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 N

   n/l
1. (n)  Shorthand, particularly in e-mail and Internet postings, for no-limit. You might see a posting on rec.gambling.poker that starts, "I was playing n/l h/e at the Pasatiempo last night, and this hand came up..."1

   n1
1. (n)  Shorthand for "nice one." Used in the chat facility while playing poker in an online cardroom.1

   nail
1. (v)  mark a card, often with a fingernail. Also called spike, spur.1

2. (v)  Catch the specific card you need to win, particularly as the last card in hold 'em or seven-card stud. "I nailed an ace on the river."1

3. (v)  Catch someone cheating.1

   nail pricking
1. (n)  Marking cards with one's fingernails, particularly sharp thumbnails. See nail, spur.1

   name of the game
1. (n)  In lowball, a wheel (that is, a lowball).1

   natural
1. (n)  A card that is not wild.1

2. (adj)  In a wild-card game, a hand that does not contain any wild cards. For example, in deuces wild, a natural straight, such as 10-J-Q-K-A, would have no deuces.1

   natural card
1. (n)  natural 1

   natural jacks
1. (n)  Draw poker played with no antes or blinds.1

   nc
1. (n)  Shorthand for "nice call." Used in the chat facility while playing poker in an online cardroom.1

   needle
1. (v)  Anger by means of verbal abuse, often by application of sarcasm, sometimes by lying about one's hand just prior to the showdown.1

2. (n)  The act of so angering someone; usually preceded by (give the). "You're gonna get punched in the nose if you keep giving him the needle."1

3. (n)  A brief.1

   needle artist
1. (n)  One who regularly applies the needle (definition 2) to others.1

   needler
1. (n)  needle artist.1

   needles
1. (n)  A pair of aces.1

   neener
1. (n)  9 (the card or the lowball hand).1

   negative expectation
1. (n)  See expectation.1

   Nevada lettuce
1. (n)  A $1000 bill. Since such bills are no longer in circulation, the term is now rarely used.1

   Nevada nickel
1. (n)  A $5 chip. (This term is rarely heard.)1

   nh
1. (n)  Shorthand for "nice hand." Used in the chat facility while playing poker in an online cardroom. The usual response is ty.1

   nhwps
1. (n)  RGP shorthand for "Nice hand; well played, sir."1

   Nice hand; well played, sir
1. (v)  The standard response by an RGPer when being shown a hand that didn't have much chance of winning, but managed to defy the odds.1

   nick
1. (n)  Short for nickel, that is, a $5 chip.1

   nickel
1. (n)  $5 or a $5 poker chip. Also called a red or a redbird.1

2. (n)  A 5. In high poker, three nickels means three 5s.1

3. (adj)  $5. Nickel chips are $5 chips.1

4. (adj)  In lowball, having a 5 as the second highest card. A nickel 8 is an 8-5.1

   nickel dime
1. (adj)  Describing a small game.1

   nickel dime quarter
1. (n)  A small-stakes home game, with those being the chip sizes and betting limits. Usually, five cents is the smallest bet permitted and 25 cents the largest. Sometimes the nickel refers to the ante, the dime the minimum bet, and the quarter the largest. Also, quarter game. Compare with penny-ante game.1

2. (n)  Any small-stakes game.1

   nickels and dimes
1. (n)  dimestore.1

   Nina
1. (n)  9 (the card or the lowball hand).1

   Nina Ross
1. (n)  9 (the card or the lowball hand).1

   nine
1. (n)  In high poker, three 3s.1

   nine miles
1. (n)  nine.1

   nine way hand
1. (n)  nine-way straight.1

2. (n)  In the 52-card deck, a hand containing four cards to a flush.1

   nine way straight
1. (n)  In the 53-card deck, open-ended straight.1

   nits and lice
1. (n)  In high poker, two small pair, usually 3s and 2s. Also called mites and lice, mits and mites.1

   NLH
1. (n)  Shorthand, particularly in e-mail and Internet postings, for no-limit hold 'em.1

