A wild card in card games is one that may be used to represent any other playing card, sometimes with certain restrictions. These may be jokers, for example in Rummy games, or ordinary ranked and suited cards may be designated as wild cards such as the J♣ and 9♦ in Classic Brag or the "deuces wild" in Poker. A card that is not wild may be referred to as a natural card. Jokers, however, may also have other uses, such as being a permanent top trump.
In poker, the nut hand is the strongest possible hand in a given situation. The second-nut hand or third-nut hand may refer to the second and third best possible hands. The term applies mostly to community card poker games where the individual holding the strongest possible hand, with the given board of community cards, is capable of knowing that they have the nut hand.
A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. In contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. A made starting hand with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw. If an opponent has a made hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead; even if they make their desired hand, they will lose. Not only draws benefit from additional cards; many made hands can be improved by catching an out — and may have to in order to win.
In a poker game with more than one betting round, an out is any unseen card that, if drawn, will improve a player's hand to one that is likely to win. Knowing the number of outs a player has is an important part of poker strategy. For example, in draw poker, a hand with four diamonds has nine outs to make a flush: there are 13 diamonds in the deck, and four of them have been seen. If a player has two small pairs, and he believes that it will be necessary for him to make a full house to win, then he has four outs: the two remaining cards of each rank that he holds.
Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The exact origin of the game is unknown, but casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd, who offered it as a game at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget Casino. Omaha uses a 52-card French deck. Omaha hold 'em 8-or-better is the "O" game featured in H.O.R.S.E.
Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River is a variant of stud poker. Until the recent increase in popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was the most widely played poker variant in home games across the United States, and in casinos in the eastern part of the country. Although seven-card stud isn't as common in casinos today, plenty of people still play it online. The game is commonly played with two to eight players, though eight may require special rules for the last cards dealt if no players fold. With experienced players who fold often, even playing with nine players is possible.
In poker, the probability of each type of 5-card hand can be computed by calculating the proportion of hands of that type among all possible hands.
Lowball or low poker is a variant of poker in which the normal ranking of hands is inverted. Several variations of lowball poker exist, differing in whether aces are treated as high cards or low cards, and whether straights and flushes are used.
Big two is a card game of Chinese origin. It is similar to the games of winner, daifugō, president, crazy eights, cheat, and other shedding games. The game is very popular in East Asia, and in Southeast Asia, especially throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. It is played both casually and as a gambling game. It is usually played with two to four players, the entire deck being dealt out in either case. The objective of the game is to be the first to play off all of one's cards.
Suited connectors is a poker term referring to pocket cards that are suited and consecutive, for example Q♥ J♥. These hands are considered stronger than average because they have the highest potential to form straights and flushes when combined with the community cards.
Non-standard poker hands are hands which are not recognized by official poker rules but are made by house rules. Non-standard hands usually appear in games using wild cards or bugs. Other terms for nonstandard hands are special hands or freak hands. Because the hands are defined by house rules, the composition and ranking of these hands is subject to variation. Any player participating in a game with non-standard hands should be sure to determine the exact rules of the game before play begins.
In community card poker, a player or hand is said to be counterfeited when a community card does not change the value of their hand, but makes it more likely that an opponent will beat it. This occurs primarily in Omaha hold 'em Hi-Lo split and sometimes in Texas hold 'em. Counterfeiting also occurs in the Badugi variant of draw poker.
Poker dice are dice which, instead of having number pips, have representations of playing cards upon them. Poker dice have six sides, one each of an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, and 9, and are used to form a poker hand.
Teen patti is a gambling card game that originated in the Indian subcontinent and is popular throughout South Asia. It originated in the English game of three-card brag, with influences from poker. It is also called flush or flash in some areas.
Carioca is a Chilean card game similar to Rummy style card games with many variations. The variation described below is Perla's Cariocas.
The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker. It supplements the glossary of card game terms. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.
Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round. The cards dealt face down to each individual player are called hole cards, which gave rise to the common English expression ace in the hole for any hidden advantage.
Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing, or "drawing", cards.
Wild escape, also known as daguai luzi or the joker's way is a card game originating in Shanghai, China. It is a team game for 6 players and played with three decks of cards.
