poker

Poker Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Poker Terms starting with the letter M

   machine man
1. (n)  A thief who uses a mechanical device for his cheating (for example, a holdout machine).1

   Mad Genius of Poker
1. (n)  The sobriquet of renowned poker authority Mike Caro, so named because he used to adopt a wild and crazy image while playing, which he claimed his research had shown garnered the most calls from opponents. Lately Caro has expanded his purview to cover all of gambling, and is known as "America's Mad Genius."1

   made hand
1. (n)  A hand to which you're drawing, or one good enough that it doesn't need to improve. 2

2. (n)  complete hand.1

   mail
1. (n)  See read someone's mail.1

   main game
1. (n)  In a cardroom, the game with the highest stakes, or (sometimes) with the most action. Sometimes when a regular player first sits down to play, he may ask, "Is this the main game?" He means that he hopes the players are gambling or otherwise giving action. Sometimes the question is asked facetiously, when the player sits down in what is obviously a dead spread, that is, a game full of mostly house players or what seems to be a game with little action. See high stakes. 1

2. (n)  The game to which players must move from a forced-move game.1

3. (n)  The more desirable of two (or more) games of the same form of poker at the same stakes. See balanced games.1

   main pot
1. (n)  When a player goes all-in in a table stakes game, that player is only eligible to win the main pot - the pot consisting of those bets they were able to match. Additional bets, placed in a side pot, are contested among the remaining players. Unfortunately, since I was all-in pre-flop, the main pot was very small. 3

2. (n)  When there is a side pot, that part of the pot all of the players have action in.1

   major
1. (n)  Major tournament, such as the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Finals. "He played in all the majors this year."1

   major hand
1. (n)  In high poker, (generally) a straight or better.1

   major league game
1. (n)  A high-stakes game. 1

2. (n)  The largest game in a cardroom.1

   make
1. (v)  To (non-specifically) make a hand means to get a decent hand that has a shot at winning the pot. I didn't make a hand for two hours, but then I went on a major rush. 3

2. (v)  Catch the specific hand one is trying to end up with; often followed by a (or the) hand. In draw poker, if you start with 5-6-7-8-K of mixed suits, you discard the king, and on the draw receive either a 4 or 9, you have made a straight. You have also made the hand or made a hand. The phrases "I made" and "Did you make?" are elliptical, that is, "I made my hand" and "Did you make the hand (or your hand)?," respectively, are understood. In lowball, to catch on the draw any card below one's top card that does not give one a pair is to make the hand. Similarly, though used less often, in a stud or hold 'em game, to turn a drawing hand into a complete hand (definition 2) is to make the hand.1

3. (v)  Detect cheating. "Did the floorman make you?" means "Did the floorman notice that you were cheating?"1

4. (v)  Shuffle the cards prior to the next deal; same as make the pack.1

   make a cow
1. (v)  cow (definition 1). When the player quits, he splits with the person with whom he made the cow.1

   make a move
1. (v)  move (definition 1).1

   make a move on the pot
1. (v)  Same as make a play (definition 2), often implying betting or raising strong when the other players seem weak, and often when the player making the move is himself none too strong. Also, move on the pot.1

   make a pass
1. (v)  hop the cut.1

   make a play
1. (v)  Bluff. 1

2. (v)  Bet strongly. He made a play for the pot implies that he bet big to try to win it. Also make a move on the pot.1

   make a score
1. (v)  Win big.1

   make good
1. (v)  Pay money owed to the pot, usually by matching one's lights, which are (usually only in a home game) chips removed from the pot by a player who has run out of chips but has agreed to stand good on any bets, chips equal in amount to the betting from the point at which the player ran out of chips. If the player loses the pot, he must make good on the money owed. For example, if he had gone light by $10, he must return those $10 in chips to the pot, plus another $10 in cash (or purchase more chips and add another $10 to the pot). See lights. 1

