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 W

   wager
1. (n)  Any bet.1

2. (v)  Make a bet.1

   wages
1. (n)  What many professionals consider the minimum they should make per day, perhaps $100, or some multiple thereof. "How'd you do today?" "I made wages." That might mean the replier won $100.1

   wait
1. (v)  check 1

   wait for the blind
1. (v)  Some clubs do not let a new player (new to the particular game) be dealt in until it is his turn to put in the blind, supposedly to prevent his getting any "free" hands. (Also, if a seated player has missed the blind in a particular round, he can receive his next hand only in the blind position.) In such a case, a player must come in on the blind, or, if not in the big blind position, overblind or post to receive a hand; otherwise, he must wait for the blind.1

   waiter
1. (n)  One who checks. (See check, 1

   waiting in the weeds
1. (adv)  See weeds.1

   waiting in the woods
1. (adv)  See weeds.1

   walk
1. (adj)  To walk in poker is to be away from the table long enough to miss one or more hands. Such people, and/or people who do so frequently, are called walkers. Depending on local conditions, walkers may be off getting food, smoking, playing craps, or waiting for more fish to sit down. Or something else, who knows what these mysterious people do? Most cardrooms have well-defined but poorly enforced rules about walkers - i.e., that a player's chips may be picked up (by the house, that is) after they've been gone for some specific amount of time. Too many walkers at a table can cause it to break, often through an unfortunate chain reaction. Once one or two players get up from the table, it makes it more likely for others to walk, or just leave. 3

2. (n)  An unopened pot won by the blind (the largest blind, if there is more than one). 1

3. (n)  An uncalled pot won by the opener. Also see lemon juice.1

4. (v)  Be away from the table long enough to miss several hands. Sometimes cardrooms try to prevent excessive walking with a third person walking rule.1

   walk over
1. (v)  Cheat, particularly at cards or dice.1

   walker
1. (n)  One who leaves a poker table for extended periods of time, or, sometimes, just someone away from a table (for example, to have a smoke break or eat a meal).1

   walking chips
1. (n)  lobbying chips.1

   wangdoodle
1. (n)  roodles.1

   wangdoodles
1. (n)  roodles. Sometimes spelled whangdoodles.1

   wash
1. (v)  scramble.1

2. (v)  Less commonly, the term just means shuffle.1

   wash cards
1. (n)  Clean plastic cards, which are designed to be reusable, with special solvent.1

   Washington Monument
1. (n)  Three 5s; so called because the Washington Monument is 555 feet high.1

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

   wave
1. (v)  Put waving into cards. 1

2. (n)  A slight bend in a card, for cheating purposes. Compare with crimp.1

   waved cards
1. (n)  See waving.1

   waving
1. (n)  A method of marking cards in which the thief bends key cards around his finger such that the resultant waved cards can be identified in another player's hand or in the deck (when being dealt or for the purpose of cutting to a particular point in the deck). Bending cards is also called crimping, although that usually puts a more pronounced bend into cards than waving. Crimping often involves bending corners. (See crimp.)1

   weak
1. (adj)  A style of play characterized by a readiness to fold and a reluctance to raise. Weak is also used to generally describe a poor player or a table that's easy to beat. 3

2. (adj)  Pertaining to a poor hand, one that will likely lose a given pot.1

3. (adj)  Pertaining to a player without good cards. 1

4. (adj)  Pertaining to a player who loses because of timid play, that is, is reluctant to raise and quick to fold.1

   weak hand
1. (n)  A hand with low probability of winning a given pot.1

   weak passive
1. (adj)  Describing a player who calls a lot and rarely raises, or the play of such a player.1

   weak player
1. (n)  One who plays timidly or nonaggressively, and probably loses for that reason.1

   wedges
1. (n)  A deck marked by shaving the long edges of some cards such that they are wider towards their ends, so that a thief can tell by feel the values of certain cards, usually certain high or low cards, such as the aces, or pull those cards by feel from the deck. See strippers.1

