W

(n, initialism) BARGE expression that means “what a bunch of r00lerz” (see r00ler).

(n) 1. Any bet. — (v) 2. Make a bet.

(n) What many professionals consider the minimum they should make per day, perhaps $500, or some multiple thereof. “How’d you do today?” “I made wages.” That might mean the replier won $500.

(v) Check (definition 1).

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

(n phrase) In an online cardroom, an indication by means of an advance action button that a player wants to be dealt in as soon as the big blind gets to him.

(v phrase) Wait for the blind.

(v phrase) 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 big 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.

(n phrase) Board (definition 4).

(adv phrase) See weeds.

(adv phrase) See weeds.

(n phrase) Board (definition 4).

(n phrase) Board (definition 4).

(v phrase) Suddenly or unexpectedly discover at an opportune or propitious moment that one is in possession of a good (usually very good) hand; always followed by the designation of a hand. “The betting was capped by the time it got to me and I woke up with aces.”

(v phrase) Wake up with an extremely powerful hand.

(n) 1. An unopened pot won by the big blind (or the largest blind, if there is more than two). Sometimes known as ground skinner in the southern US. 2. An uncalled pot won by the opener. Also see lemon juice. — (v) 3. Be away from the table long enough to miss several hands. Sometimes cardrooms try to prevent excessive walking with a third person walking rule.

(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).

(n phrase) Lobbying chips.

(n phrase) In hold’em, starting cards of A-K. Originated long ago in Texas — part of the Southwest Circuit where players like Doyle Brunson, Sailor Roberts, and Amarillo Slim got their start before hold’em moved to Vegas — where players would go broke by committing too much on the hand.

(n phrase) In hold’em, starting cards of 7-7. The numbers sort of resemble walking sticks.

(v phrase) Cheat, particularly at cards or dice.

(n) Walk.

(n) Roodles.

(n) Roodles. Sometimes spelled whangdoodles.

(n, initialism) BARGE expression that means “what a r00ler” (see r00ler).

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

(v phrase) Clean plastic cards, which are designed to be reusable, with special solvent.

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

(v phrase) 1. Wash. 2. Wash cards.

(n) The nuts; usually preceded by the. In Spanish this is the como se llamos.

(v) 1. Put waving into cards. — (n) 2. A slight bend in a card, for cheating purposes. Compare with crimp.

(n phrase) See waving.

(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 and crimping often involves bending corners. (See crimp.)

(n) Direction.

(n phrase) In hold’em, starting cards of 9-9. Comes from the hockey player’s jersey number.

(n) Chat term for “welcome back.”

(n, initialism) World Championship of Online Poker.

(n) World-class player.

(adj) 1. Pertaining to a poor hand, one that will likely lose a given pot. 2. Pertaining to a player without good cards. 3. Pertaining to a player who loses because of timid play, that is, is reluctant to raise and quick to fold.

(n phrase) In, usually, hold’em, an ace with a low kicker. Also called ace-rag.

(n phrase) 1. A wager that represents or appears to represent a marginal or weak hand. 2. In a big bet game, a comparatively small bet.

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

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

(n phrase) One who plays timidly or nonaggressively, and probably loses for that reason. Also weak spot.

(n phrase) Weak player, particularly the weakest player in a particular game. “The sharks love Mike. He’s the weak spot in any game.”

(adj) Describing someone who plays tight and unaggressively.

(n phrase) One whose play is weak-tight (and would probably prefer a game in which whoever raises preflop wins the blinds).

(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.

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

(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.

(n) In hold’em, T-3 as starting cards.

(expression) 1. Said to a recently seated player who has just suffered a bad beat at the hands of a weak player in a game in which frequent such bad beats have become the norm. 2. Said to a recently seated player who has just won a monster pot.

(expression) Agreement to a proposition or that one is participating in proposition bets, or indication that a player is initiating or calling a bet based on certain conditions.

(expression) Cut the deck. After shuffling, a player who considers himself clever may hand the cards to the cutter and say, “Whack the pack, Jack.”

(n) Casino name for a gambler who plays for very high stakes. Such a player might also participate in the highest-stakes poker games, but is generally more of interest to a casino if the player spends at least some time in the pits (see pit).

(n) Wangdoodles.

(n) Another spelling for wangdoodles.

(n) 1. 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. 2. 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.

(n phrase) In lowball, any ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Also called spoke. The term sometimes is also heard in high games.

(v phrase) What a player’s relative hand strength is. See see where a player is at.

(expression) “Whose turn is it to act?” See “Who’s it on?“

(v) Completely miss the hand one was drawing to, often implying a draw to a hand with many outs. The term comes from baseball, where it means to strike out, usually spectacularly. Also, brick.

(adv) Whipsawed.

(v) 1. 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 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. — (n) 2. The action so described.

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

(n phrase) 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 (new) 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.

(n phrase) Whiskey poker.

(n) A white chip.

(n phrase) 1. A $1 chip, in many cardrooms and casinos. (In some cardrooms, the white chips are worth $100. Compare with black chip.) 2. Sometimes any small-denomination chip.

(n phrase) 1. A small-stakes game. 2. In cardrooms where white chips are worth $100, a high-stakes game. Compare with black chip game.

(v phrase) See fade the white line.

