Rules · Beginner

Poker glossary (English ↔ 中文)

The words you’ll hear at a home game, with plain-English meanings and the terms Chinese-speaking players use.

7 min readPublished Oct 12, 2026Also available in:繁體中文简体中文

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Poker has a lot of slang. These are the terms that come up most at a home game, grouped by topic. Each one lists the Chinese term players actually use, so mixed-language tables can understand each other.

All terms

The game

Term	Meaning
Texas Hold'em (Hold'em, NLH)	The most popular poker game: two private cards each, five shared cards, best five-card hand wins.
Omaha (PLO) (Pot-Limit Omaha)	Like Hold'em but with four private cards; you must use exactly two of them plus exactly three from the board. Usually played pot-limit.
Hand	Either one deal from shuffle to pot, or the five cards a player ends up with. Context tells you which.
Hole cards (pocket cards)	The cards dealt face down to you alone.
Board (community cards)	The face-up shared cards in the middle that everyone can use.
Preflop	The first betting round, after hole cards are dealt and before any board cards.
Flop	The first three board cards, dealt together, and the betting round that follows.
Turn	The fourth board card and its betting round.
River	The fifth and last board card and the final betting round.
Pot	All chips put in during the current hand. The winner (or winners) take it.
Side pot	A separate pot built from chips an all-in player can't match. Only players who put chips into it can win it.
Main pot	The pot every player still in the hand, including the shortest all-in, can win.
Showdown	After the last betting round, remaining players reveal their cards and the best hand wins.
Split pot (chop)	Two or more players tie for the best hand and share the pot equally.

Actions

Term	Meaning
Check	Pass the action without putting chips in. Only allowed when nobody has bet this round.
Bet	Put the first chips into a betting round.
Call	Match the current bet to stay in the hand.
Raise	Increase the current bet. Others must match the new amount to continue.
3-bet (re-raise)	The first re-raise. Preflop the big blind counts as the first bet, so the first raise is the 2-bet.
Fold	Give up your cards and any claim to the pot.
All-in (shove)	Put every chip you have in front of you into the pot.
Limp	Just call the big blind preflop instead of raising.
Check-raise	Check first, then raise after someone bets in the same round.
Minimum raise	In no-limit and pot-limit, a raise must be at least as large as the previous bet or raise in that round.
Muck	Throw your cards away face down, or the pile of discarded cards itself.
String bet	Putting chips in with more than one forward motion without announcing first. Usually ruled a call.

Hands

Term	Meaning
Royal flush	A-K-Q-J-10 all of one suit. The best possible hand.
Straight flush	Five cards in a row, all of one suit.
Four of a kind (quads)	Four cards of the same rank.
Full house (boat)	Three of a kind plus a pair.
Flush	Any five cards of one suit.
Straight	Five cards in a row of mixed suits. The ace can be high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (A-2-3-4-5).
Three of a kind	Three cards of the same rank. In Hold'em, a set or trips.
Two pair	Two different pairs plus one other card.
One pair	Two cards of the same rank plus three unrelated cards.
High card	No pair or better. The highest card decides, then the next, and so on.
Kicker	A side card that breaks ties between hands of the same type, e.g. the K in A-A-K.
Pocket pair	Hole cards of the same rank, like 8♠ 8♥.
Suited / offsuit	Hole cards of the same suit (written “s”, e.g. AKs) or of different suits (“o”, e.g. AKo).
Suited connectors	Two consecutive cards of one suit, like 8♥ 7♥.
Set	Three of a kind made with a pocket pair plus one matching board card.
Trips	Three of a kind made with one hole card plus a pair on the board.
Top pair / overpair	Top pair: pairing the highest board card. Overpair: a pocket pair higher than every board card.
The nuts	The best possible hand given the current board.

Table & positions

Term	Meaning
Button (dealer button, BTN)	The disc marking the nominal dealer. It moves one seat left every hand and acts last after the flop.
Small blind (SB)	The forced bet posted by the player directly left of the button, usually half the big blind.
Big blind (BB)	The larger forced bet, two seats left of the button. Sets the minimum bet for the hand.
Ante	A small forced contribution before the deal. Paid by everyone, or all at once by the big blind (big blind ante).
Straddle	An optional blind, usually twice the big blind, posted before the deal by the player left of the big blind. They act last preflop.
Bomb pot	A house-rule hand where everyone puts in an agreed amount, preflop betting is skipped and the flop is dealt straight away.
Under the gun (UTG)	The seat left of the big blind, first to act preflop.
Cutoff (CO)	The seat directly right of the button.
Position	Where you act relative to others. Acting later (“in position”) means you see what others do first.
Heads-up	Only two players, either in a hand or left at the table.
Burn card	The top card discarded face down before the flop, the turn and the river, so nobody gains from a marked or glimpsed card.
Misdeal	A deal that has to be redone, e.g. the first or second card is exposed or someone got the wrong number of cards.

Odds & strategy

Term	Meaning
Outs	Unseen cards that would improve your hand to one that is probably best.
Draw	A hand that isn't made yet but can become strong, like four cards to a flush.
Open-ended / gutshot	Straight draws: open-ended needs one of two ranks (8 outs), a gutshot needs one rank in the middle (4 outs).
Pot odds	The price of a call compared with what you can win: call ÷ (pot after your call).
Equity	Your share of the pot if all cards were dealt out from here — your chance to win, counting ties as half.
Run it twice	When players are all-in, deal the remaining board twice and split the pot between the two results. Needs everyone's agreement.
Tilt	Playing worse because you are upset, usually after a bad beat.
Bad beat	Losing a hand you were a big favourite to win.

Tournaments

Term	Meaning
Blind level	A fixed period in a tournament with set blinds; blinds rise at each new level.
Freezeout	A tournament with no rebuys: once your chips are gone, you're out.
Re-entry / add-on	Re-entry: buy back in with a fresh stack after busting, until a set level. Add-on: an optional extra stack at the end of that period.
Colour up	Swap the smallest chips for larger ones once the blinds no longer need them; odd leftovers go by a chip race.
Bubble	The last finishing place before the places that get a share of the prizes.

Hosting & settling

Term	Meaning
Buy-in	The fixed chip stack a player takes when they sit down. In Poker Night each buy-in is one “Buy-in size” worth of chips.
Rebuy	Taking another buy-in during the night. In Poker Night, tap + on the player's buy-ins.
Stack (chip count)	The chips in front of a player right now.
Cash game (ring game)	A format where blinds stay fixed, players can come, go and rebuy, and chips keep the value set by the buy-in.
Tournament (MTT, sit-and-go)	Everyone starts with the same stack, blinds rise on a clock, and play goes on until one player has all the chips.
House rules	The rules your group agrees on for things standard rules leave open: straddles, run it twice, rebuy limits and so on.
Net (P&L)	In Poker Night: chips at the end minus buy-ins × buy-in size. Positive means up, negative means down.
Balanced / Off by	Poker Night's check that every player's net adds up to zero. “Off by N” means the chip counts don't match what was bought in.
Direct settle	Poker Night's default settle mode: players who are down pay players who are up directly, in as few transfers as possible.
Banker	Poker Night's settle mode where one person collects from everyone who is down and pays everyone who is up.
Charge	A shared cost such as food, a tip or chip rental, recorded in Poker Night and split among chosen players.
Leave table (cash out)	A player stops for the night. Poker Night records their final chips and keeps them in the balance check.
Hit and run	Leaving right after a big win. Allowed, but agree a leaving etiquette in advance so it doesn't sour the night.
Slow roll	Deliberately taking your time to show a winning hand at showdown. The most disliked habit in poker.

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