C - Poker Terms
To call is to match the current bet. If there has been a bet of $10 and a raise of $10 then it costs $20 to call. Calling is the cheapest (and the most passive) way to remain in a hand. See also cold call, flat call, and it.
A player who calls much too often is called a calling station. Such a player will pay you off when you make hands, and will often fail to press their advantage when they have relatively strong hands (see passive). On the other hand, calling stations will hit more backdoor and other unlikely draws than other players, making it occasionally frustrating to play against them, especially in large numbers.
Most of the players at the table were tough, but it was worth playing there because of the two calling stations.
In limit games, the cap is the limit on the number of raises in a round of betting. In many places it's 3, for 4 bets total, but you can get into very irritating arguments about the maximum number of raises that's appropriate. A cap on the betting makes it more difficult for players to collude. Some dealers have cutesy expressions they like to use when a pot is capped (e.g., "capuccino"). To make the final allowed raise is to cap the betting, or to "cap it."
After I made the loose call in early position, much to my dismay the pot was raised, reraised, and capped.
Cardrooms are the rooms in which poker is played, or the organizations that run those rooms. Most casinos that offer poker have a separate room, or at least a roped-off area, designated as the cardroom. In some places where poker is legal, you will also find separate cardrooms (not part of a larger casino) dedicated mostly to poker. Key things to look for in a cardroom include tables, floorpeople, the brush, chips, etc.
Cards speak is simply the rule that the value of your hand is determined solely by your cards. You don't have to declare your hand properly in order to claim the part of the pot you deserve. The alternative to this is mainly declare games, usually played in home games for low stakes.
The fourth card of a particular rank.
I knew he was bluffing because I had folded the case 7.
When the cards are treating you well, you are said to be catching cards. The word often carries a mild connotation of improbable luck. Someone who says "nice catch" may mean anything from "okay, take the pot, you clueless moron," to "guess you outdrew me, no problem."
When you're behind, you can either choose not to contend the pot (i.e., check and fold as appropriate), try to steal it, or stick around, hoping you'll improve enough to win. To stay in a pot, with the sole hope of making a particular hand (e.g., chasing a flush). Usually chasing implies poor pot odds.
If there has been no betting before you in a betting round, you may check, which is like calling a bet of $0, or passing your turn. If all the players at a table check in turn in the same round, it is said to be checked around, resulting in a free card.
Poker chips are also sometimes called checks. This is mostly European (esp. British) usage.
I checked with the intention of folding on the turn and the river, but no one ever bet.
A check-raise is just what it sounds like -- a raise after you have already checked within a betting round. Check-raises can be used to trap a player who (for example) would have folded to a single bet, but who will open if it is checked to them.
While check-raising is legal virtually everywhere serious poker is played, there are apparently a few public cardrooms which prohibit it at the lowest limits. Home poker games, which may be more or less serious, vary more widely.
I noticed he liked to position bet a lot, so whenever I had a good hand I check-raised him.
Poker chips are small round discs used instead of money at the poker table. The ones used at casinos are typically made of clay, while home poker games often substitute cheaper plastic chips. Using chips instead of cash has a number of advantages, mostly just that they're easier to count and manipulate. Color designations for chips are arbitrary, but many casinos use white for $1 chips, red for $5 chips, green for $25 chips, and black for $100 chips. If someone asks for a rack of white, they'd like $100 in $1 chips.
In tournaments, as the limits go up, lower demonination chips are taken out of circulation (see color up). Often, odd chips, rather than simply being rounded up or down for each player, are randomly given to one player at each table. Typically, each player is dealt a card for each odd chip, and the player with the highest card dealt is given all the odd chips (which are then colored up).
To return the blinds to the players who posted them and move on to the next hand. This may happen in hold'em when nobody calls the blind. By agreeing to chop rather than play the hand, the two blinds sometimes avoid paying the rake, since many cardrooms only collect on those hands when there is a flop. At a table which ordinarily sees more action, players will often agree to chop so as to get on to a "real" hand more quickly.
Wanna chop?
Okay.
To talk about a hand one is involved in, usually with the intent of misleading or manipulating other players, is coffeehousing. It's usually considered just barely on one side of ethical. Which side that is depends on who you ask. See also table talk.
Cold calling is calling more than one bet at once. If one player bets, another player raises, and a third player calls the two bets, this is a cold call. This is contrasted with the situation in which a player calls one bet before the raise, and then calls the raise.
I knew he had at least trips when he called two bets cold.
To exchange one's chips for ones of higher value, usually in order to reduce the number of chips one has on the table. In tournaments, players are forced to color up periodically as the tourney money becomes divided among fewer and fewer players and the sizes of the forced bets go up (it makes no sense to play with $25 chips when the blinds are $10000). See also chip race.
A hand which must improve in order to have a realistic shot is a come hand. See also draw and drawing hand.
Face-up cards that are shared by all the players in a hand. Flop games have five community cards.
Cards of consecutive ranks, especially pocket cards, are connectors. If they're also of the same suit, they're suited connectors.
In flop games, when your great hand is subsequently made less powerful because of board cards that duplicate the strength of your hand, your hand is said to be counterfeited. For example, if you hold J9 and the flop is T87, you hold the nuts. If the turn is a 9, suddenly anyone with a J has a straight, and QJ has a better straight. If the river is a J, you're counterfeited even further - you're playing the board and anyone with a Q beats you. Counterfeiting is especially common in high-low split omaha. If you hold A2JQ and the flop is 678, you have the nut low. However, if the turn card is an A or a 2, your nut low has been counterfeited. It's no longer the nut low, and is probably not even a winner.
A nickname for Kings, more often heard in the plural.
I had cowboys six times last night and didn't win a pot with them.
When a powerful hand (especially powerful pocket cards) is beat, it's said to be cracked.
I've had rockets cracked twelve consecutive times.
A call by someone who is virtually certain they will not win the pot, and probably knows it.
After the cards are shuffled but before they are dealt, usually the deck is split in the middle and the halves reversed. This is known as cutting the cards. In cardroom games with house dealers, this is done by the dealer. In home games, it's usually done by the player next to the dealer.