2. (v)  Put enough chips into the pot to call a bet or raise.1

   make perfect
1. (v)  In draw poker, catch one or more cards that give the maximum improvement to the cards kept. This phrase is most common in lowball. For example, you draw one card to 7-5-2-A, and catch a 3, thus making the hand perfect. (This is actually grammatically incorrect; it should be make perfectly, but card players aren't big on grammar.)1

   make the blind good
1. (v)  The situation in which a player has one of the various traveling blinds, dealer blind, middle blind, or big blind, someone has opened the pot, and the holder of the blind calls the opening bet, usually with a marginal hand, and with the intention of "protecting" his investment (operating under the fallacious theory that the chip or chips he has put into the pot prior to the deal in the form of the blind still belong to him).1

   make the deck
1. (v)  make the pack.1

   make the pack
1. (v)  After the play of a hand, gather the cards and shuffle them for the deal of the next hand.1

   make up
1. (v)  make the pack, shortened from make up the pack.1

   make up the blind
1. (v)  take the middle blind, post, or otherwise arrange to receive a hand after having missed the blind (see miss the blind).1

   make up the blinds
1. (v)   make up the blind. 1

2. (v)  When someone leaves who would next be in a blind position or on the button, players in blind positions put in enough chips such that their total for the round is the same as if the player had not left. Also see dead button rule.1

   make up the pack
1. (v)  make the pack; sometimes shortened to make up.1

   making the pass
1. (v)  Hopping the cut. See hop the cut. Also make a pass.0

   Mambo stud
1. (n)  A combination between stud and a widow game, in which players use three cards in their hands plus one community card, played high-low. Each player is dealt one downcard and one upcard, followed by a round of betting, one more upcard, one more round of betting, and then a community card, with a final round of betting. Players use any combination of three of their four cards for high hand and any three for low. hand rankings differ from "ordinary poker." The highest ranking low hand, A-2-3, is called a Low Mambo, and the highest ranking high hand, Q-K-A suited, is called a High Mambo. The remaining high hands rank this way: straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, one pair, highest card rank. There is a qualifier for low: to win the low half, a hand must be 6-high or better. One worse than a Low Mambo is A-2-4, and so on. If there is no low, the entire pot goes to the high hand.1

   man with the axe
1. (n)  King of diamonds.1

   man with the star
1. (n)  joker.1

   manage
1. (v)  Practice money management.1

2. (v)  Run a cardroom.1

3. (v)  Own a cardroom.1

   management
1. (v)  The owners of a cardroom.1

2. (v)  Those running or managing a cardroom.1

   manager
1. (n)  Someone good at money management.1

2. (n)  One who runs a cardroom. 3. One who owns a cardroom.1

   managing
1. (v)  Successfully applying the principles of money management.1

   maniac
1. (adj)  A player who does a lot of hyper-aggressive raising, betting, and bluffing. A true maniac is not a good player, but is simply doing a lot of gambling. However, a player who occasionally acts like a maniac and confuses his opponents is quite dangerous. 2

2. (adj)  A maniac is a player who plays extremely loose and aggressive, often raising with just about anything. Maniacs at the table tend to increase the variance considerably. With all the maniacs at the table, I decided to just wait for the nuts and let the money come to me. 3

3. (n)  A player who bets, raises, and reraises without regard to the quality of his hand; someone to whom getting in the last bet is a matter of pride. Such a player is most often found in flop games.1

   Maria
1. (n)  Black Maria1

   mark
1. (v)  Put scratches, bends, paint, etc., on cards such that they can be identified visually from the back, or by feel from front or back.1

2. (n)  Scratches, bends, paint, etc., on cards; often plural.1

3. (n)  A thief's victim.1

   marked cards
1. (n)  Cards with identifying marks placed on them by a cheater.1

   marked deck
1. (n)  A deck with marked cards. Also called cheaters.1

   marker
1. (n)  A promissory note, credit slip, or IOU, usually held by a casino or cardroom, representing money owed by a player, against which the player plays.1

