Question of the Day - 10 August 2017

[Editor's Note: This answer was supplied by Blair Rodman, long-time poker pro and author of our book Kill Phil.]

The poker world changed, sometimes in dramatic ways, with the explosion of 2003, when Internet poker, the hole-card camera, and Chris Moneymaker’s improbable win combined to make poker a national obsession. One of the things that changed was the lingo.

Pre-2003, which I’ll call “the old days,” if a player raised the blind, it was called a “raise.” If that bet was raised, it was a “re-raise.” If that bet was raised, I don’t recall there being a specific name for it. The funny thing is that in the old days, if it got to that point, the last raiser almost always had aces or kings, so there really wasn’t a need to have a name.

When Internet poker really took off, with millions of young uber-aggressive players hitting the virtual tables, pre-flop raising wars became commonplace and it was necessary to have a way to describe the action. The first raise of the blind is still called a raise (not a 2-bet), the first re-raise became a 3-bet, the next a 4-bet, and so on.

Perhaps the most famous example was at the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table, when Joseph Chong 6-bet all-in with A7 against Johnathan Duhamel’s queens. The queens held up and Chong went out in third place, while Duhamel went on to win the title. 

Another example was in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, when Max Heinzelmann 6-bet all-in with A6 against Shaun Deeb, who happened to have aces. Unfortunately for Shaun, two 6’s hit the board.

Another example of modern lingo comes in limit stud-type games. In the old days, if the limit was 30/60, with a 10 bring-in, a player making it 30 was said to “raise." Now he's said to “complete” the bet. I still say raise, as do other old-timers. But if there’s a raising war and a four-raise limit, the completion doesn’t count as a raise, hence the distinction. 

Some other examples of new lingo:

When Lee Nelson and I wrote Kill Phil, in order to define our strategy, we needed to coin a term for the amount it would cost a player to play a full round. What we came up with was CPR (cost-per-round). Dan Harrington, in his book that came out around the same time, used M. The modern way is to compute BB’s (big blinds), which I think is a bit vague as it ignores antes. 

A “polarized range” means that a player either has a big hand or is bluffing.

In a 9- or 10-handed game, after the small blind and big blind, the player first to act is "UTG (under the gun)," the next "UTG+1," then "UTG+2." The player two to the right of the button is the “hijack,” the next the “cutoff,” then the “button.” Any players in between are "MP (middle position)." 

To “float” is to call a bet with a weak hand, with the intention of bluffing on later streets. To old-timers, it was a “call to take it away.”

A bad player who's a heavy loser used to be a “live one.” The new lingo is “fish” or “donkey.” To lead out with a bet into the pre-flop raiser is a “donk bet,” although it’s not always a bad play.

The game of poker has come a long way since the days of the Old West and riverboats. I’m sure it will continue to evolve, and so will the lingo.