Pay Off – to call a bet when your opponent is representing a hand that you can’t beat, but when the odds are favourable enough for you to call anyway.
Play the Board – where your hand is made up completely by the 5 cards on the board, when the hand on the board is beetter than any hand that can be made when including either or both of your hole cards.
Pocket – another name for your hole cards is ‘pocket cards’.
Pocket Pair – where your two starting cards make a pair, your are said to have a pocket pair. Pocket Aces is the best starting hand possible in Hold ‘em.
Post - when you are required to put a blind bet into the pot at the start of a hand you are said to ‘post’ your blind.
Pot-Limit - an alternative betting structure sometimes used in Hold ‘em, but more commonly seen in Omaha – the limit to the size of your bet is the size of the current pot.
Pot Odds – the odds which the pot is laying you, calculated by the amount of money in the pot compared the the price you need to pay to call a bet. For example, if there is $150 in the pot and it is $50 to call, the pot odds are 3:1. Pot odds should be considered against the chance of you hitting your outs when you are facing a decision of whether to call or not with a drawing hand – see the section on pot odds for more information
Price – the ‘price’ you need to pay in relation to the pot odds being offered – i.e. I was getting a good price to call with my straight draw.
Protect – in live play, many players ‘protect’ their cards with their hand, a chip or some other item to put on their cards to stop the dealer accidentally mucking them. Can also mean to bet more money into the pot to ‘prrotect’ the money you have already invested in the pot, usually when you’ve got a blind to protect.
Quads – four of a kind.
Ragged – a flop made up of low cards that isn’t likely to help any player -’ the board is full of rags’.
Rainbow – a flopp where each card is of a different suit – meaning that you can’t be facing an opponent who has more than 3 cards to a flush.
Raise – to increase the current bet to a higher amount.
Rake – if you are playing in a casino or online, the ‘house’ will take a small rake from each pot as their price for you playing in their poker room.
Rank – the numerical value of a card.
Represent – to play a hand in the way that suggests you hold a certain hand. For example, if you bet pre-flop and then bet again when an Ace comes on the flop, you are represnting holding a pair of Aces.
Ring Game – a cash game of poker as opposed to a tournament.
River – the 5th and final card to be dealt on the board in a game of Hold ‘em or Omaha, also known as 5th street.
Rock – a player who is very ‘tight’ in his play – will only play the very best hands and bet if he is certain he is ahead.
Runner – most often used when someone catches ‘runner, runner’ to win the hand by catching the right cards on both the turn and river to make their winning hand.
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