   weed
1. (v)  Reclaim money from a shill who is winning. Compare with split out.1

   weeds
1. (n)  The place where sneaky poker players lie in wait, usually accompanied by powerhouse hands they have sandbagged, or otherwise slow-played (see slow-play), to trap unwary aggressive players; often part of the phrase waiting in the weeds or lying in the weeds. For example, in a high draw game, you raised before the draw with three aces. Among the several callers, the first man took three cards and passed after the draw. Everyone else passed. You did not improve your hand, but three aces is worth a bet after the draw, so you bet. The three-card draw now raises. The others fold. You call. He shows his full house. He was waiting in the weeds. Also, bushes, as part of the terms in the bushes and lying in the bushes, and woods, as part of the terms in the woods and waiting in the woods.1

   Weinberg
1. (n)  In hold 'em, T-3 as one's first two cards.1

   whack the pack
1. (n)  cut the deck. After shuffling, a player who considers himself clever may hand the cards to the cutter and say, "Whack the pack, Jack."1

   whangdoodle
1. (n)  Another spelling for wangdoodles.1

   whangdoodles
1. (n)  wangdoodles.1

   wheel
1. (n)  A straight from ace through five. 2

2. (n)  see bicycle wheel3

3. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, the best hand possible, that is, A-2-3-4-5 of various suits. So called, because Bicycle playing cards have one depicted in their design. Often also called a bicycle.1

4. (n)  In deuce-to-seven lowball, the best hand possible, that is, 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits. Unlike ace-to-five, the cards cannot all be of the same suit. 3. The best hand in any lowball game, depending on the rules. In some games, straights count against a hand, but the ace is low, making the best hand 6-4-3-2-A of mixed suits. 4. In high games, a 5-high straight.1

   wheel card
1. (n)  In ace-to-five lowball, any ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Also called spoke.1

   whiplashed
1. (adv)  whipsawed.1

   whipsaw
1. (v)  Perform the action of two players who keep raising and reraising each other, while one player between them keeps having to call further bets to remain in the pot. This can happen in a high-low game in which one player has an excellent high, another thinks he has a lock on low, and a third is trying to make a hand that he thinks will beat one or both of them. While a whipsaw situation may be quite honest, it sometimes also involves collusion between the raisers for the purpose of extracting the maximum from the sandwiched player. To prevent this sort of situation, most cardrooms limit the number of raises in any one round in limit games. Comes from the action of two men wielding a whipsaw (a large, two-handled crosscut saw) to cut down a tree. Also called crossfire, sandwich, squeeze.1

   whipsawed
1. (adv)  Pertaining to the situation described under whipsaw. A person in this situation is sometimes called a middle man.1

   whiskey poker
1. (n)  A widow game, usually played only in home games by players while waiting for a "real" poker session to start. Each player receives five cards face down and five cards (the widow) are dealt face down in the center of the table. The player to the left of the dealer has three choices: knock, pass, or exchange his cards for the widow. If he passes, the next player has the same three choices. When any player exchanges his cards for the widow, the next player can discard anywhere from one to five of his cards, select cards (without looking at them) from the widow as replacements, and put his replacements in the widow. Once someone has taken the widow, players may no longer pass: they must either knock or exchange one or more cards with cards from the widow. If no one exchanges on the first round, the dealer turns the widow face up, and play continues as before, with cards this time drawn from the face-up cards of the widow. If a player feels that he has the best poker hand at any point when it is his turn, he can knock. At such point, play continues for one more round until just before the player who knocked, at which point there is a showdown. 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. Sometimes the lowest hand at the showdown then buys everyone drinks (whence the name of the game). Obviously (or not so obviously), the further the game progresses without someone knocking, the better the hand needed to knock. Several variations exist to this game; the preceding description is the most common. Compare with knock poker.1

   white
1. (n)  White is the most common color for $1 chips. See also red, black, and green. 3

2. (n)  A white chip.1

   white chip
1. (n)  A $1 chip, in many cardrooms and casinos. (In some cardrooms, the white chips are worth $100.)1

