hands
Pat
A pat hand is a hand that is already complete and needs no more cards. In draw poker, a player who stands pat keeps all five cards.
Pedigree
Pedigree is a nickname for king-nine, K-9, of any suits. It is a weak, speculative hand.
Picture Cards
Picture cards are cards that show a face: the king, the queen and the jack. They are also called face cards or court cards.
Pips
Pips are the spots or marks on the face of a card that show its rank, such as the hearts on a seven of hearts.
Pips, Pipped
Pips, or pipped, can mean the spots on a card, and as a verb, one card beating another by a single pip, outranking it by one. For example, ace-ten is pipped by ace-nine when the ten is only one higher.
Play the Board
To play the board means that your best five-card hand is made entirely of the five community cards. Anyone else in the hand with the same board also plays it, so the pot is split unless somebody has a better hand.
Playability
Playability is how easy it is to play a hand after the flop, and how often it can make strong hands or good draws. Hands with good playability, such as suited connectors, are valuable.
Played Card
A played card is a card dealt to a hand. It is a card that has been put into play, rather than left in the deck.
Playing the Board
Playing the board means that your best five-card hand is made of the five community cards. Anyone who plays the board and nobody has a better hand splits the pot.
Pocket means the down cards, also called the hole cards, which only the player can see. In Hold'em, they are your two private cards.
Pocket Cards
Pocket cards are the two cards dealt to you at the beginning of a Hold'em hand that nobody else may see. They are also called hole cards.
Pocket Pair
A pocket pair is a pair of hole cards, such as two sevens. It is also called a wired pair. It is a strong start, since you already have a pair.
Pocket Rockets
Pocket rockets is the nickname for a pair of aces as hole cards, the best starting hand in Hold'em. The aces look like rockets to the players.
Point
A point is the value of a card. In some games, it is a number used to count the strength of a hand.
Premium Hands
Premium hands are the best starting hands in poker, such as pairs of aces, kings and queens, and ace-king. They have the highest potential to win the pot and are strong enough to play from any position.
Puppy Feet/Pups
Puppy feet, or pups, is slang for clubs: a club flush, or the suit of clubs.
Quadruplets
Quadruplets is another name for four of a kind, shortened to quads. It is four cards of the same rank.
Quads
Quads is a hand of four cards of the same rank, also called four of a kind. It beats a full house and loses only to a straight flush or a royal flush.
Quart
A quart is a four-card straight flush, four cards in sequence of the same suit.
Quint
A quint is a straight flush, five cards in sequence of the same suit. The word is old slang.
Quint Major
A quint major is a royal straight flush: ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit. It is the best possible hand.
Race
A race is a situation in which two players are all in with hands whose chances are close to even, such as a pair against two overcards. It is also called a coin flip.
Rag
A rag is a low-valued card that is presumably worthless. A hand made of rags, such as seven-two, is one of the worst hands to be dealt.
Ragged
A ragged flop is a flop that does not seem to help anybody much, with unconnected cards of different suits, such as J-6-2.
Rainbow
A rainbow is a flop, or a board, whose cards are all of different suits. No flush draw is possible on a rainbow flop, except a backdoor draw.
Rank
Rank is the value of a card or a hand compared with others. Among cards, the ace is the highest and the deuce the lowest. Among hands, a royal flush is the highest and high card the lowest.
Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch is a nickname for a starting hand of three and eight, 3-8. The name refers to the actress Raquel Welch.
Re‑draw
A re-draw is a situation in which a player already has a strong hand but can still improve it on a later betting round. For example, a set with a flush draw has a re-draw to a flush.
Redraw
A redraw is a made hand that can still improve to an even better hand. For example, a set of queens with a draw to a flush has a redraw to a flush.
Royal Flush
A royal flush is the highest possible hand in poker: ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all of the same suit. It beats every other hand, and it can only be tied when the royal flush is on the board.
Runner‑Runner
Runner-runner is a hand that is made by hitting the cards you need on both the turn and the river. Before the turn, you have only a very small chance of making the hand. It is also called backdoor.
Running Pair
A running pair is a pair that comes on the last two cards of the board, the turn and the river. The two cards have the same rank.