Free Online Poker Guide to Poker Jargon Words Like Check-raise-bluff-all-in
With the immense popularity of free online poker and poker shows like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, poker, like basketball, has developed a jargon of its own. Many of poker terms have been around for a long time so it seems the core game maybe hasn’t changed so much.
Checks, bets, raises, calls, bluffs, and all-ins are still found and still exist with connotations like: to ‘bet’ is aggressive; to ‘raise’ more aggressive; to ‘call’ is never aggressive; to ‘check’ is still passive, unless you are plotting a raise after it. Bluffing, well that’s always aggressive. ‘All-ins’, in No-Limit, are the most aggressive. as far as many poker players are concerned.
But newer terms have emerged, thanks to the poker commentator’s ideal to be crisp and short. For instance, where a commentator would say ‘check-raise’ today I imagine a 1970 commentator to have said in the same situation ‘He raised after a check.’ ‘Check-call’ may be ‘calling after checking’. ‘Value bet’ may be ‘betting for value’ or ‘betting because A’s hand is good, and he wants B to call’. With this said I’m not implying these terms were not used before the poker explosion. It may be that they are not clear enough to a general audience before in a time when poker was accessible only to a few.
So let us analyze some compound poker terms, like ‘check-raise’ and ‘check-call’. We will be using the terms in their traditional sense, i.e, checks and calls are non-aggressive, and bets, raises, bluffs, and all ins are aggressive.
#1 Check-raise: To check-raise is to check, then if the opponent bets, you raise. For instance, in a Board with 4-7-J and you have 6-5, if you are the first to act, you can check-raise. You can check because you can hit your Straight for free later if your opponent checks, and if your opponent bets, you can raise, so he will think you are on a bluff or on a made hand, so if you hit your Straight later your hand is disguised.
It’s also possible to check-raise if you think your opponent’s weak so that he’s not going to call if you bet, but you want your opponent to think you’re weak so that he can bluff, then you can raise him.
#2 Check-call: To check-call is to check, then if your opponent bets, then you call. Check-calling is standard for the above Board (4-7-J and you have 6-5),p provided you are priced to hit your Straight later. Check-call can also be good if you flopped a monster on the Flop and you want your opponent to represent it so you can trap him.
#3 Value bet: Value is the relative strength of your hand compared to what you think your opponent has. For example, you have A-10 in a Flop of J-10-6-5-2. You can consider your Pair of Tens to be not so strong, but if you put your opponent on 7-7 or weaker, then you can bet a small amount at the river (say, one-third or one-half the pot) so your opponent will pay you off if he, indeed has the 7-7, and if it turns out that he has the Jack, your loss is not so great. The point is you bet the largest amount you think your opponent will call.
#4 Check-raise-bluff: Now we move on to more complex compound terms. You usually check-raise if you have a strong hand or a drawing hand that you want to disguise. If you have none, but want to represent, do this. Check, then if he bets, put pressure on him.
#5 Value-bet-bluff: A value-bet is generally a fraction of a pot, typically 1/3 to 2/3. A bluff is usually greater than the pot (twice or more to be credible). If you bet 1/3 or 2/3 of the pot and you have nothing then strong players are likely to see the value-bet and fold. In this case, your bluff works, with less danger than a traditional bluff, for a traditional bluff may involve more than the pot or even an all-in, while a value-bet-bluff involves just a bet that is value-bet sized.
#6 Three-bets and four-bets: A three-bet means this: Someone bets (or raises preflop), then someone reraises, then someone reraises again (possibly the first raiser). This action is the third, hence ‘three-bet’. If anyone moves over the top after this, then this action is the fourth, hence ‘four-bet.’ To reraise a raise requires a very strong hand, then to reraise this requires a far stronger hand, then to reraise this reraise requires a hand far more stronger. Unless one is representing. So we can make terms like ‘three-bet-bluff’ and ‘four-bet-bluff’, meaning ‘a bluff with a three-bet or a four-bet’.
#7 Bluff all-in: An all-in implies a strong hand. If you have nothing and this is what you do, then you ‘bluff all-in’. It is good to bluff all-in in a dangerous board (one off a Straight or a Flush, or a paired Board) but it is more dangerous, because your opponent may have the nuts and call you. In less dangerous boards, you can just bet and your opponent will fold if he has nothing – it has the same effect as the bluff all-in.
#8 Call all-in: Technically, call all-in is non-aggressive. To call is not aggressive; you just moved all in because you have a hand that you will be willing to move all-in if you acted first, and someone just set you up to it (or maybe you slow-played and your opponent became aggressive and pushed you all-in and you called).
#9 Check-raise-all-in: This is very aggressive! You check, another player bets, then you go all in. A lot of players won’t interpret it as a bluff, and will call only if they have a hand. Say, on a board with J-10-Q-7-6, even with A-Q it is difficult to call a check-raise-all-in. You must have, say, A-K or 9-8 to do it, or a Flush.
#10 Check-raise-bluff-all-in: The #9 when you have nothing. Say, in the above board, you have 5-5. You just represent a strong made hand.
You can make some more variants of these poker moves. Enjoy it but don’t go too far! Value-bet bluffs will not be understood by weak players, and weak players will call check-raise-bluff-all-ins just as they will call regularly.
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June 4th, 2010