Poker Glossary: Terms for Card and Board Games

Poker

Blinds: The blinds are two forced bets, the small blind and the big blind, posted before the cards are dealt so that every hand has chips to play for. At our Texas Hold'em tables they are 10 and 20 and never go up.Texas Hold'em · Texas Hold'em for beginners
Small blind: The small blind is the smaller forced bet, posted by the player to the left of the dealer button. At our Texas Hold'em tables it is 10 chips, half of the big blind.Texas Hold'em
Big blind: The big blind is the larger forced bet, posted by the next player after the small blind. At our Texas Hold'em tables it is 20 chips, and it is also the smallest size of a raise.Texas Hold'em · Poker position
Dealer button: The dealer button is a marker that shows which seat is the dealer for the current hand. After every hand it moves one seat clockwise, and the blinds are counted from it.Poker position
Hole cards: Hole cards are the private cards that only you can see. In Texas Hold'em you get two of them, and you combine them with the community cards to make your best five-card hand.Texas Hold'em · Texas Hold'em for beginners
Community cards: Community cards are the five face-up cards in the middle of the table that every player can use. They are dealt in three steps: the flop, the turn and the river.Texas Hold'em · Texas Hold'em for beginners
Preflop: Preflop is the first betting round of a hand, after you get your hole cards and before any community card appears. The blinds are already posted, and with three or more players the player after the big blind acts first.Texas Hold'em for beginners
Flop: The flop is the first three community cards, dealt together after the preflop betting round. A new betting round follows.Texas Hold'em for beginners · Texas Hold'em
Turn: The turn is the fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round. One more betting round follows it.Texas Hold'em for beginners
River: The river is the fifth and last community card. After the final betting round the remaining players go to the showdown.Texas Hold'em for beginners
Showdown: The showdown is the end of a hand, when the players who are still in show their cards after the last betting round. The best five-card hand wins, and if two hands are exactly equal the pot is split.Poker hand rankings
Pot: The pot is all the chips that players have bet in the current hand. The winner of the hand takes it, or the winners split it if their hands are equal.Pot odds
Side pot: A side pot is a second pot that forms when a player goes all-in for less than the others. The all-in player can win only the part of the pot they matched, and the side pot is contested by the players who put in more.Texas Hold'em
All-in: All-in means betting every chip you have left in the hand. You cannot be asked for more, but you can win only the part of the pot that you matched.Texas Hold'em
Fold: To fold is to throw your cards away and give up the hand. You lose the chips you already put in the pot, and you are not asked to bet again until the next hand.Texas Hold'em for beginners
Check (poker): To check is to pass the action without betting, which is allowed only when there is no bet for you to match. If every player checks, the betting round ends with no chips added.Texas Hold'em for beginners
Call: To call is to match the current bet and stay in the hand. You put in exactly as many chips as the bet you are facing.Pot odds
Raise: To raise is to increase the current bet, so that everyone who wants to stay in must put in more. At our Texas Hold'em tables a raise must be at least the size of the last raise and at least the big blind.Texas Hold'em
Kicker: A kicker is a side card that breaks a tie between two hands of the same type. If you hold Ah Kd and another player holds As Qc on a board with an ace and no other pair, you both have a pair of aces, but your king kicker is higher than their queen.Poker hand rankings
Ante: An ante is a small forced bet that every player pays before the deal. In Five-card draw it is always 10 chips and there are no blinds, and in Texas Hold'em it is an optional table setting of 2, 5 or 10 chips.Five-card draw · Texas Hold'em
Position: Position is your seat in relation to the dealer button, and it decides when you act in a betting round. Acting later is an advantage because you see what the other players do first.Poker position
Pot odds: Pot odds compare the price of a call with the size of the pot you can win. If you must call 20 and the pot after your call will be 80, the call costs one quarter of the pot, so you need to win about one time in four to break even.Pot odds
Outs: Outs are the cards still in the deck that would improve your hand to one that is likely to win. With four cards of one suit after the flop, nine cards of that suit are unseen, so you have nine outs to a flush.Pot odds
Draw: A draw is an unfinished hand that needs one more card to become strong, for example four cards of one suit. In Five-card draw, the draw is also the step where you swap up to three cards, or four if you keep an ace.Five-card draw · Pot odds
Bluff: A bluff is a bet or raise made with a weak hand to make better hands fold. It works only some of the time, so no bluff is certain to succeed.Texas Hold'em for beginners
Heads-up: Heads-up means a hand or a match with only two players. In our Texas Hold'em, the player on the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, while after the flop the opponent acts first.Poker position · Texas Hold'em
Straight: A straight is five cards in a row, such as 5-6-7-8-9, in mixed suits. The ace can be high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (A-2-3-4-5), but a straight cannot wrap around the ace.Poker hand rankings
Flush: A flush is five cards of the same suit, not in a row. It beats a straight and loses to a full house.Poker hand rankings
Full house: A full house is three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank, for example Ks Kh Kd 4c 4s. When two full houses meet, the higher three of a kind wins first, then the higher pair.Poker hand rankings
Three of a kind: Three of a kind is three cards of the same rank plus two unrelated cards. It beats two pair and loses to a straight.Poker hand rankings

