Texas Holdem River Meaning

1. Each card dealt face up has a unique name to identify the order. In community card poker game like Omaha hold 'em and Texas hold 'em, those names are flop, turn and river. The river card, or just river, is the last card dealt. In most community poker games, the dealer starts each hand by dealing every player two hole (facedown) cards.
2. In community card poker game like Omaha hold 'em and Texas hold 'em, those names are flop, turn and river. The river card, or just river, is the last card dealt. In most community poker games, the dealer starts each hand by dealing every player two hole (facedown) cards.

“I had to call… I was pot committed!”

Playing the turn and the river after the flop requires different skills. Read the guide on poker river and learn how to make the most of the turn and the river You are currently on partypoker.com. Visit our New Jersey website here to register and play for real money. Another common name for Bluff-Catching on the river is the 'Hero Call' - It's where we have a marginal hand which could only beat bluffs, and we make the call in the belief that our opponent is indeed bluffing. In this article we look at very situations and scenarios, and try to make sense of times when we should consider bluff-catching, other than trying to be the start at our home games!

One of the more commonly uttered justifications for suspect decisions in poker is for players to claim they were “pot committed” in a hand when in they really weren’t. It’s a concept many think they understand, but sometimes they misapply it or are mistaken. But it’s one well worth learning, particularly when playing “big bet” games like no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha in which bets on successive streets can quickly transform a small skirmish into major melee.

The Point of No Return

Generally speaking, being pot committed means having arrived at a point in a poker hand at which folding to any bet or raise has become an incorrect play. Such a situation is determined by pot odds and how those odds compare to your chances of winning a hand.

It isn’t exactly the same, but being pot committed is sometimes likened to reaching a kind of “point of no return” such as might arise other contexts. Take the situation of opposing factions building toward conflict who make declarations suggesting a particular action or advancement necessarily removes peaceful alternatives. For example, when Julius Caesar led a legion southward toward Rome and crossed the Rubicon river, that action signaled an inexorable commitment to war, with the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” later coming to represent just such a commitment.

Military strategists have long discussed the “Rubicon” example and the mindset it represents, in particular the way committing to such an action necessarily reduces options going forward, including the one to avoid conflict altogether. A possible consequence of such thinking can be false rationalizations to support the decision after the fact — that is, after crossing the “Rubicon” (or some other “point of no return”) to avoid considering alternatives thereafter that might still exist but have been ruled out by the earlier-declared commitment.

In poker, players sometimes mistakenly describe themselves as having been “pot committed” as a justification for going all the way with a hand when they didn’t actually have to do so. Betting chips early in a hand sometimes makes it more difficult for some players to fold later on and concede losing those chips they’ve bet. Thus any bet or raise or call they make becomes justification for committing to battle for a pot to the very end... even if their opponent has assembled a much stronger “army” against them.

But just as in military strategy, it is generally not desirable in poker to seek situations in which you lessen your available options. Players in tournaments prefer amassing big stacks precisely because of the flexibility it gives them when playing hands, whereas those with short stacks find their options reduced. The same goes for cash games, in which those with bigger stacks can be more creative than those with less. One shouldn’t, then, actively look to become pot committed unless the situation is favorable for doing so — e.g., when holding a strong hand that rates to be better than an opponent’s, or when facing pot odds that make committing the rest of one’s stack correct.

A Math Problem in Which All Options Have Been Subtracted Away But One

To describe an extreme example, say you lose a big hand early in a full ring (nine-handed) no-limit hold’em tournament that knocks you back to just 1,000 chips at a time when the blinds are 400/800 with a 100 ante. Making matters worse, on the following hand you are in the big blind, meaning you only have 100 left after posting the ante and big blind. A player in middle position then raises and all fold around.

The action is on you. And you hold .

Here is an obvious example of being pot committed. The blinds and antes total 2,100, and after your opponent raises you have but 100 left to call, making the effective stacks between the two of you just 100. That means you are facing calling 100 to win a pot of 2,200 — that’s pot odds of 22-to-1.

Even if your opponent holds and has an 88.3% chance of beating you (according to the PokerNews Odds Calculator), that’s still just over a 7-to-1 advantage. In other words, mathematically speaking, you’re “priced in” to call no matter what two cards your opponent has. You are, as they say, pot committed.

Of course, you don’t have to call. The option to fold is still available to you, even if doing so would be foolhardy given how that would leave you even less likely to recover. But since you genuinely are pot committed, you should.

That’s a simple and relatively rare example, though. More often your decisions will be less cut-and-dry, although understanding how to calculate pot odds and thus determine whether or not committing your last chips is mathematically correct will help a great deal when making them.

Having Committed Chips ≠ Being Pot Committed

Do note, however, that being pot committed has to do with pot odds and how they compare to your chances of winning, not with how much of your stack you have already committed in pursuit of winning a pot. In the above example, you are not pot committed because you have already committed 900 chips (the big blind and ante) and have but 100 left. You are pot committed because of the pot odds being offered to you and your chances of winning the hand with .

