Rake Back Pro guide on poker technique and strategy.

This could possibly be the most important section of definitions to know, because playing poker is fun but winning is even better. In order to win at the table you can't play without strategy. A player must read the cards as well as other players and weigh their odds if they want to play smart poker. Depending on the game you're playing there are different ways of doing this. This list of terms gives you insight into the proven methods of determining how strong your hand is against what cards are on the table, what cards are in your hand and what cards can still be drawn from the deck.

Poker Technique and Strategy Terms

Advertising: The technique of openly displaying a card or a play to convey a desired impression of your playing style as a way to throw off other players.
Bluff: The act of implying you have a strong hand by raising or betting in order to get other players to fold when you actually have a weak hand. Read more on poker bluffs here.
Buy the Pot: This is used to describe the act of bluffing in hopes that the rest of the players will fold to give you the win. Usually a strategy when no one else is betting.
Chase: When chasing a player is staying in a game they are unlikely to win in order to see the draw cards that could help, or because of the amount a player already has invested in the pot.
Draw: The act of playing a hand in hopes of getting a card that can be used to complete the hand.
Draw Dead: This is when a player draws on a hand even though there is no way they can win it, which they have no way of knowing at the time.
Drawing Thin: When a player only has a few cards that could be drawn to win the hand. The Draw isn't dead because there is a chance but it is a very slim one.
Fast Play: Playing a hand aggressively is known as fast play.
Fold: The act of forfeiting your hand in a game of poker taking yourself out of play for the pot.
Laydown: When a player has a strong hand but folds because they believe another player has a better hand it is called a laydown.
Leak: Literally a leak in a player's game, or a weakness that leads to them winning less.
Pay Off: A pay off is when the pot odds are good enough that a player with a weak hand calls to stay in hoping to get something on the draw.
Play the Board (Texas Hold'Em): When a player's best possible hand is comprised of the cards on the board and not their hole cards going into a show down the player is playing the board. Doing so the best a player can do is split the pot.
Position Bet: A bet made based on a players position at the table rather than their hand.
Pot Committed: This is a situation in which the pot has reached such a high number of chips a player literally has to call the rest of their chips to stay in the game because their stack is so low.
Put On: The action of guessing another player's hand based on the actions of the other player. This is done to help you decide what move to make next.
Represent: To represent is to imply that you have a certain type of hand whether a player actually does or is bluffing.
Sell: This is similar to soft play. It is the act of betting less than the maximum bet, sometimes well below, when a player has a strong hand in order to keep others in the game that might otherwise fold or not call after a big bet or raise. Sell occurs in spread limit poker.
Semi-bluff: This refers to the action of bluffing in which it would be preferable to have all the others fold but there's still the possibility of a good hand if they don't. In other words, the player has a chance of getting something on the draw to improve the hand.
Slow Play: Slow play is the strategy of playing a good hand more passively to get other players betting and adding to the pot by simply calling other raises or making only small raises.
Smooth Call: A smooth call is simply a call, but it can be done as a cautionary act even if a player has good cards, or whenever a player has a good hand and is slow playing so as to not scare other players away from betting more.
Snow: To purposely play a bad hand in order to bluff.
Soft Play: It's the act of taking it easy on another player at the table by not playing as aggressively as one normally would. Though it's a nice thing to do it isn't allowed in tournament play.
Stop and Go: This is a betting term in which a player calls and raises going back and forth or in other words stops raising, then raises and so on. More specifically it refers to calling a raise then on the next cards goes straight for the raise.
String Bet: A string bet is one in which the player calls and raises but not in one consecutive motion of getting the chips for both the call and the raise in the pot at the same time. In other words, he puts his chips in to call then goes for more chips without stating the intention of raising or the amount. The action is frowned upon and the raise can be determined null if the player doesn't first state they're intention to call and raise.
Tell: An action that gives away hints at the strength of a player's hand or what they might do next. Tells are usually something a player doesn't realize they're doing, however savvy player will intentionally fake a tell to throw other players off. Learn how to spot poker tells in this strategy article

Rakeback Offers

Premium Offers

Poker Guides

Poker Technique and Strategy Terms!

Poker Technique and Strategy Terms