Poker Glossary

Poker Terms starting with the letter K

K boy

1. (n) King (the card).¹

Kankakee

1. (n) A poker game played only in private or home games, a form of seven-card stud with a communal card, in which the joker (completely wild) is turned face up in the center of the table, where it becomes part of every active player's hand.¹

kansas city

1. (adj) Kansas City, or Kansas City lowball, is a low only game played for a deuce to seven low. ³

2. (n) Kansas City lowball, that is, deuce-to-seven. ¹

3. (n) In ace-to-five lowball, the hand 7-5-4-3-2; so called, because that is the best hand in Kansas City lowball. ¹

4. (n) In ace-to-five lowball, when used attributively with a rank, generally means that card plus 5-4-3-2. For example, a Kansas City 8 is the hand 8-5-4-3-2.¹

Kansas City lowball

1. (n) deuce-to-seven.¹

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Katie

1. (n) In hold 'em, K-T as one's first two cards.¹

Katy

1. (n) In hold 'em, K-T as one's first two cards.¹

keep it or shove it

1. (n) A form of five-card stud, found only in home games, a high-low game in which, after each player has been dealt one downcard, each player gets a choice, in order, on each succeeding card. When each player has one downcard, there is a betting round. The dealer then offers a card off the deck to the first player. If the player wants that card, he keeps it. If he does not want it, he immediately gets the next card off the deck, and the first card is offered to the second player, who has the same options. He can take the card, or immediately get the next card off the deck, in which case the spurned card is offered to the third player, and so on. This continues until everyone has one upcard, at which point there is a second round of betting. Any card that goes all the way around the table without stopping at anyone, including the dealer, becomes dead. After the betting has been equalized, the operation starts all over, with a card being offered in turn to each player. After each time of each active player having the same number of upcards, another round of betting ensues. After each player has four upcards, each player has the opportunity of replacing an upcard with an upcard, or the downcard with another downcard (the twist), followed again, of course, by another round of betting, and then a declaration, and then the determination of the two winners. This game is sometimes called take it or leave it, shove 'em along, or push. It is also sometimes called pass the trash, although that name is more often reserved for Anaconda.¹

keep someone honest

1. (v) Make sure someone is not bluffing, with respect to calling. "Well, I know you're not bluffing, but I've got trips, so I'll keep you honest." Related to pay off.¹

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kelter

1. (n) kilter.¹

Kem

1. (n) A brand of plastic cards; usually followed by deck or cards.¹

keyzard

1. (n) A card, particularly the card someone needs; comes from Sacramento cardroom double talk.¹

kibitz

1. (vi) Watch someone play, or stand and watch a game, often from the rail.¹

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kibitzer

1. (n) One who watches, but does not participate in, a poker game (often offering unsolicited and unwanted comments on the ongoing action); onlooker; railbird. Also called lumber, wood, or sweater.¹

kick

1. (v) raise. "I'll kick it" means "I raise." For this meaning, bump is sometimes used, but generally only in home games or by beginning poker players.¹

2. (v) Hit a kicker on the draw (in draw poker). "My kicker kicked" means I drew two to a pair with a kicker and hit that kicker. If you draw to a pair of kings with an ace and make two pair, aces and kings, you kicked.¹

kicker

1. (n) An unpaired card used to determine the better of two near-equivalent hands. For instance, suppose you have AK and your opponent has AQ. If the flop has an ace in it, you both have a pair of aces, but you have a king kicker. Kickers can be vitally important in hold'em. ²

2. (n) The highest unpaired card in your hand that doesn't participate in a straight or flush - i.e., the card that does not contribute to the strength of your hand except by itself. For example, if you hold AA743, you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker. Five card hands - straights, flushes, and full houses, - don't have kickers per se. In games with community cards, kickers are especially important, because it's easy for two players to make similar hands. For example, if you hold A8 and someone else holds A7, and the flop is AK642, you have your opponent out-kicked. Your hand is AAK86 while theirs is AAK76. And you both lose to the guy playing 53 off suit under the gun.³

