Poker glossary

Blinds and ante

Forced contributions that start a pot. Blinds belong to designated seats; an ante is usually paid by each eligible player when that table uses one.

Position

Your place in the action order. Acting later lets you observe more decisions before choosing your own action.

Check, call and raise

Check adds nothing when no bet is due. Call matches the current bet. Raise increases it, subject to the minimum, stack and table limit.

Pot and side pot

The main pot contains matched wagers. When an all-in stack is shorter than other wagers, extra matched amounts form a side pot for eligible players.

Kicker

An unused card from the five-card hand that breaks some ties after both players make the same ranked combination.

Board and streets

In community-card games, the shared board arrives as flop, turn and river. A street is a stage of dealing and betting.

Buy-in and stack

A buy-in is the amount committed to enter a table or event. Your stack is the chips currently available to wager in that game.

Showdown and split pot

When more than one eligible player remains after final betting, hands are compared. Exact ties divide an eligible pot; Hi-Lo games may divide it by high and low.