Durak

Trump: The trump is the suit of the face-up card at the bottom of the deck. A trump beats any card of another suit, and a trump can only be beaten by a higher trump.Durak · Bura
Bito: "Bito" is Russian for "done". It ends a bout when every attacking card has been beaten and nobody throws in more: the cards leave the game, everyone draws back up to 6, and the defender attacks next.Durak
Throw-in: A throw-in is an extra attacking card added by another player during a bout, allowed when its rank is already on the table, in any suit. A bout holds at most 6 cards, 5 in the first bout of the game, and never more than the defender had in hand at the start.Durak · Durak transfer rules
Transfer: A transfer is a defence in Transferable Durak: instead of beating the card, the defender adds a card of the same rank and the next player must defend. It is not allowed after you have beaten a card or taken, nor with two players.Durak transfer rules · Durak
Take (taking the cards): Taking is what a defender does when they cannot or do not want to beat the cards: all the cards on the table go into their hand. The attackers may still throw in within the limit first, and the defender skips the next attack.Durak
Attacker: The attacker is the player who puts down the first card of a bout. The first attacker of a game is the player with the lowest trump, and later the defender attacks after "Bito" while the player after the defender attacks after a take.Durak
Defender: The defender is the player next in turn after the attacker, who must beat every attacking card. To beat a card they use a higher card of the same suit or any trump.Durak
The fool (durak): The fool, "durak" in Russian, is the last player still holding cards when the deck is gone and everyone else is out. That player loses the game.Durak

Bura

Bura (three trumps): Bura is a hand of three trumps. If you hold it after the deal or after a refill, you win the game at once.Bura · Bura combinations
Moscow (three aces): Moscow is a hand of three aces. Like Bura, it wins the game at once when you hold it after the deal or after a refill.Bura combinations · Bura
Lead: To lead is to start a trick by putting down one, two or three cards of a single suit. Every other player then answers with the same number of cards.Bura · Bura combinations
Trick: A trick is one round of play: the lead and the answers of the other players. The strongest set of cards takes the trick, scores its points, and leads next.Bura

Russian checkers

Man: A man is an ordinary checker, not yet a king. It moves one square diagonally forward, but it captures in all four directions, backward too.Russian checkers · Russian checkers capture rules
Flying king: A flying king is a crowned checker that moves diagonally any number of empty squares, forward or backward. It captures from a distance and may land on any empty square behind the captured checker.Russian checkers · Russian checkers capture rules
Crowning: Crowning is the promotion of a man to a king when it reaches the last row. If this happens in the middle of a capture, the new king is crowned at once and keeps capturing in the same move.Russian checkers · Russian checkers capture rules
Forced capture: Forced capture means that when you can capture, you must capture. You may choose any capturing checker and any route, there is no rule to take the most pieces, and a capture you start must be finished.Russian checkers capture rules · Russian checkers
Turkish strike: The Turkish strike is the rule that captured checkers stay on the board until the move ends. They are removed only after the whole capture, so you cannot jump over the same checker twice.Russian checkers capture rules

Chess

Check (chess): Check is an attack on the king. On your next move you must end it by moving the king, blocking the line of attack or capturing the attacking piece.Chess
Checkmate: Checkmate is a check that cannot be escaped: the king cannot move away, block or capture the attacker. The game ends at once and the side that gave the checkmate wins.Chess
Stalemate: Stalemate is a position where the player to move has no legal move but the king is not in check. The game is a draw.Chess
Castling: Castling is one move in which the king goes two squares toward a rook and the rook jumps to the square next to the king. It needs that king and rook to be unmoved, empty squares between them, no check, and no attacked square on the king's path.Chess
En passant: En passant is a pawn capture: when an enemy pawn jumps two squares and lands next to your pawn, you may capture it as if it had moved only one square. You have this right on the next move only.Chess
Promotion: Promotion happens when a pawn reaches the last rank. It becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight, and the choice is yours.Chess

Backgammon

Head: In long backgammon the head is the corner point where all 15 of your checkers start. You may take only one checker off the head per turn, except on your first turn with doubles 3-3, 4-4 or 6-6, when you may take two.Long vs short backgammon · Backgammon
Bar: In short backgammon the bar is the strip in the middle of the board where hit checkers wait. While you have a checker on the bar you may make no other move, and it must enter on the point that matches a die.Long vs short backgammon · Backgammon
Blot: A blot is a single checker alone on a point. In short backgammon it can be hit by an opposing checker, so blots are the weak spots of a position.Long vs short backgammon
Point: A point is one of the 24 triangles of the board. In short backgammon two or more of your checkers on a point block it, and in long backgammon a point with even one opposing checker is closed to you.Backgammon · Long vs short backgammon
Bearing off: Bearing off is taking checkers off the board, allowed only when all 15 of yours are in your home board. A die equal to the distance removes that checker, and a higher die removes the farthest checker if none is behind it.Backgammon
Doubles: Doubles are two equal dice. They give you four moves of that number instead of two.Backgammon · Long vs short backgammon
Home board: The home board is the last six points of your route, where you gather checkers before bearing off. In short backgammon these are points 1-6, and in long backgammon points 19-24 of your route.Backgammon
Hit: In short backgammon, to hit is to land on a point with a single opposing checker, which sends that checker to the bar. There is no hitting in long backgammon.Long vs short backgammon · Backgammon