3. (n) In draw poker, a side card (one of a different rank) held, when drawing, with a pair or three of a kind, to disguise the hand or to try to improve the hand. Often the kicker is an ace. For example, a player opens with two kings. At the draw, the player keeps an ace with the two kings and requests two cards. The player hopes to fool the others into thinking he has three of a kind, and also hopes to make two pair, aces and kings. (This particular player doesn't fool anyone; if he really had three of a kind, he would have drawn one card--again keeping a kicker. He also has decreased his overall chances of improvement; drawing three to a pair improves the hand more often than drawing two to a pair with a kicker.) ¹

4. (n) In hold 'em, the unpaired card that goes with a player's pair or three of a kind. Often, the rank of the kicker determines the winner of the pot. For example, if you have A K, and I have K Q, and the board is K J 7 5 2, you win; your pair of kings with an ace kicker beats my pair of kings with a queen kicker.¹

5. (n) sidecard ¹

kicker trouble

1. (n) In hold 'em, when two players have the same pair formed by a hole card matching one on the board, the one with the smaller side card is said to have kicker trouble.¹

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kill

1. (n) A "kill" game is one in which a player may place an extra bet, causing the betting limits to go up for just that hand. The player posting the bet is the "killer," and the hand is considered a "kill pot." The player is said to have "killed the pot" for the amount of the kill. The exact details depend on the local rules and on the game. As examples, here are the rules for three kill games I've played in (all in San Diego). In the kill hold'em game, any player who wins two pots in a row is required to kill by posting a blind small bet on the subsequent hand, with the limits doubled for that hand. In a kill high-low split game, any player who scooped a pot larger than a certain size was required to kill the subsequent pot. And in a draw game, any player could kill any pot for an arbitrary amount after looking at their first two cards. These are just examples, the details vary from cardroom to cardroom. ³

2. (v) overblind (definition 1), or sometimes just blind (definition 3). "I'll kill it" means the pot has probably already been blinded and I'm putting in another blind that is (in a no-limit game at least twice and in a limit game exactly twice) the size of the largest blind already in. Less often to kill means to blind a pot that does not yet have a blind.¹

3. (v) Deliberately make a hand dead (definition 3) by a dealer prior to exposing the hand when requested by a player. This is so the hand can be shown without causing any possible arguments that the hand might be legally entitled to the pot because it is still live. For example, John bets on the river in hold 'em, and Sue calls. As soon as Sue puts her chips in, John discards his cards unshown, indicating that he was bluffing and any hand that can call has him beat. Willie, however, wants to see the hand, perhaps because he wants to get a line on John's play, and says to the dealer, "Turn that hand up." Since John's was a called hand, the dealer must, by the rules in most cardrooms, expose the hand. He picks up John's cards, taps them against the discards (thus killing the hand), and only then turns them face up.¹

4. (n) overblind (definition 2) or blind (definition 1), that is, the act of killing a pot or the chips represented by that act. "It was already $40-to-go and he put a kill in" means he made it $80 minimum bet.¹

kill game

1. (n) A game that has kill pots. See kill pot.¹

kill pot

1. (n) To stimulate action, some games require a player winning two pots in a row to kill the next pot. This is called a kill pot. Also see leg up, scoop.¹

killed pot

1. (n) A pot that has been killed. See kill ¹

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kilter

1. (n) In draw poker, a nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game. The hand is different in different parts of the country. One variant is any hand containing a 9, 5, and a 2, with one card between the 9 and the 5 and another between the 5 and the 2. This particular hand is also called a pelter or a skeet. Another variant is a hand with no card higher than a 9, no pair, and no four-flush or four-straight. Another is a sequence of cards, each separated by one rank, such as 2-4-6-8-10 or 5-7-9-J-K. This particular hand is also called an alternate straight, Dutch straight, or skip straight. The kilter generally ranks between three of a kind and an "ordinary" straight. The term is sometimes rendered kelter.¹

king

1. (n) A face card, the one that ranks between the queen and the ace.¹

king crab

1. (n) In hold 'em, K-3 as one's first two cards. So called because a 3 looks a bit like a crab. Also called Alaska hand.¹

king high

1. (n) In high poker, a no pair hand whose highest card is an king. "I have king high; can you beat that?" (Also, "I have a king high; can you beat that?" The difference is that word "a.") "Yeah, I got ace high." ¹

