Intro A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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W

1. (n) Any bet. 2. (v) Make a bet.

(n) What many professionals consider the minimum they should make per day, perhaps $100, or some multiple thereof. "How'd you do today?" "I made wages." That might mean the replier won $100.

(v) check (definition 1).

(n) One who checks. (See check, definition 1.)

(v phrase) Some clubs do not let a new player (new to the particular game) be dealt in until it is his turn to put in the blind, supposedly to prevent his getting any "free" hands. (Also, if a seated player has missed the blind in a particular round, he can receive his next hand only in the blind position.) In such a case, a player must come in on the blind, or, if not in the big blind position, overblind or post to receive a hand; otherwise, he must wait for the blind.

(adv phrase) See weeds.

(adv phrase) See weeds.

1. (n) An unopened pot won by the blind (the largest blind, if there are more than one). 2. An uncalled pot won by the opener. Also see lemon juice . 3. (v) Be away from the table long enough to miss several hands. Sometimes cardrooms try to prevent excessive walking with a third person walking rule.

(n) One who leaves a poker table for extended periods of time, or, sometimes, just someone away from a table (for example, to have a smoke break or eat a meal).

(n phrase) lobbying chips.

(v phrase) Cheat, particularly at cards or dice.

(n) roodles.

(n) roodles. Sometimes spelled whangdoodles.

(v) 1. scramble. 2. Less commonly, the term just means shuffle.

(v phrase) Clean plastic cards, which are designed to be reusable, with special solvent.

(n phrase) Three 5s; so called because the Washington Monument is 555 feet high.

(n) The nuts; usually preceded by the.

1. (v) Put waving into cards. 2. (n) A slight bend in a card, for cheating purposes. Compare with crimp.

(n phrase) See waving.

(n) A method of marking cards in which the thief bends key cards around his finger such that the resultant waved cards can be identified in another player's hand or in the deck (when being dealt or for the purpose of cutting to a particular point in the deck). Bending cards is also called crimping, although that usually puts a more pronounced bend into cards than waving. Crimping often involves bending corners. (See crimp.)

(adj) 1. Pertaining to a poor hand, one that will likely lose a given pot. 2. Pertaining to a player without good cards. 3. Pertaining to a player who loses because of timid play, that is, is reluctant to raise and quick to fold.

(n phrase) A hand with low probability of winning a given pot.

(adj) Describing a player who calls a lot and rarely raises, or the play of such a player.

(n phrase) One who plays timidly or nonaggressively, and probably loses for that reason.

(n) A deck marked by shaving the long edges of some cards such that they are wider towards their ends, so that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards, usually certain high or low cards, such as the aces, or pull those cards by feel from the deck. See strippers.

(v) Reclaim money from a shill who is winning. Compare with split out.

(n) The place where sneaky poker players lie in wait, usually accompanied by powerhouse hands they have sandbagged, or otherwise slow-played (see slow-play), to trap unwary aggressive players; often part of the phrase waiting in the weeds or lying in the weeds. For example, in a high draw game, you raised before the draw with three aces. Among the several callers, the first man took three cards and passed after the draw. Everyone else passed. You did not improve your hand, but three aces is worth a bet after the draw, so you bet. The three-card draw now raises. The others fold. You call. He shows his full house. He was waiting in the weeds. Also, bushes, as part of the terms in the bushes and lying in the bushes, and woods, as part of the terms in the woods and waiting in the woods.

(n) In hold 'em, T-3 as one's first two cards.

cut the deck. After shuffling, a player who considers himself clever may hand the cards to the cutter and say, "Whack the pack, Jack."

(n) Another spelling for wangdoodles.

(n) wangdoodles.

(n) 1. In ace-to-five lowball, the best hand possible, that is, A-2-3-4-5 of various suits. So called, because Bicycle playing cards have one depicted in their design. Often also called a bicycle. 2. In deuce-to-seven lowball, the best hand possible, that is, 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits. Unlike ace-to-five, the cards cannot all be of the same suit. 3. The best hand in any lowball game, depending on the rules. In some games, straights count against a hand, but the ace is low, making the best hand 6-4-3-2-A of mixed suits. 4. In high games, a 5-high straight.

(n phrase) In ace-to-five lowball, any ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Also called spoke.

(adv) whipsawed.

