Confused? post your question in here!

[totalise]

Hi all,

The language of poker is quite a confusing one, so this thread is dedicated to making it less confusing. If you read a term/word on the PHA/anywhere else, and dont understand what it means, and feel too embarassed to make a post about it, then post your question in this thread, and one of the mods of the board will then edit your post to include the answer to your question... so for example:

Q: "what does VPIP mean? I've read it a few times and dont really understand it"

and one of the mods will edit your post, in a different colour, and say something like

"VPIP refers to a column in pokertracker that shows you how often someone Voluntarily Puts money In the Pot (thats where VPIP comes from) if the figure is high, it means they are playing a large amount of hands, therefore loose, and if that figure is low, it means the opposite"

any poker related question at all is actively welcomed, and please dont be embarassed to post if you think that you "should" know what it means but dont.

[Graham C]

hee hee, good thread

I think I know the answer to this, but I've only just figured it out (if I'm right!)

To 3 bet (and 4 bet for that matter)

is that when someone raises, then you raise again? I did think it was 3xbb until not long ago


hi Silo, the reason why you think it was 3*bb is that when it was used in limit, that is effectively what you were doing, ie if the bb was $2, and someone raised to make it $4, and then you 3-bet to $6, you were making it 3 times to initial action (ie the blind). In NL its the same principle, preflop the blind is a bet, then someone raises, and you re-raise, thats the 3rd-bet, and if someone re-raises you, thats the 4th bet and so on. Postflop there is no blind involved, so if you bet, and someone raises, you can 3-bet, and if they re-raise again, thats the 4th bet..etc etc

[77dave]

Can you explain what EV+ and EV-  stands for   

EV stands for Expected Value, and it is a measure of whether or not an action of gambling/investing will show a profit. If it will show a profit, its considering +EV, if not, then its considered -EV

[Laxie]

Might be no harm to explain what the different positional abbreviations mean too.  Took me AGES to figure out what you lot were talking about!  lol  Things like UTG and all that.  Basic to most, but unknown to many...even those who have a fair idea of how to play the game.  Only for google...I was in big trouble at first.   

this is the point of the thread pretty much. In time it could be used to formulate a FAQ or such list, but for now, questions like that, no matter how "simple", this is what the thread is for.

[B/FsCousinKev]

Excellent idea this thread,im going to be greedy and ask two......

hi Kev,

'Floating the pot'

floating is the concept of calling a bet, typically on the flop, in order to steal the pot on later streets. Generally, competent players have a wide distribution of hands they will raise with preflop, so your idea when floating is to call preflop with some hands, and then call flops, even though you have nothing, in order to steal the pot on the turn/river. A crude example of this would be calling preflop with 8/9 suited, the flop comes K27, the origional raiser makes a continuation bet, and you call, with the intention of bettin the turn if/when they check the turn.

and

'snap off bluff'

snapping off a bluff generally is where you play a hand in a manner that increases the chances of them making a bluff, and your intention is to call a bet no matter what happens on the next street.  a crude example would be if you call a raise with QK, the flop comes QAx, they bet, you call, turn comes a 7, they check, and you check, but you check here to control the size of the pot, and to give them a chance to bluff, so when the river comes, no matter what it is, you will call instantly if they bet, to "snap off their bluff"

[matt674]

Does my bum look big in this?

Yes Matt it does. This is a common problem monkeys face when going clothes shopping. I would suggest going to your local "primates r us" branch and picking out a nice pair of monkey jeans.

cheers as you can see from my avatar picture i usually only wear a t-shirt

[Laxie]

Does my bum look big in this?

Yep. 

What's a 'stop n go'?

A "stop n go" is used when short stacked and out of position, this always happens when your in the blinds as you are last to act preflop, but first to act postflop. What you do is flat call a preflop raise and then push the rest of your chips in on any flop. 

The idea behind this is that you know that your opponent will never fold if you push all in preflop as they will have massive odds to call. So you wait till the flop as they might miss it totally and can't call your all in, therefore denying them seeing any turn or river that might hit them.

A typical example is something like this.

UTG raises to 350 at 50/100 blinds he is solid and is doing this with a hand.

You are in the bb with 1000 chip and have 66.

You call the bet and then shove the flop and you may well fold out ak,aq on small flops or even hands like jj,1010 if there are 2 overcards.

