PKRT glossary
A quick guide to the poker terms used in PKRT. Plain-English explanations for the concepts you will see in hands, maths, and advice.
New to the game itself? Read how Texas Hold'em works first.
Heads-up
Only two players remain. Hands play wider, pressure matters more, and you should usually fight for more pots.
Blinds
Forced bets that start the action before cards are dealt. They create the pot everyone is playing for.
Ante
A small forced contribution from each player. Antes make pots bigger and increase pressure to compete.
Position
Where you act in the hand relative to the other player or players. Acting later usually gives you more information.
In position
You act after your opponent on later streets. That makes decisions easier and lets you control the hand better.
Out of position
You act first on later streets. That makes the hand harder to play and usually reduces how much of your equity you can use cleanly.
M
A quick stack-pressure number. It estimates how many rounds of blinds and antes your stack can survive at the current level.
Equity
Your share of the pot if the hand were played out from this point many times. Higher equity means more winning share.
Pot odds
The price you are getting on a call. If the pot is large relative to the call, you need to win less often to continue.
Break-even
The minimum amount of winning share a call needs in order not to lose money in the long run.
Limp
Calling the big blind preflop instead of raising.
Bluff-catcher
A hand that mostly beats bluffs, but usually loses to strong value hands. It is often good enough to call once, but not to pile money in happily.
Gutshot
A straight draw that needs one specific rank in the middle to complete.
Open-ended straight draw
A straight draw that can improve on either end. It is stronger than a gutshot because it has more ways to get there.
Flush draw
Four cards to a flush. One more card of the same suit completes it.
Dominated
A hand that shares a high card with a better version of the same hand. Example: KJ is often dominated by AK or KQ.
Effective stack
The smaller stack between players in the pot. That is the stack size that really matters, because no one can win more than that from the other player.
All-in
A player has committed their full stack. Once you are effectively all-in, future-street decision complexity often disappears.