Workbook D
Glossary
The vocabulary of the draw games, in the sense each word is used on this site.
- Ace-to-five (A-5)
- The low ranking in which aces are low and straights and flushes are ignored. Best hand 5-4-3-2-A. Also called California lowball. Used in A-5 triple draw, razz, Badacey and the low half of Archie.
- Badugi
- Both a game and a hand: four cards of four different suits and four different ranks.
- Big bet, small bet
- In a fixed-limit game the two bet sizes. Triple-draw games use the small bet on the first two rounds and the big bet, twice the size, on the last two. Results are often quoted in big bets per hand.
- Break
- To throw away a card from a made hand in order to draw to a better one: breaking a nine means discarding the nine.
- Bug
- A joker with limited powers. In high draw it counts only as an ace or to complete a straight or flush. Not used unless the room says so.
- The marker for the nominal dealer. The player on the button draws and bets last on every round after the first.
- Carnival game
- Mixed-game slang for the newer hybrid and split-pot variants outside the classic rotation. See the carnival games. In the casino trade the phrase means house-banked table games, which this site does not cover.
- Dead card
- A card you know cannot come: one you hold, one you threw away, or one you have seen.
- Dealer's choice
- A format in which each player in turn picks the game for the next round from an agreed list.
- Deuce-to-seven (2-7)
- The low ranking in which the ace is high and straights and flushes count against you. Best hand 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits. Also called Kansas City lowball.
- Exploitability
- How much a perfect opponent could win per hand against a given strategy. Used on the baselines page to say how closely a simplified game was solved.
- First in
- Entering the pot when everyone before you has folded.
- Guts to open
- Draw poker with no minimum hand needed to make the first bet. The opposite of jacks or better.
- Jacks or better
- A traditional five-card draw rule: you need at least a pair of jacks to open the betting.
- Kicker
- A side card kept with a pair or three of a kind when drawing.
- Odd chip
- The chip left over when a pot will not divide evenly. Who gets it varies by game and by rulebook.
- Outs
- The unseen cards that would complete your hand.
- Pat
- Drawing no cards. A pat hand is one you were dealt complete, or have decided to keep.
- Qualifier
- A minimum hand needed to win a share of a split pot: an eight low or better, or a pair of nines or better, in Archie.
- Rainbow
- All of different suits.
- Rough
- Of a low hand: having high cards under its top card. 8-7-6-5-3 is a rough eight.
- Scoop
- To win both halves of a split pot.
- Sevens rule
- An old rule of limit ace-to-five single draw penalising a player who checks a seven or better after the draw. Not part of modern triple draw.
- Smooth
- Of a low hand: having low cards under its top card. 8-5-4-3-2 is a smooth eight.
- Snow
- To stand pat on a hand that cannot win a showdown and bet as though it were made. A bluff told through the draw.
- Split pot
- A game in which the pot is divided between two different kinds of winning hand.
- Tri, three-card hand
- In badugi, a hand in which only three cards play because two share a suit or a rank.
- Triple draw
- A draw game with three draws and four betting rounds.
- Unseen cards
- The deck less every card you know about. The denominator of every draw-odds figure on this site.
- Wheel
- 5-4-3-2-A. The best hand in ace-to-five, the lowest straight in high poker, and merely ace-high in deuce-to-seven.