2. (n)  button 1

   marriage
1. (n)  In hold 'em, suited K-Q as the down cards. Comes from the game of pinochle. Compare with pinochle.1

   master card
1. (n)  The highest card in play in a particular suit.1

   match lights
1. (n)  See lights.1

   match one's lights
1. (v)  See lights.1

   match the pot
1. (v)  In home games, a penalty that arises in certain situations, usually in wild-card stud-type games, when a player receives a card of a certain rank. For example, in the seven-card stud variant called baseball, 3s and 9s are wild. A player dealt a 3 face up must either match the pot, that is, add to the pot as much as it already contains, or fold. In some games, the player is not even offered the opportunity of folding; he must match the pot. Sometimes called buy the pot.1

   matchbook shiner
1. (n)  A cheating device, a small mirror attached to the inside of a matchbook cover or small matchbox that has been placed apparently innocently on the table, used to read the faces of the cards while they are being dealt face down over the device. See gaper, shiner.1

   matching card
1. (n)   A card of the same rank or suit as another card, either in the same hand, or potentially part of the same hand, as when one of the communal cards in a hold 'em-type game. Also, mate.1

   mate
1. (n)  matching card.1

   Maverick
1. (n)  In hold' em, Q-J as one's first two cards.1

   MCU
1. (n)  Mike Caro University.1

   mechanic
1. (n)  One who unfairly manipulates the cards, such as a cheat who deals cards from the bottom instead of from the top of the deck (where they should come from), or from the middle, or deals the second card from the top, or who falsely shuffles the cards so as to arrange them in a manner he has predetermined, or who palms cards, or uses any other of scores of cheating methods involving card manipulation or sleight of hand.1

   mechanic's grip
1. (n)  A way of holding the cards popular with mechanics (see mechanic), because it's easiest to deal seconds, bottoms, or middles when holding the deck this way. A right-handed dealer holds the deck in his left hand, with the thumb along the left edge, the forefinger at the front, and the other three fingers curled around the right edge. (A left-handed dealer does the same, mutatis mutandis, with his right hand.) Since many noncheating players also hold the deck this way, the grip alone is not evidence enough to accuse a player of cheating.1

   meet
1. (vt)  Call; usually followed by a or the bet.1

   Mexican standoff
1. (n)  A tied pot; a hand in which two (or more) players have equivalent hands and split the pot.1

   Mexican stud
1. (n)  A form of five-card stud in which each player first receives two cards face down, and then rolls (turns face up) one card, followed by a betting round. Thereafter, each active player receives another face-down card on each round, from which he chooses one to roll, again followed by a betting round. Sometimes called flip or peep-and-turn. Also see Shifting Sands.1

   Michigan bankroll
1. (n)  A wad of bills, usually folded over, with a bill of large denomination on the outside, to give the appearance of a large bankroll. Also called Oklahoma bankroll or Philadelphia bankroll.1

   Michigan roll
1. (n)  Michigan bankroll.1

   micro limit
1. (n)  Games so small that they couldn't be profitably dealt in a real cardroom. They exist only at online poker sites. You might arbitrarily call games $.25-.50 and smaller "micro-limit." 2

   middle
1. (n)  The main pot when there is a side pot. "That dollar shouldn't go on the side: it goes in the middle." 1

2. (n)  A card dealt from the middle of the deck.1

3. (n)  Part of the phrase take it in the middle. 1

4. (n)  A card needed to make an inside straight.1

   middle blind
1. (n)  In a three-blind traveling blind game, the blind put up by the player to the dealer's left. 1

2. (n)  The player who is in the middle blind position. 1

3. (n)  The actual middle blind position itself. (There is a distinction.) Also see blind, big blind, little blind, dealer blind.1

   middle dealer
1. (n)  A mechanic who can deal from the middle of the deck. This is extremely difficult compared to dealing bottoms or seconds.1

   middle man
1. (n)  The holder of the middle blind. 1

2. (n)   Sometimes (rarely) the player who is in the situation of being between two players who keep raising and reraising each other. The name for this action is whipsaw.1

   middle pair
1. (n)  If there are three cards of different ranks on the flop in hold'em, and you pair the middle one, you have middle pair. I'll often raise with middle pair and an overcard. 3