(v) Perform the action of two players who keep raising and reraising each other, while one player between them keeps having to call further bets to remain in the pot. This can happen in a high-low game in which one player has an excellent high, another thinks he has a lock on low, and a third is trying to make a hand that he thinks will beat one or both of them. While a whipsaw situation may be quite honest, it sometimes also involves collusion between the raisers for the purpose of extracting the maximum from the sandwiched player. To prevent this sort of situation, most cardrooms limit the number of raises in any one round in limit games. Comes from the action of two men wielding a whipsaw (a large, two-handled crosscut saw) to cut down a tree. Also called crossfire, sandwich, squeeze.

(adv) Pertaining to the situation described under whipsaw. A person in this situation is sometimes called a middle man.

(n phrase) A widow game, usually played only in home games by players while waiting for a "real" poker session to start. Each player receives five cards face down and five cards (the widow) are dealt face down in the center of the table. The player to the left of the dealer has three choices: knock, pass, or exchange his cards for the widow. If he passes, the next player has the same three choices. When any player exchanges his cards for the widow, the next player can discard anywhere from one to five of his cards, select cards (without looking at them) from the widow as replacements, and put his replacements in the widow. Once someone has taken the widow, players may no longer pass: they must either knock or exchange one or more cards with cards from the widow. If no one exchanges on the first round, the dealer turns the widow face up, and play continues as before, with cards this time drawn from the face-up cards of the widow. If a player feels that he has the best poker hand at any point when it is his turn, he can knock. At such point, play continues for one more round until just before the player who knocked, at which point there is a showdown. If his hand is indeed best, he collects one chip (or some other agreed-upon amount) from each player; if it is not, he loses two chips (or, again, some other agreed-upon amount) to the player whose hand beats his. Sometimes the lowest hand at the showdown then buys everyone drinks (whence the name of the game). Obviously (or not so obviously), the further the game progresses without someone knocking, the better the hand needed to knock. Several variations exist to this game; the preceding description is the most common. Compare with knock poker.

(n phrase) whiskey poker.

(n) A white chip.

(n phrase) 1. A $1 chip, in many cardrooms and casinos. (In some cardrooms, the white chips are worth $100.) 2. Sometimes any small-denomination chip.

(n phrase) Profit. "Yeah, I've got $1000 here, but only $100 is white meat."

(n phrase) A form of daub, or cosmetics, that uses white paint, and can be seen only at a certain angle.

(n) A 10 or less, that is, any card not a face card.

(n) Queen (the card). This usage is considered vulgar.

(n phrase) Scarne cut.

(adv phrase) on tilt. "He just had a pat 7 beat and now he's wide open."

(n) One or more community cards dealt to the center of the table in stud poker played in home games only and available to be part of any player's hand, sometimes with one or more of those cards being wild. Such games include Cincinnati, Southern Cross, wild widow, and many others.

(n phrase) Cards that constitute a widow.

(n phrase) A stud game with a widow.

(n phrase) A cross between draw poker and stud poker with one or more community cards.

(adv) Pertaining to a card that can take the value of any other card, as deuces wild or low hole card wild. A wild card turns a pair into three-of-a-kind, two pair into a full house, four to a straight into a straight, and so on. Also see bug, joker.

(n phrase) double-barreled shotgun.

(n phrase) See wild. Sometimes called a freak.

(n phrase) 1. Any game with wild cards. 2. A game in which players "gamble it up," that is, bet aggressively and wildly, paying little regard to their actual cards.

(v phrase) A form of spit in the ocean, in which one card is dealt face-up in the center, which rank is then wild in anyone's hand, but which card is not part of anyone's hand. Also called pig in the poke, toad in the hole.

(n) 1. window card. 2. The window position in a hand. "I can see what he's got in the window." Also door. 3. A, usually, glass-enclosed opening into the cage through which the cageperson conducts transitions, and thus, by extension, the cage itself. "Did you make it to the window?" means "Did you escape from that game with any chips?"

(n phrase) The front card of the five in a draw poker hand, when the cards are squared together such that only one can be seen. Also door card.

(n phrase) Putting a card in the window for deceptive purposes. For example, some players use the joker in lowball as window dressing to scare other players from betting (but it sometimes has the opposite effect).

(v) Have a winning streak.

