If you're playing Texas Hold'em, you need to learn a couple of terms. At least, you'll know what the heck people are talking about when you watch a game on TV, or when you play with experienced players! In this segment, I'll teach you the common terms used in Texas Hold'em.

Let's start with the basics:

Dealer button: It's a marker of some kind, usually a circular plastic disk. It indicates which player is the "dealer" for the current hand. Even if you play in a casino where you have an actual dealer that isn't playing the game, the deal button is still exchanged between players from hand to hand as it affects the order of play. This ensures that there is a fair rotation between who gets to act first at the table, and who gets to act last.

Small Blind and Big Blind: These are related and they exist to force a minimum bet from certain players. The big blind represents the minimum bet, and the Small Blind represents half the amount of the big blind. When you are sitting at the poker table, one player is allocated the dealer button, the nest player to his left is allocated the small blind, and the following player to the left is allocated the big blind. Minimum betting amounts, called "the blinds" go up periodically for the entire duration of the game. If you're playing with friends at home, you may decide to increase the blinds every 15 minutes, every 20 minutes, or what ever duration will work best for your group. When blinds are increased, they often double. After a while, the cost of the "forced bet" is starting to get expensive, which usually results in more aggressive play styles as time goes by.

Kicker: When two players have identical poker hands (like two pairs, and both pairs are the same), the card that is used as the "tie breaker" is referd to as the kicker. For example 10, 10, K, J, 5 beats 10,10,3,5,Q because the King from the first hand is the highest kicker.

Poker Hand Slang: Let's look at common nick names for Texas Hold'em hands:

A,A – American Airlines, bullets, pocket rockets
A,K – Big Slick, “Walking back to Houston”
A,J –  Ajax
K,K – Cowboys
K,Q – Marriage
K,J – Kojak
K,9 – Canine
Q,Q – Dames, divas, ladies, the Hilton sisters, Siegfried & Roy
Q,J – Maverick, Oedipus Rex
Q,7 – Computer Hand
Q,3 – A San Francisco Busboy (a queen with a trey – har har)
J,J – Jokers, hooks
J,9 – T.J. Cloutier.
J,5 – Jackson Five, Motown
10,5 – Five and dime
10,2 – The Doyle Brunson. (He won two World Series of Poker titles with this hand.)
8,8 – Snowmen, Octopuses
7,7 – Hockey Sticks, walking Sticks
7,2 – The Hammer
5,5 – Nickels, presto
5,4 – Jesse James, for his Colt .45
4,4 –  Sailboats
2,2 –  Ducks

My Friends at PartyPoker have produced a document that describes additional poker terms. You can view it here!

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