The Basics
There are many new terms that new players will already be aware of through learning how to play the game. These include the names of the various different hands in poker (full house, flush, straight etc.) and the ways in which you can act (call, raise, or check etc.). However, for the benefit of those who are very early beginners (or 'fish', as they are condescendingly known), here they are, in order of strength of value, as well as a few miscellaneous terms that anybody playing poker must know:
Hands
- Pair: Two cards of the same value.
- Two Pair: Two sets of pairs.
- Three of a kind (or 'Trips'): Three cards of the same value.
- Straight: Five cards ascending in value (e.g. 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack).
- Flush: Five cards of the same suit (or 'suited').
- Full House: A pair, and 3 of a kind (e.g. 10, 10, 10, King, King)
- Four of a kind (or 'Quads): Four cards of the same value.
- Straight Flush: Five cards ascending in value and of the same suit.
- Royal Flush: The five highest value cards of the same suit (10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace).
Miscellaneous
- A Hand: A hand is simply one round of cards played, or the name of the cards in your hands.
- Chips: Seems obvious, but just in case, the chips are the plastic representation of the money you stake.
- Pot: The pot is the accumulated amount of chips available in each hand of poker.
- Blinds: The blinds are the compulsory stakes that the two people to the left of the dealer have to place down in each hand, so called because you place the bet down whether you have seen your cards or not.