   NLHE
1. (n)   Shorthand, particularly in e-mail and Internet postings, for no-limit hold 'em.1

   no brainer
1. (n)  A hand so good that it can be correctly played even by someone with no brains. In lowball that would be a good 6 or better, and in high, aces full or better.1

   no gypsy
1. (n)  In the larger double-limit games, usually above 15-30, with a live blind, the situation in which players are not permitted to open by just calling the blind, that is, opening with a bet the same size as the blind. Thus, the minimum opening bet is always two bets. See gypsying in.1

   no limit
1. (adj)  A version of poker in which a player may bet any amount of chips (up to the number in front of him) whenever it is his turn to act. It is a very different game from limit poker.2

2. (adj)  As you might guess, any game in which there is no limit on the sizes of bets and raises. Note that in table stakes games, players are still limited to the amount of money they have in front of them. 3

3. (n)  The form of poker in which, on his turn, a player can bet all of his chips (or of his opponent's, if the bettor has more), as opposed to a limit game, in which all bets and raises are in multiples of the betting limit.1

4. (adj)  Describing a game played for no limit, in such phrases as no-limit game, no-limit poker, no-limit lowball, and so on.1

   no limit poker
1. (n)  no limit.1

   no pair
1. (n)  In high poker, a hand lower than one pair, usually named by its high card, as, for example, ace high.1

2. (n)  In lowball, any hand without a pair. No pair usually implies a hand topped by a nondescript high card, as a 10 or worse, but some needle artists show down a good hand, like a 6, accompanied by the announcement, "No pair."1

   no peek
1. (n)  no peeky.1

   no peeky
1. (n)  A poker game played only in private or home games, a form of five- or seven-card stud in which each player gets all his cards face down, and is not permitted to look at them. The first player to the left of the dealer rolls (that is, turns face up) one card, at which point there is a round of betting. The second player then rolls as many cards as it takes to beat what the first player has exposed, at which point there is another round of betting. This continues on around, with each player rolling only as many cards as it takes to beat the previous player's exposed cards, followed at each such point by a round of betting. If at any point a player exposes five (or seven) cards that cannot beat the player to his right, that player is out. Sometimes called beat your neighbor.1

   no rebuy tournament
1. (n)  freeze-out tournament.1

   No room
1. (n)  "I have a full house."1

   no spotter
1. (n)  An ace, deuce, trey, or the joker, so called because when the card is lying face down and you lift its lower right corner you see no spots. Some lowball players couple the knowledge that a card could be one of these but that they don't know which one with game theory to decide on whether or not to bet. See liner, spotter.1

   No vacancy
1. (v)  "I have a full house."1

   noncomoquer
1. (n)  In lowball, a card that does not pair one in your hand (thus making specifically the hand you were drawing to). When a player makes a good hand, he may say, "I caught a noncomoquer." Comes from pan (panguingue). Compare with comoquer.1

   nonstandard hand
1. (n)  Any of various hands not usually recognized as having value in cardrooms and casinos, generally only found in draw poker. Nonstandard hands include big dog, little dog, big cat, little cat, kilter, skip straight, blaze, and the like. Also called freak hand, special hand.1

   nose
1. (n)  See on the nose.1

   nose open
1. (adv)  on tilt. "He's got his nose open." Sometimes nose wide open.1

   nose picker
1. (n)  The joker. (Look at a plastic deck.)1

   nose wide open
1. (adv)  nose open; wide open.1

   not playing with a full deck
1. (v)  See full deck.1

   notch
1. (n)  Just barely beat someone, usually by one card. In lowball, if your 8-6-7-3-2 loses to a 8-6-7-3-A, or, in hold 'em, your pair of aces K-Q-7 is beat by a pair of aces K-Q-8, you have been notched.1

   nothing
1. (n)  In lowball, 4-3-2-A; always preceded by the rank of the highest card in the hand. For example, 8-nothing is 8-4-3-2-A. Also, -zip.1

   nubbin
1. (n)  A very small amount of chips, or a very small profit.1

   nucleus players
1. (n)  The regular players in a game, usually a home or private game; those players around whom the game is built.1

   number five
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 6-5-4-3-A.1

   number four
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 6-5-4-2-A.1

   number hand
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, a 6 or wheel (sometimes a "good" 7); so called because players often refer to these hands by their positions on the scale of hands, starting with number one for a wheel, number two for a 6-4, and so on.1