2. (n)  The situation in hold 'em in which a player pairs one of his hole cards with the second-highest card on the board. For example, if you have A T, and the flop is Q T 7, you have flopped middle pair.1

   middle position
1. (n)  In a poker game, somewhere between early position and late position, generally considered to be those players who would, on the first round of betting, act fourth, fifth, or sixth.1

   middle straight
1. (n)  inside straight.1

   middles
1. (n)  Cards dealt from the middle of the deck (by a middle dealer).1

   middles dealer
1. (n)  middle dealer.1

   midnight shift
1. (n)  graveyard shift.1

   Mighty Wurlitzer
1. (n)  In lowball, a pair of 8s (that is, 88; comes from the number of keys on the instrument). 1

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

   Mike
1. (n)  blind stud.1

   Mike Caro University
1. (n)  Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy. Founded in 1998 and located at Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California, and online, MCU trains novices and professionals in the science of poker.1

   miles
1. (n)  In high poker, part of a phrase describing three of a kind (or, rarely, four of a kind), using total point value; usually preceded by a number divisible by three. That is, 30 miles means three 10s, and nine miles means three 3s.1

   miles of bad road
1. (n)  Same as miles, that is, three of a kind, preceded by a number divisible by three, as, for example, 30 miles of bad road, which means three 10s.1

   milk
1. (v)  Shuffle the deck by repeatedly pulling out top and bottom cards simultaneously, and forming a pile with these cards as they are drawn, for the purpose of thoroughly mixing the cards prior to shuffling.1

2. (v)  Perform a cheating maneuver in which the cards are mixed by an overhand shuffle, or something that looks like a casual sifting through of the discards, in such a way as set up two or more hands to be later dealt to predesignated positions. This is a cheating maneuver usually done by a mechanic prior to some other move, such as hopping the cut and then dealing bottoms. 1

3. (v)  In draw poker, shuffle through one's five cards repeatedly by holding them face down and sliding one card at a time from top to bottom. Also called milk the cards, fuzz. 1

4. (v)  Get the most benefit on a hand (often a hand of relatively low value) from the holder of another, inferior, hand; usually followed by that hand or the name of the player who was so cajoled into calling the maximum. "You certainly milked me that time." "He milked that hand for the most he could get, considering who he was up against."1

5. (v)  Withdraw money from a game, generally by tight, conservative play; usually followed by a or the game.1

   milk the cards
1. (v)  milk (definition 3.)1

   milk the deck
1. (v)  milk (definition 1, 2.)1

   milk up
1. (v)  milk (definition 1, 2.)1

   milk up the deck
1. (v)  milk (definition 1, 2.)1

   milker
1. (n)  A tight or conservative player. Probably comes from the description of someone who has to milk (definition 4) every hand he plays, because he would not ordinarily get much action.1

   minnie
1. (n)  In lowball, the best hand, a wheel or bicycle, A-2-3-4-5 of various suits (including all the same suit). In some games, this could also be the lowest possible hand. For example, with straights and flushes not counted as low hands, 6-4-3-2-A would be a minnie. With aces high plus the preceding strictures, 7-5-4-3-2 would be a minnie.1

   minnow
1. (n)  Someone who plays over his head, that is, enters with insufficient funds a game larger than he is accustomed to.1

   minor hand
1. (n)  In high poker, (generally) three aces or worse.1

   minor league game
1. (n)  A low-stakes game.1

2. (n)  The smallest game in a cardroom. Compare with major league game.1

   miscall
1. (v)  Verbally declare your hand as being other than it is, usually better. If, at the showdown, you say "I have a straight," and you actually have worse, you have miscalled your hand. In some clubs, there is no penalty for doing this (because cards speak), but, if deliberate, it is at best unethical, and considered an angle.1

