Steven Schuster 
Poker is the most popular and most loved casino game out there. Many people simply visit the casino to sit at the poker table for a few hours. Poker is so popular because it is a casino game that takes skill and practice to become good at.
In fact, some people have put so much time and effort into becoming good at poker that they’ve made real careers from the popular casino game. There is a lot of money to be won at some international and online poker tournaments!
However, because poker requires more skill and practice, it may be a challenging game for newcomers to the casino.
The first thing that any new poker player needs to understand is the terminology of the game. If you sit down at the poker table, you may hear terms and words like “check,” “all-in,” and “action.” If you don’t know what these mean, you may be in for a long night.
But worry not! This article will provide you with a complete glossary of all the important poker terms and slang that you’ll need to know when sitting down at the poker table.
Let’s jump into it!
All-In
This term is rather self-explanatory. It refers to a player placing all of their chips into the betting pot. This action normally happens when someone is confident that their hand will be a winning hand.
However, be careful, as some pro bluffers may use this tactic to get you to drop out of a game, even if you have a good hand.
Action
An action refers to any player’s turn when going around the table. When it comes to your turn, you get to take an action, which means that you can either play or place your bet into the pot.
When using the term “action” to refer to a pot, you might often hear players saying “a lot of action,” which simply refers to a pot that has been bet on a lot.
Ante
The ante refers to the minimum amount that each player is allowed to bet before entering the game. When you play poker, a minimum bet will be set, and each player must match that bet if they want to play the round.
That minimum is referred to as the ante. So, you’ll need to match the ante to play.
The ante is also called the “buy-in” in many forms of poker around the world, so don’t get confused if the table you’re playing at uses “buy-in” instead of “ante.”
Bad Beat
Like any casino game, poker also contains a large element of luck, alongside being a game that requires skill and practice. A bad beat is simply a way to say bad luck in poker.
Blind
A blind, in poker, has a very similar meaning as an ante, as it is also a forced bet that is a minimum buy-in for a game of poker. This is a little bit different from an ante because this bet is required to participate in a hand.
A small half is an ante, while a full half is what professionals in the poker business call a “big blind.” If you’re not playing professional poker, you most likely will not have to worry about these types of terms.
Community Cards
When you sit down at the poker table, you may notice cards laid out in the middle of the table. These cards are referred to as community cards because they are shared by all players in a game of community poker.
These cards are available for all players at the table to make up a hand with which they can play the round.
Pocket Cards
These are basically the exact opposite of the community cards described above. The pocket cards, in any form of poker, refer to the cards that you hold in your hand that do not form a part of the community cards.
These are also known as your hole cards, and they will normally be given to you face down before you start playing any game of poker.
Kicker
A kicker in poker refers to a case of two identical cards. Now, this may sound strange because a deck of cards doesn’t have two identical cards, right? While that is correct, in poker, the kicker refers to the ways in which players with identical card hands can determine which hand is better.
Once again, this is a rare occurrence in poker and mostly only comes up in professional tournaments. If you’re a newcomer to the game, you won’t have to worry about this issue too much.
River
When you start a poker game at any casino around the world, you’ll see the five community cards laid out in the middle of the table. These will always be face-down, and the dealer will reveal them as the game progresses.
When the final card is turned over, and all five of the community cards are now facing up toward the players, we call that the full river.
Raise
This one is an easy one, and the name pretty much explains it perfectly. When betting in poker, you’ll always have the opportunity to one-up or increase the bet of the player who bet before you. Should you decide to do this, then you will be raising the bet.
Nuts
Poker is won by the player with the best possible hand at the table. Nuts is a term that is used to refer to the best hand by any player at any given time during a poker game. The nuts can change during the course of a poker game as the river continues to reveal itself.
Now you know the terminology, you can play video poker at ZAR Casino, or take a seat at a real live poker table.
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Elyndarin Kryvak 
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