   number one
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, a wheel.1

   number seven
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 7-4-3-2-A.1

   number six
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 6-5-4-3-2.1

   number three
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 6-5-3-2-A.1

   number two
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, 6-4-3-2-A.1

   number two man
1. (n)  seconds dealer.1

   numero uno
1. (n)  In lowball, a wheel.1

   nurse
1. (v)  See nursing.1

   nursing
1. (v)  Fondling one's cards.1

2. (v)  Playing extremely conservatively, usually with a small stack; usually followed by [one's] chips or stack.1

   nut
1. (n)  Daily requirement. When a player refers to his nut, he means how much he has to win just to "break even." Anything over that is "gravy."1

2. (n)  Overhead. For a cardroom, the nut is expenses, beyond which comes the profit.1

3. (n)  Difficult situation; usually part of the phrase tough nut to crack.1

4. (adj)  In hold 'em, pertaining to the best possible hand at a given point in a pot; usually followed by flush or straight, sometimes by high or low. For example, if four spades are on the board, whoever has the ace of spades as one of his hole cards has the nut flush. If A K 9 8 are on the board, whoever has the queen of spades as one of his hole cards has the nut flush. If 9 8 7 3 2 are on the board, whoever has any T-J has the nut straight.1

   nut flush
1. (n)  See nut (definition 4).1

   nut hand
1. (n)  In a given situation, an unbeatable hand.1

   nut high
1. (n)  In any high-low game with community cards, the highest possible hand based on the cards showing.1

   nut low
1. (n)  In any high-low game with community cards, the lowest possible hand based on the cards showing.1

   nut nut
1. (n)  In any high-low game, having both the best possible low and high. In a community card game, this means the best possible based on the cards showing. For example, in Omaha, with 3-4-5-K-Q of mixed suits (no three cards of the same suit) on the board, the nut low would be A-2 and the nut high 6-7, so a player having A-2-6-7 would have nut-nut. With A-2-3-3-K on the board, a player holding nut-nut would have 3-3-4-5, four treys for high and a wheel for low. The term is also sometimes more loosely used for hands that are nut low, near-nut (but obviously unbeaten) high.1

   nut player
1. (n)  nuts player.1

   nut straight
1. (n)  See nut (definition 4).1

   nuts
1. (n adj)  The best possible hand given the board. If the board is Ks-Jd-Ts-4s-2h, then As-Xs is the nuts. You will occasionally hear the term applied to the best possible hand of a certain category, even though it isn't the overall nuts. For the above example, somebody with Ah-Qc might say they had the "nut straight." 2

2. (n)  The nuts is the best possible hand. This makes most sense in flop games like hold'em, where the community cards make the nuts pretty much the same for everyone. An exception is when your hole cards make a better hand impossible. If the board is AAK52, the nuts would be AA to an observer, but a player with AK would effectively hold the nuts (assuming the 2 and 5 didn't share a suit with one of the A's). In hold'em, the nuts is never less than trips. "Nut xxx" is used to refer to the best hand of a particular type, especially a straight or flush. If the table described above had the AK2 of spades, the nut flush would be the queen and any other spade. 3

3. (n)  Very good hand; usually preceded by the. "Every time I get a good hand, they show me the nuts." Also, the berries, a duke, the Holy City, the Brazilians, the Brass Brazilians, the Royal Brazilians, the como se llamos, the watchamacallits, los cojones, the golyoonies, the World's Fair, and others.1

4. (n)  The best possible hand at a given point in a pot. For example, in hold 'em, if the board is K J 9 4, then A with any other club is the nuts. (A river card that pairs one of the board cards could change the nuts.) Compare with second nuts and third nuts.1

   nuts player
1. (n)  Someone who plays only the nuts, that is, a conservative player who rarely makes large bets (in a no-limit game) or rarely initiates the betting or raising (in a limit game), and then usually only with a strong hand.1

   nutted up
1. (n)  rocked up, that is, describing a very tight game, one full of nuts players (see nuts player).1

2. (n)  Having made the nuts. "Just my luck: trying to bluff a rock when he's nutted up."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
World Series of Poker Academy