2. (n)  Sometimes any small-denomination chip.1

   white meat
1. (n)  Profit. "Yeah, I've got $1000 here, but only $100 is white meat."1

   white on white
1. (n)  A form of daub, or cosmetics, that uses white paint, and can be seen only at a certain angle.1

   whiteskin
1. (n)  A 10 or less, that is, any card not a face card.1

   whore
1. (n)  Queen (the card). This usage is considered vulgar.1

   whorehouse cut
1. (n)  Scarne cut.1

   wide open
1. (adv)  on tilt. "He just had a pat 7 beat and now he's wide open."1

   widow
1. (n)  One or more community cards dealt to the center of the table in stud poker played in home games only and available to be part of any player's hand, sometimes with one or more of those cards being wild. Such games include Cincinnati, Southern Cross, wild widow, and many others.1

   widow cards
1. (n)  Cards that constitute a widow.1

   widow game
1. (n)   A stud game with a widow.1

   widow poker
1. (n)  A cross between draw poker and stud poker with one or more community cards.1

   wild
1. (adv)  Pertaining to a card that can take the value of any other card, as deuces wild or low hole card wild. A wild card turns a pair into three-of-a-kind, two pair into a full house, four to a straight into a straight, and so on. Also see bug, joker.1

   Wild Annie
1. (n)  double-barreled shotgun.1

   wild card
1. (n)  A card that can serve as any other card in making your hand. For example, if tens are wild, and you have four aces and a ten, then your hand is five aces. Obviously wild cards make for some odd games. See also bug and serious poker.3

2. (n)  See wild. Sometimes called a freak.1

   wild game
1. (n)  Any game with wild cards. 1

2. (n)  A game in which players "gamble it up," that is, bet aggressively and wildly, paying little regard to their actual cards.1

   wild widow
1. (n)   A form of spit in the ocean, in which one card is dealt face-up in the center, which rank is then wild in anyone's hand, but which card is not part of anyone's hand. Also called pig in the poke, toad in the hole.1

   window
1. (n)  window card1

2. (n)  The window position in a hand. "I can see what he's got in the window." Also door.1

3. (n)  A, usually, glass-enclosed opening into the cage through which the cageperson conducts transactions, and thus, by extension, the cage itself. "Did you make it to the window?" means "Did you escape from that game with any chips?"1

   window card
1. (n)  The front card of the five in a draw poker hand, when the cards are squared together such that only one can be seen. Also door card.1

   window dressing
1. (n)  Putting a card in the window for deceptive purposes. For example, some players use the joker in lowball as window dressing to scare other players from betting (but it sometimes has the opposite effect).1

   wing
1. (n)  Have a winning streak.1

   winner
1. (adj)  Pertaining to winner blind, and almost always followed by a number designating the size of the blind. This variation of blinding is most frequently found in draw games, but is also seen in no-limit hold 'em. Winner eight, for example, means the winner of this pot must leave $4 for the next pot, making the next hand $8-limit (in a limit game) or $8 minimum bet (in a no-limit game). Usually each winner in a winner game blinds for the same amount. 1

2. (n)  The player that ends up with a pot at the end of the play of one hand.1

3. (n)  What you can become with diligent study of Card Player and the books, software, and videos recommended therein.1

4. (adv)  ahead (definition 1) for a session, that is, winning. "How ya doin'?" "I'm winner."1

   winner blind
1. (n)  A blind game in which the winner of the current pot leaves chips representing a blind in the next pot; these chips are the same as any blind, that is, they are counted as part of the bet of the player who has that blind. In draw games, the winner of the previous pot bets last in the predraw betting round. This sort of blind is a dead blind, as opposed to a live blind (definition 1), because whoever wins it doesn't get to keep it. Also, leave it.1

   winner kill
1. (n)  winner blind.1

   winner leave it
1. (n)  See leave it.1

   winning hand
1. (n)  The best hand at the showdown; the hand that takes the pot.1

   winning streak
1. (n)  In the midst of winning a series of hands, or a period of time during which a player wins more than her share of hands. Also, hot streak, rush.1

   winning tickets
1. (n)  Cards that win a pot. See winning hand.1

   wire joint
1. (n)  juice joint.1

   wired
1. (n)  A pair in the hole in seven card stud is a wired pair. "Wired" can also describe someone who's had a few gallons of coffee trying to stay alert through an all-night poker game. 3

