beginner
Two Flush
A two flush is two cards of the same suit. In Hold'em, it is a suited starting hand or two cards of one suit on the board.
Two Pair
Two pair is a hand with two different pairs and a fifth card. It beats one pair and loses to three of a kind.
Two‑Gapper
A two-gapper is a starting hand with two missing ranks between the cards, so they are not connected. For example, J-8 is a two-gapper: the ten and the nine are missing.
Two‑Tone
A two-tone board is a board with exactly two different suits, so a flush draw is possible. On a two-tone flop, two cards are of one suit and the third is of another.
TY
TY is chat shorthand for 'thank you'. Players type it, for example, after a courtesy, such as a message of luck, or when another player gives them information about a rule.
UL
UL means "unlucky" in online poker chat, often used to acknowledge another player's bad luck after a lost hand.
Uncle Doc
Uncle Doc is a form of five-card stud with a single spit or table card, and all cards of the same rank as that card are wild. It is a home-game variant.
Under the Gun (UTG)
Under the gun, written UTG, is the player who sits directly after the big blind and acts first before the flop. It is the earliest and weakest position, because every other player acts after you.
Underdog
An underdog is a hand or player with a lower chance to win than the opponent. If your hand wins 20 percent of the time against another, you are the underdog and the other is the favorite.
Underpair
An underpair is a pocket pair that is lower than every card on the board. For example, a pair of fives on a flop of K-9-2 is an underpair.
Union Oil
Union Oil is a nickname for a starting hand of seven and six, 7-6. It is named after the Union Oil Company, which used the number 76 in its logo.
Up
'Up' is used in a two pair hand to name the higher pair. For example, queens up is two pair with queens as the higher pair, as in queens and tens.
Up Card
An up card is a card that is dealt face up. In stud games, each player has several up cards that the others can see.
Utah
Utah is another name for Cincinnati, a home poker game with five private cards and five shared table cards.
Vaca
Vaca, the Spanish word for cow, is used in poker rooms to ask another player to go half and half in a game. If a player says 'vaca' to a floor person or another player, it generally means, 'Do you want to share this game with me?'
Valet
Valet is another name for the jack. The word comes from French.
Valle Card
A valle card is any 3, 5 or 7. The word comes from the game of panguingue, in which these cards have a special value, which is what 'valle' means.
Verbal Bet
A verbal bet is an oral bet: a bet that a player announces with words instead of putting chips in the pot.
Verbal Declaration
A verbal declaration is something you say out loud about your action, such as 'raise' or 'call'. In live poker, it is binding, so you cannot change your mind after saying it.
Video Poker
Video poker is a casino game played on a computerized machine, based on draw poker, in which you try to make certain poker hands and are paid according to a pay table. It is not played against other players.
Video Poker Machine
A video poker machine is a computerized slot machine based on draw poker, with card symbols, on which players try to make certain poker hands. It is not really a form of poker, since you play against the machine.
Villain
Villain is the name for the opponent in a hand that is being discussed. The player who tells the story is the hero. The word comes from hand histories posted on forums.
Visible Cards
Visible cards are cards that are dealt face up to each player. In games like stud, players can see them and use them to complete a five-card hand.
Walk
A walk is a hand in which everybody folds to the big blind, who wins the pot without a fight. The big blind does not have to do anything.
Walking Sticks
Walking sticks is a nickname for a pair of sevens, because the sevens look like canes. It is used for the hand 7-7.
Wash
To wash the cards is to shuffle them by spreading them face down on the table and mixing them with the hands. It is done before the deck is shuffled normally.
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky is a nickname for a pair of nines, 9-9. It comes from the ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, who wore the number 99.
Weak
A weak player is one who folds too many hands. He gives up too easily and loses money by not calling or raising when he should.
Weak Ace
A weak ace is an ace with a low kicker, such as ace-five or ace-three. It is a starting hand that has some value but often loses to better aces.
Weak Kicker
A weak kicker is a low side card that goes with a pair. For example, with a jack and a four on a board with a jack, you have a pair of jacks with a weak kicker, and you lose to anyone who holds a jack with a better card.
Weary Willie
Weary Willie is another name for Elimination, a home poker variant in which matching table-card ranks cause cards in a player's hand to be discarded.
Wedges
Wedges are tapered or shaved cards that a cheater can pull from a deck when needed. The cards are cut so that they feel different from the others.