Articles about Sports Bets
Table Talk
Table Talk
Poker can be a difficult game to master. As a beginner a lot of factors can make the game difficult to grasp. Many poker games have different ways of betting and even individual casinos will have subtle differences in the way their poker games are played. If that doesn't make learning difficult enough, poker can often have a language of its own with many terms and table lingo that veteran poker players will use. Learning the language can be a great place to start when learning something new. Once you know what people are talking about at the table, the learning experience won't seem as foreign and difficult. Put a few terms in your vocabulary and you'll have a base to build on.
Players have a lot of different names they use when referring to the two card starting hands one might receive. Pocket aces are referred to as bullets. Two kings to start are called cowboys. They call two queens ladies. Fish hooks are how they may identify pocket jacks. Eights are sometimes called snowmen. If you start with a pair of twos, those are generally called ducks. Ten two is called a Doyle after Doyle Brunson won the World Series of Poker with that hand. King nine is sometimes called the dog.
They have names for certain types of players too, so see if your opponent is looking at you when they say certain things. A fish is a player that will call with any hand. A donkey is a player that wins a hand by getting lucky. A loose player is similar to a fish, but likely with a little more experience. A tight player will only play the best hands and fold more often then not.
There are some other terms that get thrown around as well regarding position and general game play. The blind is the mandatory bet made without seeing your cards first. The person under the gun is the one who bets first outside the blinds. The button represents the dealer though that may not be where the dealer is physically sitting. The cutoff is the player just to the right of the dealer. The bubble is the placing in a tournament where the money starts. A player is in position when he is the last to play. A bad beat is when a player loses to a lesser hand, often to a donkey. This often results in a player going on tilt which is when they play emotionally after some bad luck.
Keep your eyes and ears open at the table and you'll be playing and talking with the high rollers in no time.