aces and spaces: a hand with a pair of A and garbage otherwise.
usage: The flop didn't improve my position any, I was still aces and spaces.
American Airlines: a special case of a wired pair: AA.
usage: He started with American Airlines, caught another bullet on the flop and coasted the rest of the hand.
apple: a big money game at a club or event. (see also "big apple")
backdoor flush: a three-card flush that requires suited cards on both the turn and the river to complete.
BB: Big Blind, the player left of the SB, must post the big blind
big apple: the big money game at a club or event. (see also "apple")
big chick: AQ in the pocket.
big slick: AK pocket cards.
Blank: a card that is very unlikely to help, or scare, anyone.
boat: a Full House.
usage: "With an 83 pocket and K38 on the board I hung on through the Turn in the hopes of making the boat on the River."
eg: KKK66, TTT33, etc. Any hand of Trips and a Pair.
broadway: AKQJT, an A-high Straight.
BTF: Before The Flop.
bullet: an Ace, often pluralized --Bullets-- to denote a Pair of Aces.
usage: He started with bullets, made it aces up with fishhooks on the flop and walked it home.
CO: "cut off", the player immediately before the button.
colfax: a K-high straight (thanks to Aces Up for this one)
cowboys: a pair of pocket Kings, a very strong opener.
cranberry: a player who bets against pot odds.
drawing dead: a player that stays in the hand with no chance of winning even if their hand improves is drawing dead.
usage: He stuck it out for the whole hand with A8 and J8J then 8A on board but he was drawing dead against my JJ from the Flop.
EP: Early position player
face-up: a player with obvious tells (thanks to cuse522 for this one)
flat tire: J4 -- "that's what a Jacks for!" (thanks to Aces Up for this one)
FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome): Mike "The Mad Genius of Poker" Caro defines FPS as the condition that even skilled players have such that "they'd rather impress weak opponents with unexpected plays than beat them with the obvious winning strategy."
gut-shot: a inside Straight, meaning a Straight that is missing "inside" cards.
usage: "the river left me with a gut-shot straight"
eg: if you've got J T 9 7 of a J-high Straight you've got a classic gut-shot Straight.
hit and run: a strategy used by strong players where they drop into a game, scoops a few big hands and then drop out; particularly used in busy poker rooms online where a skilled player can use the high percentage of fish to allow them to repeat the process over and over.
in the middle: players caught between two raising bettors are said to be in the middle because they're forced to make a lot of expensive Calls.
usage: experienced players love it when the novice players put themselves in the middle and bleed into the pot.
jacked off: to lose a hand to a J on the river.
Jackson Five: any hand with a pair of Jacks and one or more Fives.
Komodo Dragoned: if you are beat by someone who completes a Flush or Straight on the River they you have been "Komodo Dragoned".
lice: a pair of deuces.
limp: to call a bet; a limper is the first player at the table to call a bet. To Limp In usually means that the first person to act simply called the Blinds.
LP: Late position player
middle pair: a Pair made with one of your pocket cards and the second card in the Flop.
eg: if you're holding AT and the Flop comes QT3 then you've made a TT middle pair.
Mississippi Slick: 32 or 72 in the hole (thanks to Bobby C for this one).
mites: a pair of 3's.
MP: Middle position player
on the come: a player is on the come when they're working on a Straight or Flush and there are cards to come.
playing the board: if you use neither of your pocket cards in Hold'Em --and other flop games-- to make your final hand then you are playing the board because you are using all five of the community cards. The best results you can hope for in doing so is to split with the other remaining players.
usage: With KK999 on the table and rags in my hand I ended up playing the board like everyone else.
protected pot: a pot is said to be protected --meaning "protected" from bluffers-- when it is being contested by several players and it is therefor very likely that any bluff attempt will be called out.
usage: Sklansky has said that a pot isn't protected until all the cards are out but elsewhere indicates that it can happen earlier in the hand.
pups aka puppy feet: Clubs, the suit of Clubs or a Club flush.
ribbon clerk: (1) a small-time, small-stakes gambler. (2) in variety or department store, one who measures the ribbon length the customer wants and then rings it up. A small responsibility, small compensation job. (3) a homosexual man (1960s US slang).
rock: a tight, non-aggressive player.
usage: Even in late position he won't raise unless he's holding Aces and Faces. He thinks he's clever by being a rock but it'll bleed him dry in the long run.
rockets: a pair of pocket Aces, generally considered the best possible opener in Hold'Em. (see also American Airlines)
runner: a hand made by getting the right cards on both the turn and the river.
sailboats: a 44 pair. Presumably so named because a 4 looks somewhat like the sail of a boat.
sandbagging: to Check in hope of drawing other players out, usually done when you've got at least a moderately strong hand and are hoping to take advantage of a Check-Raise situation. See also "slow play" which is a similar strategy but different.
usage: "The guy was such a rock that the only choice I had was to sandbag him into thinking he could scare me off."
SB: Small Blind, the player to the Button's left, must post the small blind.
scare card: a card that stands a good chance of destroying what would have otherwise been a leading hand.
eg: you've got Td8s, the flop was Js9h7h and you've almost certainly got the leading hand. A Qh on the turn would be a scare card because it means that your hand is quite possibly ruined. A higher Straight or a Flush are both probable and both would beat you.
semi-bluff: to bet on a fair, but not great, hand in the hopes that either (a) you scare off the competition or (b) you draw a stonger hand as the round progresses. By definition there are cards to come in a semi-bluff situtation.
usage: to paraphrase Sklansky, it is the combination of these two possibilities that makes semi-bluffing a crucial strategy play for any successful Hold'Em player.
snapped off: to be beaten while holding a good or strong hand, usually unexpected.
steal the blinds: to take the blinds with an aggressive opening bet, usually from a late position, often by bluffing or semi-bluffing.
tied on: a player is tied on if they are unwilling or unable to throw a hand away. aka potstuck, aka locked on.
usage: With a pot like that he was tied on for the rest of the hand.
tilt: to lose focus and play badly due to some emotional distraction. Generally used to describe a situation where a player is judging the cards, and their play of them, from an emotional point of view.
usage: "He pulled a J8 and raised! For what? I think his short stack had him on tilt."
eg: Any time a player is sweating the game, for whatever reason, they are almost certaily to be "on tilt".
trapper: a trapper is a player who habitually slow-plays strong hands in order to build the pot.
two by four: Quad deuces (thanks to Aces Up for this one).
UTG: Under The Gun, the first player faced with a betting decision.
UTG+1: the player to the UTG's left.
village people: QQQQ, four queens.
wired pair: in Hold'Em, paired pocket cards. In Stud, a pair that is made when the Door card pairs the player's hole card.
usage: a wired pair is a good starting position because you will flop tripps or better almost 12% of the time.
eg: T T in the pocket is a wired pair.
woolworth: a hand that begins with T5 pocket cards. Derived from the once-common nickname for Woolworth's retail outlets: "five-and-ten cent stores" or simply "five-and-dimes".
WPT: World Poker Tour is a reality television series shown on the Travel Channel. It is a series of organized high-stakes poker tournaments.
WSOP: The World Series Of Poker, a tournament held every May at Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. The main ticket is the Hold'Em No-Limit World Championship Event with a $10,000 buy-in. The take for the finalists is now up over $15,000,000. Each Event winner receives "the bracelet", a solid gold bracelet to commemorate their win.
zombie: a stone-faced player, one with no tells.