It is a common mistake to consider committing a high percentage of chips in one’s stack already as causing one to be pot committed and thus without options when it comes to deciding what to do with the rest. Those two circumstances often coincide, but you shouldn’t believe yourself obligated to put the last of your stack in just because you have already bet a certain amount before.

Again to fashion a somewhat obvious example, let’s say I play a hand recklessly and keep calling an opponent’s bets all of the way down to the river as I crazily chase a straight draw. I start the hand with 1,000 chips holding and call an opponent’s raise to 200. The flop comes and I call another bet of 300. The turn is the , my opponent bets 400, and I call again, leaving myself just 100 chips. Then the river brings the and my opponent bets one more time, enough to put me all in.

I’ve played the hand miserably, spewing 900 chips from my starting stack of 1,000 chasing that straight. But calling the last 100 here would be even worse. I’m not pot committed because of the chips I’ve already bet. I might be pot committed if I thought my chance of winning the hand if I called were better than the approximately 20-to-1 pot odds I was facing — but with just five-high, I don’t.

Sometimes we do want to be pot committed, say in a tournament in which we are down to a short stack and finally get dealt a premium hand like or . Then we want to get all of our chips in the middle, and thus might bet in a way that increases the likelihood we’ll be getting the remainder of our stack in sooner than later.

But generally speaking, unless you know you are getting favorable pot odds given the hand you hold and it’s chances of being best, being pot committed isn’t desirable. You want to have the option to fold available to you, especially in a tournament when doing so enables you to continue.

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Sitting down to play Texas Hold’em for the first time can be a bewildering experience, what with players casually talking about spiking a double belly-buster to sink a sucker’s set. Unless you know the lingo, learning the game may be slow going, so take the time to study this comprehensive glossary of common Texas Hold’em terms before you move on to rules and strategy.

All-In – The trademark declaration of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, all-in is the phrase used by a player to signal that they are wagering all of their chips. You may also put an opponent all-in by betting enough to cover their entire stack should they commit to calling. Any hand of Hold’em can instantly become an emotional roller coaster the moment you put yourself all-in.

Ante – In tournament Hold’em, these are an escalating series of forced bets that each player must make before every hand. Typically the ante stage of a tournament begins after six blind levels have passed. Antes increase the size of pots before the cards have even been dealt and give aggressive players a reason to steal the blinds.

Blinds – Every hand of Texas Hold’em begins with two players ponying up forced bets before the cards are dealt. Known as the small and big blinds because you are effectively betting without seeing your cards, these positions on the table rotate after every hand, stimulating future betting by giving players a pot to fight over on every single deal. The small blind is always the seat directly left of the dealer button, while the big blind is the next seat to the left, meaning the players on the blinds act first throughout the hand.

Boat – Another name for a full house.

Broadway – The best straight possible, consisting of the 10-J-Q-K-A. Individually, these five cards are also known as Broadway cards.

Burn Card – Whenever the dealer is ready to reveal the next community card, he or she will first discard the top card in the deck face down on the table. By “burning” a card before the flop, turn and river, the dealer assures the rest of the table that everything is on the level, with no stacking of the deck or marked cards.

Button – Typically a circular disk with “Button” emblazoned on each side, this object is used in Texas Hold’em to denote the dealer position on the table. After every hand the dealer button is moved one seat position to the left, which moves the blinds and facilitates the forced betting fairly.

Call – Deciding to equal a bet made by another player to remain in the hand.

Check – When the action comes to a player and they elect to pass without betting any chips. You may verbally say check, or simply tap the table with your knuckles, to pass the action along without parting with any of your hard earned money.

Check-Raise – A raise which comes after you have checked to your opponent and they have bet into you. The cornerstone of every poker game is deception, and in Texas Hold’em the most basic act of trickery is the check-raise. When you check and passively invite your opponent to bet, only to respond with an immediate raise, the check-raise can chip away at their stack in short order.

Chop – A chop occurs when the action folds all the way around the table leaving only the small and big blinds, and both players elect to take their money back rather than play a paltry pot and surrender half of it to the rake.

Chopped Pot – A draw or tie during the showdown. If the remaining players turn over the same hand, such as a pair of jacks with an ace kicker, the pot is chopped up, or split into even portions and distributed.

Counterfeited – The unfortunate role reversal which can occur when the board cards nullify certain cards in your hand. A common example of a hand being counterfeited is when a player flops bottom two pair, say the 3-5 on a 3-5-10 flop, and the turn or river brings a second Ten to the board. The resulting pair of Tens shared by both players extinguishes the strength of bottom two pair, giving the lead to anybody with a pocket pair in the hole.