2. (n) In low poker, a hand topped by a king.¹

3. (adj) A term that often modifies (refers to) a straight or flush topped by an king. "I was drawing to a king-high flush, but all I made was a king high."¹

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King Kong

1. (n) King (the card).¹

king without a mustache

1. (n) King of hearts. Use of this term is usually reserved for naming of wild cards by the dealer in a dealer's choice home game, as, for example, "Five draw, deuces and the king without a mustache wild."¹

kings full

1. (n) A full house consisting of three kings and another pair.¹

kings over

1. (n) kings up.¹

2. (n) kings full.¹

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kings up

1. (n) two pair, the higher of which are kings.¹

kitchen game

1. (n) A home game, usually one for small stakes.¹

kitchen poker

1. (n) A home game, usually one for small stakes.¹

kitty

1. (n) In a private or home game, a cash reserve or collection built up by taking a specified amount out of each pot. The kitty belongs to all the players, and is usually collected for some special purpose, such as paying the host of the week's game for the use of his home, for refreshments, sending one of the players to a tournament in Nevada, and so on. ¹

2. (n) The pot; often as part of the phrase feed the kitty, which merely means call a bet.¹

3. (n) In various forms of poker played only in private or home games, a small packet of cards set aside at the start of a hand that may be purchased by or otherwise made available to one of the players, according to the rules of the specific game.¹

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KKK

1. (n) Ku Klux Klan, that is, three kings.¹

knave

1. (n) Jack (the card).¹

knock

1. (v) In draw poker, at the time to draw cards, indicate that one is pat. So called because a player, if he has a pat hand, often knocks on the table with his knuckles when it is his turn to announce his draw. Also, knuckle, rap.¹

2. (v) In any form of poker, at the time for making a bet, indicate that one declines to bet; check. ¹

3. (v) In knock poker, request a showdown.¹

4. (v) When one is offered the deck by the dealer, after shuffling, to cut, rap on the deck to indicate one is declining the option of cutting the cards.¹

5. (n) The act of performing any of the preceding. "When it was his turn to bet, he gave it a knock."¹

knock heads

1. (v) Play head up. May imply two players who regularly seem to end up fighting it out for the same pots. "How come you and Jane are always knocking heads?"¹

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knock poker

1. (n) A combination of rummy and poker, usually played at home games by two to four players while waiting for a "real" poker session to start. As in draw poker, each player receives five cards face down. As in gin rummy, the remainder of the deck is placed in the center of the table, and the top card is turned over, starting a discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer has three choices: knock, draw a card from the deck, or draw the top card from the discard pile. If he doesn't knock--and he can only do so if he doesn't draw a card--after drawing, he discards a card face up on the discard pile. Each player in rotation has the same three choices. If a player feels that he has the best poker hand at any point when it is his turn, he can knock. If his hand is indeed best, he collects one chip (or some other agreed-upon amount) from each player; if it is not, he loses two chips (or, again, some other agreed-upon amount) to the player whose hand beats his. Obviously (or not so obviously), the further the game progresses without someone knocking, the better the hand needed to knock. This could mean taking a chance right at the start with one large pair. Several variations exist to this game; the preceding description is the most common. Compare with whiskey poker.¹

knuckle

1. (v) stand pat. ¹

2. (n) The act of standing pat. "He gave it the knuckle" means he drew no cards. So called because a player, if he has a pat hand, often raps on the table with his knuckles when it is his turn to announce his draw. Also, knock, rap.¹

knuckle it

1. (v) stand pat.¹

knuckle up

1. (v) stand pat.¹

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Kojac

1. (n) In hold 'em, K-J as one's first two cards. Named because it sounds like the old television show.¹

Kokomo

1. (n) In hold 'em, K-8 as one's first two cards.¹

komoke

1. (v) A variant spelling of comoque.¹

komoker