2. (adj)  Pertaining to a pair in a stud game, dealt with one down and one face up, or, sometimes, just as a player's first two downcards; sometimes, more rarely, three or four of a kind as one's first cards in a stud game. "I had wired aces all the way against a guy who didn't even have a pair, and he made an inside seven-high straight on the river." Sometimes also called back to back.1

   wired pair
1. (n)  A pair in a stud game, dealt with one down and one face up, or, sometimes, just as a player's first two downcards.1

   wood
1. (n)  kibitzer.1

   wooden bottoms
1. (n)  Cards dealt from the bottom of the deck in amateurish, easy-to-detect fashion. See bottoms.1

   wooden hand
1. (n)  A hand that cannot improve or that cannot possibly win. Comes from deadwood, a term for the discards.1

   woods
1. (n)  See weeds.1

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

   Woolworth
1. (n)   In lowball, a 10-5 hand. 1

2. (n)  In high, two pair, 10s and 5s.1

3. (n)  In hold 'em, a 10 and 5 as one's first two cards.1

4. (n)  Any game in which 10s and 5s are wild. 1

5. (n)  A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 5 to 10 with no pair, which ranks above three of a kind and below a straight. For all definitions 1 to 4, also called dimestore; for definitions 2 and 3 only, sometimes also called dimestores. Comes from the F. W. Woolworth retail chain, individual stores of which were often called five-and-ten-cent stores or five-and-dime stores (and often shortened to dimestores).1

   woppitzer
1. (n)  Someone with body odor or bad breath who hangs around card games (on the outside), often offering gratuitous advice and unwanted opinions, commenting on the play, and generally being obnoxious and the worst kind of kibitzer.1

   work
1. (n)  tool.1

2. (n)  Cards altered for cheating purposes; marked cards. From this comes the saying There is work down. 1

3. (n)  Any method of marking or altering cards.1

   work the broads
1. (v)  Cheat at cards, particularly three-card monte.1

   working the telegraph
1. (n)  Cheating by sending prearranged signals, say by finger positions similar to the "signing" used by the hearing impaired, or by certain code words and phrases embedded within seemingly ordinary conversation, of a victim's hand to the signaler's confederate. See telegraph.1

   World Poker Tour
1. (n)  A series of tournaments on the tournament trail, held throughout the year at various casinos and cardrooms and online, the winners of which advance to a $25,000 invitation-only buy-in final event that crowns a world champion. The individual events are shown later on television. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WPT.1

   World Series of Poker
1. (n)  The premier tournament on the tournament trail, held in late spring at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, consisting of more than 15 events with buy-ins ranging from $1500, to $10,000 for the main event, no-limit hold 'em, and prizes ranging from around $80,000 to a guaranteed $2 million, attended by the best poker players in the world, all of whom strive to earn the coveted custom gold bracelet that goes with winning an event. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WSOP.1

   World's Fair
1. (n)  The nuts; usually preceded by the. "Watch out for this guy. If he's in a pot with you, he'll show you the World's Fair and the Holy City."1

   worst likely hand
1. (n)  The worst holding you might put another player on.1

   worst of it
1. (n)  Fighting the odds; usually preceded by take the or have the; a situation in which a wager has an unfavorable return. Opposite of best of it.1

   WPT
1. (n)  World Poker Tour.1

   wraparound
1. (n)  In Omaha, a situation in which your four downcards consist of three consecutive cards, which combine with two cards of the flop to form five consecutive cards, so that a large number of cards on the turn or river give you a straight. For example, your downcards are 6-5-4-A, and the flop is 7-8-K. You can make a straight with any of 13 cards, any 6, 5, or 4, three each of which remain, or any 9, of which four remain. Compare with full wrap and inside wrap.1

   wring in
1. (v)  A variant spelling of ring in; usually followed by a deck.1

   WSOP
1. (n)  World Poker Tour.1

   WSP
1. (n)  World Poker Tour.1

   Wurlitzer
1. (n)  See Mighty Wurlitzer. 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