair made with one of your hole cards matching the highest card on the board.
- Kicker
- A kicker is the side card that settles equal hands. Two players with the same pair are separated by their next-highest card; if everything matches down to the kicker, the pot is split.
- The nuts
- The best hand this board allows. Nothing beats it, and only one player can hold it.
- Suited
- Your two cards share a suit, so a flush is possible. Offsuit means two different suits and no flush. Suited is worth a little more - a little, not a lot.
- Connected board
- Community cards close together in rank, so straights are live for a lot of hands. Its opposite is a dry board, where almost nothing fits together.
- Range
- Every hand a player could have here, not just one. You never read a single hand. You read the range.
- GTO
- Game theory optimal. A style of play that cannot be exploited, no matter what the opponent does. The baseline you bend away from to punish a leak. We do not play pure GTO here. We read people and deviate to beat them. GTO is the floor - the read is the edge.
- Read
- A read is a habit you have caught an opponent in - one he repeats. You name it after a hand by tapping his seat and picking a trait. Get it right and it stays with you: that opponent is read for good, and the game pays a bonus for it.
- Trait
- A trait is one line of behaviour from the list you pick out of - "raises any pair", "folds to any aggression". It is the wording a read is written in, and the wording the game checks against the truth when the session closes.
- Tank
- Taking a long time over a decision. Sometimes it is real thought, sometimes it is theatre. Telling which is which is a read.
- Bankroll
- The money you carry between sessions, not the stack in front of you. A stack can bust; the bankroll is what buys the next seat.
- Showdown
- The reveal at the end of the hand where players turn their cards face-up and the best hand wins the pot.