Door Card – Also known as the card in the window, this is the first card player’s see as the dealer is spreading the flop. Most casino dealers reveal the flop with a flourish, pausing with the door card tantalizingly exposed before rapidly flashing the rest of the flop across the table.

Double Belly-Buster – A straight draw in which you need to hit any of two unconnected cards to complete your hand. If you have 7-8 in the hole and the flop has fallen 4-6-10, you now need any 5 or Ten to make a straight, thus you hold a double belly-buster straight draw.

Flat(call) – A modern take on a classic idiom, the word flat is used by younger poker players to denote a smooth call. The term is a bit superfluous, as there is no other way to call but to flat call, but you will invariably hear players mention that they “flatted” on the flop when recounting a recent hand.

Flop – The first three community cards revealed to the table simultaneously. The flop comes after the opening betting round and allows players to convert their two hole cards into a five-card poker hand of varying strength.

Fourth and Fifth Street – The fourth and fifth community cards used by all players to form a hand, these are more commonly known as the Turn and River.

Gutshot – A straight draw in which you need to hit precisely one card to complete your hand. If you have 7-8 in the hole and the flop has fallen 4-5-K, you now need any 6 to make a straight, thus you hold a gutshot straight draw.

Hole Cards – Every hand of Texas Hold’em begins with the dealer distributing two cards face down to each player. The cards you hold “in the hole” are yours and yours alone, which means you should always protect them from prying eyes. Hole cards can form a total of 169 nonequivalent starting hands, ranging from the lowly 2♥ 7♣ offsuit to the almighty A♠A♦, or pocket aces, and knowing which of these to hold and which to fold forms the foundation of Texas Hold’em strategy.

Kicker – The tiebreaker used to determine a winner when players in a showdown hold the same pair. For example, if I have the Ace-King and you have the King-Jack, and a King is on board giving us both top pair, my Ace kicker bests your Jack kicker and the pot is shipped in my direction.

Texas Holdem River Meaning Chart

Muck – This term can be used as both a noun and a verb. Folding your hand is also known as mucking, while the pile of folded hands that accumulates during every hand is called the muck. A hand can be declared dead the moment it touches the muck, which is why most players use card protectors to keep their cards safe and sound.

On the Come – Betting in a situation where you are still drawing to make a hand. When you need the right card to come in order to complete a straight, flush or full house, and still decide to push the envelope with a bet or raise, you’re doing so on the come.

Open-Ended – A straight draw in which you have four consecutive cards and need to hit either end to complete your hand. If you have 7-8 in the hole and the flop has fallen 9-10-A, you now need any 6 or any Jack to make a straight, thus you hold an open-ended straight draw.

Paint – A descriptive term for any face card, from Jack through King, which stems from the distinctive portrait-like appearance of these cards in most decks.

Pot – Used as a verb, as in “I’ll pot it,” this word is a fixture of Pot-Limit Hold’em, a game in which the maximum allowable bet is the current size of the pot.

Preflop – Any action that occurs before the flop has been dealt. Basically, the betting and folding to take place after you receive your hole cards, but before you see the flop, is known as the preflop stage of a hand.

Nuts – The best possible cards at any given moment in a hand. Pocket Aces is the nuts preflop, while the 10♥J♥Q♥K♥A♥ Royal Flush is the ultimate nuts. The ace-high flush is the nut flush, the Broadway straight is the nut straight, and the simple ace-high is sarcastically called the nut nothing.

Rake – The house fee taken from each cash game pot or tournament buy-in by the casino staff or home game operator. Because every single hand results in a few chips being pocketed by the casino cage, grizzled poker vets know that it takes talent just to beat the rake.

Rags – A derisive epithet for any traditionally inferior starting hand consisting of unconnected, low cards.

River – The fifth and final community card to be revealed. Fortunes can be won and lost on the river, as this conclusive card completes the board and leaves players with their final hand before the showdown.

Set – Fortuitously forming three of a kind while holding a pocket pair is known in Texas Hold’em as hitting your set. A set of deuces is much stronger than a pair of aces, and anytime you spike a set it’s a cause for celebration, but the hand’s real strength comes from its propensity for turning into a powerful full house.

Showdown – When the flop, turn and river have been exposed and the final betting round has occurred, the players still holding cards confront one another to determine the pot’s winner. All hands are not always turned over at the showdown, as a losing player may elect to muck his meek holding rather than let the competition see the goods.

Suckout – Anytime the statistically inferior hand catches up to best a made hand. Players will complain like clockwork about the brutal suckouts they suffer through, and you will soon learn to dread suckout artists who seem to catch every card they need.

Suited – Whenever you hold two hole cards of the same suit, your hand is said to be suited. Suited hands like 6♣7♣ are perceived to be slightly more valuable than their unsuited counterparts, because the possibility of making a flush is improved.

Lake Meaning

Turn – The fourth community card to be revealed. The turn card comes after the flop and before the river, meaning it can be a pivotal point in any hand.