1. (adj) Pertaining to winner blind, and almost always followed by a number designating the size of the blind. This variation of blinding is most frequently found in draw games, but is also seen in no-limit hold 'em. Winner eight, for example, means the winner of this pot must leave $4 for the next pot, making the next hand $8-limit (in a limit game) or $8 minimum bet (in a no-limit game). Usually each winner in a winner game blinds for the same amount. 2. (n) What you can become with diligent study of Card Player and the books, software, and videos recommended therein.

(n phrase) A blind game in which the winner of the last pot leaves chips representing a blind in the current pot; these chips are the same as any blind, that is, they are counted as part of the bet of the player who has that blind. In draw games, the winner of the previous pot bets last in the predraw betting round. This sort of blind is a dead blind, as opposed to a live blind (definition 1), because whoever wins it doesn't get to keep it. Also, leave it.

(n phrase) winner blind.

(n phrase) See leave it.

(n phrase) The best hand at the showdown; the hand that takes the pot.

(n phrase) In the midst of winning a series of hands, or a period of time during which a player wins more than her share of hands. Also, hot streak, rush.

(n phrase) Cards that win a pot. See winning hand.

(adj) Pertaining to a pair in a stud game, dealt with one down and one face up, or, sometimes, just as a player's first two downcards; sometimes, more rarely, three or four of a kind as one's first cards in a stud game. "I had wired aces all the way against a guy who didn't even have a pair, and he made an inside seven-high straight on the river." Sometimes also called back to back.

(n phrase) A pair in a stud game, dealt with one down and one face up, or, sometimes, just as a player's first two downcards.

(n phrase) juice joint.

(n) kibitzer.

(n phrase) Cards dealt from the bottom of the deck in amateurish, easy-to-detect fashion. See bottoms.

(n phrase) A hand that cannot improve or that cannot possibly win. Comes from deadwood, a term for the discards.

(n) See weeds.

(n phrase) The nuts; usually preceded by a.

(n) 1. In lowball, a 10-5 hand. 2. In high, two pair, 10s and 5s. 3. In hold 'em, a 10 and 5 as one's first two cards. 4. Any game in which 10s and 5s are wild. 5. A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 5 to 10 with no pair, which ranks above three of a kind and below a straight. For all definitions 1 to 4, also called dimestore; for definitions 2 and 3 only, sometimes also called dimestores. Comes from the F. W. Woolworth retail chain, individual stores of which were often called five-and-ten-cent stores or five-and-dime stores (and often shortened to dimestores).

(n) Someone with body odor or bad breath who hangs around card games (on the outside), often offering gratuitous advice and unwanted opinions, commenting on the play, and generally being obnoxious and the worst kind of kibitzer.

(n) 1. tool. 2. Cards altered for cheating purposes; marked cards. 3. Any method of marking or altering cards.

(v phrase) Cheat at cards, particularly three-card monte.

(n phrase) Cheating by sending prearranged signals, say by finger positions similar to the "signing" used by the hearing impaired, or by certain code words and phrases embedded within seemingly ordinary conversation, of a victim's hand to the signaler's confederate. See telegraph.

(n phrase) The premier tournament on the tournament trail, held in late spring at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, consisting of over 15 events with buy-ins ranging from $1500, to $10,000 for the main event, no-limit hold 'em, and prizes ranging from around $80,000 to a guaranteed $1 million, attended by the best poker players in the world, all of whom strive to win the coveted custom gold bracelet that goes with winning an event. Sometimes rendered as the acronym WSOP.

(n phrase) The nuts; usually preceded by the. "Watch out for this guy. If he's in a pot with you, he'll show you the World's Fair and the Holy City."

(n phrase) The worst holding you might put another player on.

(n phrase) Fighting the odds; usually preceded by take the or have the; a situation in which a wager has an unfavorable return. Opposite of best of it.

(n) In Omaha, a situation in which your four downcards consist of three consecutive cards, which combine with two cards of the flop to form five consecutive cards, so that a large number of cards on the turn or river give you a straight. For example, your downcards are 6-5-4-A, and the flop is 7-8-K. You can make a straight with any of 13 cards, any 6, 5, or 4, three each of which remain, or any 9, of which four remain. Compare with full wrap and inside wrap.

(v phrase) A variant spelling of ring in; usually followed by a deck.

(n, abbr.) World Series of Poker.

(n, abbr.) World Series of Poker.

(n) See Mighty Wurlitzer.