hands
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.
Wet
A wet board is a set of community cards that connect well with many hands, usually because they are suited or in sequence, so many draws are possible. The opposite is a dry board.
Wet Board
A wet board is a set of community cards that can make many strong hands and draws, usually because the cards are connected or suited. It leads to more action, since many players can have something.
Wheel
The wheel is the straight A-2-3-4-5, the lowest possible straight, where the ace counts as a low card. In lowball and hi-lo games it is also the best possible low hand.
Whore
'Whore' is an old and offensive-sounding slang word for a queen in a deck of cards. It appears in old lists of poker slang, and it is not suitable for a polite table.
Widow
A widow is a card or cards that are common to all hands, such as a spit card, or the money that is cut from pots, also called the kitty. The meaning depends on the game.
Wild Annie
Wild Annie is another name for Double-Barreled Shotgun, a home poker game combining drawing cards with a gradual face-up reveal.
Window
A window is a card that is exposed or flashed at the end of a player's closed hand. It is the card that you can see by accident.
Wing
To wing is to have a winning streak. A player who is winging has been winning for some time.
Winning Hand
A winning hand is a hand that gets paid. In video poker, it is a hand that pays according to the pay table. In most games, the lowest winning hand is a pair of jacks, and in deuces wild it is three of a kind.
Wired
Wired, also called back-to-back, is a pair, trips or four of a kind that is dealt consecutively, usually the first cards of a stud hand. The cards are of the same rank and came one after another.
Wired Pair
A wired pair is a pair in the hole. In five-card stud, it also means a door card that pairs the hole card.
Wooden Hand
A wooden hand is a hand that cannot improve or cannot possibly win. The name comes from deadwood, a term for discards.
Woolworth
Woolworth is a name for a ten-five hand, from the five-and-ten-cent store. In lowball, it is a 10-5 hand, in high poker two pair of tens and fives, and in hold'em a ten and a five as hole cards.
Woppitzer
A woppitzer is a pest who hangs around card games, usually with bad breath or body odor, and gives unwanted advice and comments about the play. He is the worst kind of kibitzer.
World’s Fair
World's Fair is slang for the nuts, the best possible hand. The phrase comes from a warning that is given about a player who has a way of showing the best hand at the right time.
Worst Hand
The worst hand is a losing hand. In general, it means the weakest hand in a showdown, or the weakest hand that you can put another player on.
Worst Likely Hand
The worst likely hand is the weakest holding that you might reasonably put another player on. You use it to see how bad your opponent's hand could be.
Wrap
A wrap is a straight draw in Omaha that has nine or more outs, made from two board cards and three or four of your hole cards. It can have up to 20 outs, which makes it much stronger than an open-ended draw in Hold'em.
Wraparound
A wraparound is an Omaha hand in which three of your four hole cards are consecutive and combine with two cards of the flop to make five connected cards, so that many cards on the turn and river complete a straight.
X Marks the Spot
X Marks the Spot is a home poker game with five private cards per player and five shared cards arranged in a cross. It is also known as criss-cross.
Yeast
Yeast is slang for a raise. A player who says 'Let's give it a little yeast' means that he raises.
Yo
Yo is the short form of 'yoleven', the word for 11, used in craps and sometimes in betting talk. It is said so that the number is not confused with seven.
Yoleven
Yoleven is the slang word for the number 11 used for the size of a bet. It comes from craps, where dealers say it loudly so that it is not confused with seven.
You Roll Two
You Roll Two is a home-game stud variant in which each player starts with four face-down cards and chooses two to turn face up.
Zilch or Zip
Zilch or zip means nothing. In draw poker, it is a dealt hand with no cards worth keeping, so that you should draw all five cards. It can also be a final hand with no value or payoff.