Poker Terminology and Abbreviations

Written by webmazter in Poker Strategy Articles

Reading about poker in strategy forums is one good way of improving your game. It’s not perfect, as no technology to date has been developed that allows a forum to screen out bad advice, so take things that you read online with a grain of salt. Abbreviations are used often in strategy forums to make posting simple and easy-to-read, as long as you understand the terminology used. Here is a brief guide to some of the more common usages.

Cards and Starting Hands

AKQJT - letters used to denote ranks ace, king, queen, jack, and ten.

A7s - A small “s” means suited hole cards. An ace and seven of the same suit.

T9o - the “o” means offsuit. A ten and a nine of different suits.

Ax - “x” means “any card.” An ace and any other card.

Axs - an ace and any other card of the same suit.

PP - pocket pair.

Seating Position

EP - early position. One of the first three seats to the left of the blinds.

UTG - under the gun. First seat to act preflop.

UTG+1 - second seat to act preflop.

MP - middle position. One of the two seats to the left of EP players.

LP - late position. One of the last three seats to act before the blinds preflop.

HJ - hijack seat. The third-to-last seat before the blinds.

CO - cutoff seat. The second-to-last seat.

BTN or BT or OTB - the button seat. Last to act preflop before the blinds, last on all other rounds.

Bet Sizes and Actions

SB - (capital letters) small bet, used in fixed-limit games, the “2″ in 2/4.

sb - (lowercase letters) small blind. A small blind (sb) is half the small bet (SB).

BB - (capital letters) big bet, referenced in fixed-limit games, the “4″ in 2/4.

bb - (lowercase) big blind. The big blind (bb) equals one small bet (SB).

PF - preflop.

PFR - preflop raiser.

Reraise - raising again preflop after someone else raises first. Also called a 3-bet.

Capping - In a limit game, where raises are limited to three per round, capping the bet for that round means raising again after a 3bet. Also called a 4bet.

C-bet - continuation bet. An aggressive play made by a preflop raiser who was called preflop. A continuation bet is made after the flop, and is often made regardless of strength.

c/c - check/call. A plan to check postflop and call any (reasonable) bet.

c/r - check/raise. Checking on the flop with the intention of raising any bet.

c/f - check/fold. Checking the flop and folding to a bet.

Check behind - checking in position after the first player(s) checked.

Bet/3bet - Betting the flop then reraising after an expected raise.

PSB - pot-sized bet. A bet (at least roughly) equal to the size of the pot at the time the bet was made.

Overbet - a bet of significantly more than the size of the pot.

Games

FL - fixed-limit (also just abbreviated “L” as in LHE)

PL - pot limit

NL - no limit

HE - holdem (NLHE = no limit holdem)