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It is not an uncommon occurrence for the new poker player to stride into a club, sit at a table and not understand a word being spoken. This is not a conspiracy against the new guy, these players are using terms and abbreviations that they have picked up from long experience in clubs and casinos. Poker is a game rife with special words and ideas. This article is particularly meant for the beginner who is playing online and cannot decipher the chat messages posted on the board in the poker rooms and forums.

The first step for you to take is to learn the lingo in the most popular of the online games – Texas hold’em. Whether you are playing a limit, pot-limit, or no-limit game, there will from two to ten folks playing with you. The person handing out the cards to the players is the dealer. The dealer’s location at the table is demarcated by a special “button,” thus he may be termed “the button.” The button or dealer in online games is not to be thought of as the same as the dealer in a casino. The casino dealer is being paid for his work by the casino and in no way is a participant in the game.

In back of the dealer are two players who make bets blindly. Only the table limit keeps the lid on their bets. They cannot bet over the particular table’s limit. The first blind bet is for half of the table limit and is termed the small blind, the second player places a bet for the full table limit, the big blind. So, if the table limit $2/$4, the small blind will be for $2 and the big blind for $4. You often see abbreviations which designate the player’s position. SB stands for small blind and BB denotes the big blind. Of course this seems too easy and it is. SB can also mean small bet and BB big bet, having nothing to do with blind. Be aware of this and distinguish between them while engaged in play.

The first move is always made by the small blind player. Because of this, his position is counted as the first position. The button, or dealer, plays last and is counted as whatever that number is depending on the number of players at the table. The second move is by the big blind and the third player is still in an early position and “under the gun” or UTG. Following are the next two positions also considered “early” are known as UTG +1 and UTG + 2. Are you still with me?

So, moving right along, the next three players are part of the middle position or MP1, MP2, and MP3. And the “late” positions consist of the player right before the button and is referred to as the cutoff or CO. Bringing up the rear is the button player.

The above names are for the positions in a Texas hold’em game of ten players. If a game has fewer players, some of the position names are simply dropped.

The game begins with the preflop wherein each player gets two pocket cards. Three “streets” come after this preflop: the flop, the turn, which is the fourth street and the river or fifth street. While these rounds are being dealt, community cards are laid face up on the table (AKA the “board”) and are designated after their pertinent streets, i.e. first three flop cards, then one turn and then on river card. The flop cards of different suits are known as a rainbow. Whew!

This is just the most basic stuff you need to keep in mind when playing online. Continue to learn more poker jargon so you understand more and more of the strange conversation that exists in these online games. You will definitely be doing yourself a favor. You will win more and have more fun when you know what is being said around you and the meaning of the terms at the table.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Aced Poker and Rakeback at NoiQ Poker.

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