2. (n)  The act of so doing.1

   misdeal
1. (n)  A deal with an impropriety such that the cards must be redealt. For example, dealing without the cards having been cut or dealing some of the cards out of order in most cardrooms constitutes a misdeal.1

2. (v)  To so deal.1

   misère
1. (n)  Another name for lowball, primarily in England.1

   misère pots
1. (n)  Another name for lowball, primarily in England.1

   miss
1. (n)  see hit2

2. (v)  Not draw a card that helps one's hand. Opposite of fill and improve.1

   miss the blind
1. (v)  Be absent from the table when the blind positions arrive at one's table position. In most clubs, if a player misses the blind, he must either wait for the blind or post.1

   miss the flop
1. (v)  In hold 'em, the situation in which the flop bears little relation to a player's downcards.1

   Mississippi stud
1. (n)  A form of seven-card stud, often played pot limit, with fourth and fifth street cards dealt without a betting round between them, and seventh street dealt face up.1

   mistigri
1. (n)  mistigris.1

   mistigris
1. (n)  High poker (usually draw) with the joker wild. 1

2. (n)  The joker, when it can represent any card. The name comes from French, and is close to 100 years old. It originally meant the jack of spades, especially when accompanied by two cards of the same color in the old games of bouillotte and brelan, both similar to modern poker, and later was used for the blank card that came with a deck of cards, and then for the game played with that card. That blank card later evolved into the joker. Also spelled mistigri.1

   mites and lice
1. (n)  nits and lice.1

   mits and mice
1. (n)  nits and lice.1

   mitt
1. (n)  A poker hand, that is, a fistful of cards.1

   mitt joint
1. (n)  A crooked gambling establishment that relies on marked cards.1

   modified limit
1. (v)  spread limit.1

   Molly Hogan
1. (n)  The queen of spades.1

   monarch
1. (n)  A king (the card).1

   money management
1. (n)  Playing in such a way as to minimize your losses and maximize your wins. Many players win a little and quit, no matter how good the game, but when they get stuck, they often lose far more than they win in any winning session in a desperate attempt to get even. This is poor money management. For some, money management means quitting when ahead, and not losing back all of their winnings. For others, it means not putting all their bankroll on the table for any one session. For still others, it means putting aside a portion of their winnings into other money-making investments. Some poker writers claim that money management is not a viable concept.1

   money odds
1. (n)  The best of it in a particular situation, with respect to the size of a bet that must be called compared to either what is currently in the pot or what is likely to be. In a no-limit lowball game, you might hear, "I knew I hadda beat an eight. I'm already getting 3-to-2 in the pot, plus I get all his chips if I make the hand. I was getting money odds." The term usually does not apply to a situation in which a player is getting better than 1-to-1 on his investment, but is taking the worst of it when comparing the odds against his making a winning hand with how much he can win for his investment. (That is, if a player stands to win $100 for a $50 investment, or 2-to-1, but the odds against him are 3-to-1, he is not getting money odds.)1

   money player
1. (n)  Any gambler, particularly a high roller.1

   Money plays
1. (v)  An announcement, usually by a dealer, of acknowledgment that a player has ordered chips from a chip runner and can bet up to as much as the amount of cash he has on the table.1

   mongrel
1. (n)  In hold 'em, K-9 as one's first two cards.1

   monkey
1. (n)  A sucker, particularly one who is the victim of cheating.1

   monkey flush
1. (n)  Three cards of the same suit, not in sequence. Compare to bobtail flush.1

   monster
1. (n)  An extremely strong hand, one that is almost certain to win the pot. It's often a bad idea to slowplay unless you make a monster. 3

2. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by a.1

   Montana banana
1. (n)  In hold 'em, 9-2 as one's first two cards. Some say that the 92 refers to the number of the proposition that legalized poker in Montana; others have conjectured that it is called that because bananas will grow in Montana before that hand makes money. We have not been able to confirm either contention.1

   monte
1. (n)  three-card monte.1

   moo
1. (v)  cow (definition 1). When the player quits, he splits with the person with whom he mooed.1

   moon
1. (v)  shoot the moon. 1

2. (v)  Win all of a high-low split pot by having both the best high and low hands.1

   moon hand
1. (n)  In a high-low split declare game, a hand that declares for and wins both ways.1

   mop squeezer
1. (n)  Queen.1

   mortal cinch
1. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by a.1

2. (n)  lock.1

   mortal lock
1. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by a.1

   mortal nuts
1. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by the.1

   mortals
1. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by the. Also called immortals (see immortal).1

   Moss, Johnny
1. (n)  See Johnny Moss.1

   motion
1. (n)  The act of betting. If someone says, "Motion's good," he probably means, "If that act of reaching for your chips that you are performing is to be interpreted as an actual intention on your part of betting, you can take the pot, because I shall not be calling." Some clubs have a rule motion is binding, which means that if you have chips in your hand and make a motion toward the pot with the hand that holds those chips (also known as a forward motion), you must complete the bet.1

   Motown
1. (n)  In hold 'em, J-5 as one's first two cards. From the Motown singing group the Jackson Five.1

   mouth bet
1. (n)   oral bet.1

   move
1. (v)  Perform a cheating manipulation of the deck. To deal seconds or hop the cut are to move. 1

2. (n)  The performing of such a manipulation; often preceded by make a. The word generally applies to each occurrence, as, for example, dealing bottoms is a move.1

3. (n)  Any fancy play1

4. (n)  Betting all of one's chips, in the expression "He's making his move."1

   move all in
1. (v)  Bet (usually) or call (less often) all one's chips in one hand. "Sally bet $20 and Jim moved in" means Jim raised all his chips (or hers, if she had fewer than he). Also, go all in.1

   move in
1. (v)  Bet or call all one's chips in one hand; sometimes followed by on. "Sally bet $20 and Jim moved in" (or "Jim moved in on her") means Jim raised all his chips (or hers, if she had fewer than he). Also, go in.1

2. (n)  The act of moving in, that is, putting everything in the pot.1

   move on the pot
1. (v)  make a move on the pot.1

   mover
1. (n)  A card thief, that is, someone who moves (see move, definition 1).1

   moves
1. (n)  Fancy plays, often accompanied by theatrics; sometimes just the theatrics. "He's got a lot of moves." Compare with coffeehouse and Hollywood.1

   muck
1. (n)  The pile of folded and burned cards in front of the dealer. Example: "His hand hit the muck so the dealer ruled it folded even though the guy wanted to get his cards back." 2

2. (v)  To discard your cards without showing them. Example: "He didn't have any outs so he mucked his hand."0

3. (n)  The pile of discarded cards in front of the dealer, or the act of putting cards in this pile (and therefore taking them out of play). 3

4. (n)  The discards. The term is borrowed from pan. "Throw that piece of cheese in the muck." Also called the garbage pile, trash.1

5. (v)  Fold; usually followed by the hand. "As soon as he bet, I mucked the hand." 1

6. (v)  Palm a card for later use in a game.1

   mucker
1. (n)  hand mucker.1

   multiway
1. (adj)  Involving more than two players.1

   multiway pot
1. (n)  A pot with more than two players.1

   must move game
1. (n)  forced-move game.1

   mustache
1. (n)  A term of opprobrium peculiar to cardrooms. "Ya mustache" means "You no-good person, you."1



Sources
1
Official Poker Dictionary
The Official Dictionary of Poker
by
Michael Wiesenberg
Amazon.com		 2
Winning Low Limit Holdem
Winning Low Limit Holdem
by
Lee Jones
Amazon.com		 3
Serious Poker
Serious Poker
by
Dan Kimberg
Amazon.com