New Terms: More Poker Vocabulary

The online poker boom and the increasing popularity of televised events regularly add many terms to poker's rich vocabulary.



The following await the next edition of The Official Dictionary of Poker.



Card Protector: In a brick-and-mortar cardroom (B&M) or home game, a chip, charm, spinner, or other small object a player places atop his hand while the cards sit otherwise unprotected on the table. The reason to use a card protector is that if cards sit on the table unprotected, an unobservant house dealer might inadvertently scoop them up, unaware that the player is involved in the pot. Also, a discard might accidentally touch the cards, and in many cardrooms, that can kill the hand (make it dead, that is, according to the house rules, unplayable).



Chat: 1. (noun) The informal language that online cardroom players type into the chat box. 2. (verb) Enter comments into the chat box.



Chat Box: Part of the playing area at a table in an online cardroom, a field into which dealer text and player comments go.



Chat Term: Specialized shorthand that players use when they type comments into the chat box. These are often congratulatory or offer comments about play or other players. Chat terms include such initialisms as nh (nice hand), bb (big blind), and tyvm (thank you very much).



Dealer Dialog: Dealer text


Dealer Text: The dealer's running verbiage, displayed in the chat box, describing the action. At many sites, you can specify the level of this reporting, from minimal information to everything that happens. Also called dealer dialog.


The Goods: The nuts in a given situation. "Every time he bet and got called, he had the goods."



Pay The Freight: Win enough in one hand to pay for a round of blinds.



Play Money: The medium of exchange, chips that have no value, used in games played at an online cardroom for the purpose of learning how to play or accumulating points, or both. Generally, only online cardrooms can afford to offer such games. Every online poker room has a play-money section. In addition, to get around the network television ban against advertisements placed by online gambling sites, many online poker rooms offer what they bill as training or learning sites. Their ads prominently state, "This is not a gambling site." These sites are play-money sites, although they sometimes offer tournaments with cash payouts. Such sites have the same base names as their dot-com equivalents, but usually with a dot-net or dot-tv domain. For example, FullTiltPoker.com and PartyPoker.com offer FullTiltPoker.net and PartyPoker.net.



Reload: 1. In an online cardroom, add chips to one's account. This can be done when a player goes broke (runs out of funds) or in response to a reload bonus. 2. In a rebuy tournament, buy more chips when one goes broke.



Reload Bonus: An incentive by an online cardroom to get players to add funds to their accounts. Usually, the purchase of some amount up to some maximum is accompanied by matching funds added to the player's account. This bonus is then released usually at the rate of some number of points per raked hand in which the player participates, a certain amount per hand played, or as some percentage of the total rake paid. Generally, the bonus funds are released to the player in specified increments, such as, for example, $10 for every 100 raked hands played. Some reload bonuses are dollar-for-dollar of the amount rebought; others are a percentage, as, for example, 20 percent up to a maximum payout of $200.



Shuffle Chips: Press two adjacent stacks of chips together in such a way that they interlace to form one stack, a trick that poker professionals on TV sometimes are seen performing between hands or while debating a decision. The ability to shuffle chips is an indication that someone has spent countless hours at poker tables, because the trick takes a lot of practice and is something to do to stave off boredom when not involved in pots.



Sit-And-Go Tournament: A tournament that starts when it fills. Such tournaments often consist of just one table, although multitable sit-and-gos are becoming popular online. Online, a sit-and-go can award either entries into a larger tournament or, growing in popularity, cash. In a single-table sit-and-go, usually, the top two places get paid. The more tables, the more winning places. The term started online, although the concept existed much before online poker became popular. Major tournaments would often have single-table satellites for big-buy-in events, generally awarding one buy-in. For example, for years, players would sit down before the start of the main event of the World Series of Poker with $1,000 each (plus, usually, a little extra for the house). As soon as the table filled, play would commence, with blinds increasing just as in the actual event, although at a much accelerated rate. When one player was left, that player would be awarded a buy-in to the main event. As soon as one table filled, another would start filling. The term is also rendered sit-n-go, sit 'n' go, and SNG.



Spinner: A disk-shaped card protector so constructed as to be able to spin for a long time while sitting atop cards. Spinners sometimes have designs that seem to become animated while spinning or patterns that give a hypnotic attraction.



Take Off A Card: Call a bet so that one can see another card. This term is usually heard in hold'em, and it means pay for the privilege of having the turn or river card dealt (as opposed to folding). The term often implies inappropriately making such a call. That is, someone who says "I'll take off a card" may be putting in more money than the situation warrants in a no-limit hold'em game or is not getting the proper odds in a limit game.



Michael Wiesenberg's The Ultimate Casino Guide, published by Sourcebooks, is available at fine bookstores and at Amazon.com and other online book purveyors. Send praise, protests, and propositions for presentations to [email protected].