[Eck]

What's a 'stop n go'?

Same as a sit n go but with no chairs....knew i would be useful eventually....

no need for thanks...

[Josedinho]

Just reading Tikay's diary, (around the page 153 mark) there is talk of "weeding off money in cash tables" whats that mean?

Weeding also known as "going south". Is a term to describe taking money off the table and into your pocket in a live cash game while carrying on playing. It is more an etiquette issue as it doesn't allow players your sitting with to win their money back from you.

It is enforced on most online sites and live poker venues.

[Josedinho]

Just reading Tikay's diary, (around the page 153 mark) there is talk of "weeding off money in cash tables" whats that mean?

Weeding also known as "going south". Is a term to describe taking money off the table and into your pocket in a live cash game while carrying on playing. It is more an etiquette issue as it doesn't allow players your sitting with to win their money back from you.

It is enforced on most online sites and live poker venues.

Cheers i don't ever play cash so could you explain something to me?
Say i sat down with £100 and had not moved from that around that level for a couple of hours and then suddenly trebled up would it be bad etiquette to just pick up my chips and walk then? I mean should i stay for a while at least to give the impression of giving players a chance to win there money back or is the problem with it just in playing on but taking some cash off the table so that you can't lose all of your winnings?

As long you just get up and leave I have no issue with it at all. I personally show undue etiquette in cash game and announce to the table i intend to leave at the end of the next orbit etc, but I see no problem with getting up when you like.

[Laxie]

ROI?  ITM?  WTF?!!!!   

Lol i spend my life talking it 3 word acronyms.

ROI= Return on Investment. How much you make in tournament in prizes in relation to buyins.

For example i buy into 10 $10+1 tournaments and i win $120 in prizes. So my total buyins = $110. I have made a $10 profit

To work out my ROI I divide total profit by total buyins and then multiply by 100 to get a %.

In this case (10/110) by 100 = 9.09%


ITM = In the money%.

How often you make the money as a %. I make the money in 4 out of 10 tournaments. Therefore my ITM = 40%

[Graham C]

Can you explain folding equity to me please?  I thought I had an idea, but I've realised I don't have a Danny!

Fold equity is a pretty important part of cash and tournament poker. In most situations by making a raise or a bet we can expect our opponent(s) to fold a certain % of the time, this is our fold equity.

Spotting situations where our fold equity is close to zero or quite high is a key skill. If we 3bet allin in a tournament against a comptent opponent who is gettting 3 to 1 to call, we have no fold equity in this situation. So we would only make this raise with hands that are ahead of his range generally. Whereas if we have a stack of 15-20bbs against a lag preflop opener who won't call us light, we can profitably shove almost any two cards as we have high fold equity.

[DUNK619]

in omaha whats a wrap

[NoflopsHomer]

in omaha whats a wrap

A wrap is a larger than usual straight draw. For example, on a Q-6-5 board, you held 8-7-4-x or 7-4-3-x. The true monster wraps though are when you have two cards either side, like holding J-T-7-6 on a 9-8-2 board is a huge hand and a favourite over top set that has no other improvements. Wraps on a two-flush board should always be played carefully though since a wrap is usually not great against a flush draw, especially if the latter also holds some of you're straight draw outs.

For example, if that 9-8-2 board was a rainbow, the J-T-7-6 is a 55-45 favourite vs 9-9-x-x. But make it J-T-7-6 vs on a board, and suddenly the J-T-7-6 is a 30/70 dog, this is why wraps should be played slowly on flushing boards imo.

[DUNK619]

in omaha whats a wrap

A wrap is a larger than usual straight draw. For example, on a Q-6-5 board, you held 8-7-4-x or 7-4-3-x. The true monster wraps though are when you have two cards either side, like holding J-T-7-6 on a 9-8-2 board is a huge hand and a favourite over top set that has no other improvements. Wraps on a two-flush board should always be played carefully though since a wrap is usually not great against a flush draw, especially if the latter also holds some of you're straight draw outs.

For example, if that 9-8-2 board was a rainbow, the J-T-7-6 is a 55-45 favourite vs 9-9-x-x. But make it J-T-7-6 vs on a board, and suddenly the J-T-7-6 is a 30/70 dog, this is why wraps should be played slowly on flushing boards imo.

  thanks for your help appreciate it