hands
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara is a nickname for ace-king, A-K, of any suits. It is a strong starting hand.
Scare Card
A scare card is a community card that may have given an opponent a strong hand, and makes you afraid to keep betting. It is typically a card that completes a flush or a straight, or an overcard to the pairs on the board.
Scoop
To scoop is to win the entire pot. The word is used mostly for split-pot games such as Omaha hi-lo, where a player who has both the best high hand and the best low hand takes both halves.
Scramble
A scramble is a face-down mixing of the cards on the table. The dealer spreads the cards face down and moves them around.
Second Best
The second best hand is the best losing hand at showdown. It is a strong hand that loses to a stronger one, and it is the hand that costs the most.
Second Pair
Second pair is a pair made with the second-highest card on the board, in games with community cards. It is a medium-strength hand.
Sequence
A sequence is a group of cards of consecutive ranks, as in a straight: four, five, six, seven, eight.
Set
A set is three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one card on the board. For example, you hold two sevens and the flop contains a third seven. It is a strong, well-hidden hand.
Set Over Set
Set over set is a situation in which two players both flop a set, and one has the higher set. The player with the lower set is in a very bad position, since he is almost certain to lose.
Showdown Value
Showdown value is the ability of a hand to win at showdown without further betting or a bluff. A hand with showdown value is usually a pair or a medium-strength hand that may be best.
Snowmen
Snowmen is a nickname for a pair of eights, 8-8. The number 8 looks like a snowman.
Speed Limit
Speed limit is a nickname for a pair of fives, 5-5. The name comes from the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit sign.
Split
A split is a tie in which the pot is divided between players with equal hands. It also describes a pot divided between the high and low hands.
Split Two Pair
A split two pair is a two pair hand in which one card of each of your hole cards pairs with a board card. For example, with ten-nine and a flop of T-9-5, you have a split two pair.
Splitting Openers
Splitting openers is a play in jacks-or-better draw poker in which you open with a pair and then throw away one card of the pair to draw to a better hand, such as a flush. You break up your opening hand.
Stand Off
To stand off is to call a raise. A player who says 'Opener raises, I stand off' means that he calls instead of raising or folding.
Starting Hand
A starting hand is the first cards you are dealt before any voluntary betting. In Hold'em, it is two hole cards, in Omaha four, in five-card draw five, and in seven-card stud two down and one up.
Steel Wheel
A steel wheel is a straight flush from ace to five, A-2-3-4-5 of one suit. It is the lowest straight flush but still beats four of a kind.
Straight
A straight is a hand with five cards in sequence, of more than one suit. The highest straight is ace to ten, called Broadway, and the lowest is ace to five, the wheel.
Straight Flush
A straight flush is a hand made of five cards in sequence, all of the same suit. It is the second-best hand in poker, after the royal flush, which is the highest straight flush.
Stranger
A stranger is a new or unfamiliar card in a hand after the draw. It is a card that you have just drawn and that was not in your hand before.
Suicide King
The suicide king is the king of hearts. It got the name because in the picture, the king seems to be stabbing himself in the head with his sword.
Suit
A suit is one of the four groups of cards in a deck: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Each suit has 13 cards.
Suited
Suited means that cards are of the same suit. A suited starting hand has two hole cards of one suit, for example ace and jack of hearts. Being suited gives extra chances to make a flush.
Suited Connectors
Suited connectors are two cards of consecutive rank in the same suit, such as queen-jack of hearts or seven-six of clubs. They can make straights and flushes, so they play well in big multiway pots.
Suited Gappers
Suited gappers are two cards of the same suit that are not consecutive, but close enough to make a straight on the flop. For example, J-9 of one suit.
T.J. Cloutier
T.J. Cloutier is a nickname for jack-nine of clubs. It is named after the poker Hall of Famer Thomas James Cloutier.
Texture
Texture describes how the community cards fit together, for example if they are suited or connected. A dry texture has few draws, and a wet texture has many.
Thirty Miles
Thirty miles is slang for three tens. The name is a joke on the sum: three tens make thirty.
Three Flush
A three flush is three cards of the same suit. It can be a hand with three suited cards, or a flop with three cards of one suit.
Three of a Kind
Three of a kind is a hand with three cards of the same rank, and two other cards. It beats two pair and loses to a straight. It is also called trips or a set.
Tie
A tie is a situation in which two or more players have hands of equal value at showdown. The pot is usually divided between them.