(n phrase) Profit. “Yeah, I’ve got $1,000 here, but only $100 is white meat.”

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

(n) A 10 or less, that is, any card not a face card. So called because these cards have no color and show more white than face cards.

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

(n phrase) Scarne cut.

(expression) A question asked in a game by someone who doesn’t know whose turn it is to act, or by someone who does and is trying to galvanize into action the person on whom the action is hung. An oft-heard response to the question is “It’s always up to the person who says ‘Who’s it on?’”

(adv phrase) On tilt. “He just had a set beat by runner-runner and now he’s wide open.”

(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.

(n phrase) Cards that constitute a widow.

(n phrase) A game with a widow.

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

(adj) 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.

(n phrase) Double-barreled shotgun.

(n) James Butler Hickok, a noted gunfighter, scout, and gambler of the American Old West, after whom the dead man’s hand was named.

(n phrase) A card that is wild. Sometimes called a freak.

(n phrase) Any game with wild cards.

(n phrase) Poker played with wild cards.

(n phrase) Cards that are wild.

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

(n phrase) A house-banked game dealt from one deck, in which players do not compete against the dealer. The game is related to hold’em in the way hands are formed, but is not really a poker game. It has some similarity to Let It Ride Bonus, except that players must keep putting in new bets to continue play and deuces (2s) are wild. Each player has three betting areas marked ante, bet, and raise. Each player initially makes an ante bet. Each player receives three cards face down. Players then look at their cards. Each player decides in turn to continue betting or fold and lose the ante. To continue, a player places a wager equal to the ante bet in the bet area. All players who bet receive a fourth card. After examining the four-card hand, each player still in must decide in turn to raise or fold. If a player folds, he forfeits both the ante and bet. If a player raises, he must place an amount equal to double the ante in the raise area. All players still in the game receive a fifth and final card, and then winning hands are paid as follows: natural royal flush, 1,000:1; four 2s, 200:1; wild royal flush, 30:1; five of a kind, 20:1; straight flush, 10:1; four of a kind, 4:1; full house, 4:1; flush, 4:1; straight, 3:1; three of a kind, 1:1; two pair, 1:1; pair of aces, 1:4.

(v phrase) 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.

(v) 1. Come out ahead, whether in one hand, in a session, in a tournament, or over some given period of time. 2. Specifically, come in first in a tournament. — (n) 3. Winning session. “I finally booked a win.” 4. The winning of one hand.

(n) 1. Window card. 2. The window position in a hand. “I can see what he’s got in the window.” Also door. 3. 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?”

(n phrase) 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.

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

(v) Have a winning streak.

(adj) 1. 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 single-limit game) or $8 minimum bet (in a no-limit game). (With limping permitted, substitute winner four and $4 for $8.) Usually each winner in a winner game blinds for the same amount. — (n) 2. The player who ends up with a pot at the end of the play of one hand. 3. What you can become with diligent study and application of the principles taught in much of the excellent literature of poker, that is, someone who makes money playing poker. — (adv) 4. Ahead (definition 1) for a session, that is, winning. “How ya doin’?” “I’m winner.”

(n phrase) 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.

(n phrase) Winner blind.

(n phrase) See leave it.

(n phrase) Freeze-out tournament (definition 2). Sometimes shortened to WTA.

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

(n phrase) A player who, in the long run, shows a profit. This is usually attributable to skill.

(n phrase) A session (definition 1) in which one wins.

(n phrase) The situation of being 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 or money. Also, good run, good streak, hot streak, rush.

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

(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.

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

(n phrase) Juice joint.

(v phrase) See lights. Also, go light.

(n phrase) 1. Epithet for poker writer and theorist David Sklansky. 2. Epithet for online mathematician Michael Shackleford, who offers at his site, http://wizardofodds.com/, strategies on how best to play many casino games and analyses of the house edge.

(n) Kibitzer.

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

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

(n) See weeds.

(n phrase) The nuts; usually preceded by a. Also spelled woolly.

(n phrase) The nuts; usually preceded by a. Also spelled wooly.

(n) 1. In hold’em, a 10 and 5 as starting cards. 2. In lowball, a 10-5 hand. 3. In high, two pair, 10s and 5s. 4. Any game in which 10s and 5s are wild. 5. 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 1 and 2 only, sometimes also called dimestores. Comes from the F. W. Woolworth retail chain, individual stores of which were often called five-and-10-cent stores or five-and-dime stores (and often shortened to dimestores).

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

(n) 1. Tool. 2. Cards altered for cheating purposes; marked cards. From this comes the saying “There is work down.” 3. Any method of marking or altering cards.

(adj) Describing cards that work together.

(n phrase) In hold’em, a 9 and a 5 as starting cards. From the hours one works. Also, hard working man.

(v phrase) 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.

(v phrase) Cheat at cards, particularly three-card monte.

(v phrase) In a flop game or seven-card stud, describing cards that coordinate well to make straight and flush possibilities, or good high-low combinations. Also, working.

(n phrase) World Champion of Poker.

(n phrase) Reigning winner of the main event (now known as the World Championship No-Limit Hold’em event) of the World Series of Poker. Sometimes shortened to World Champion.

(n phrase) In 2007, for the first time, those who run the World Series of Poker decided to call certain tournaments “World Championship” events. The main event champion is no longer called that. In fact, the title “main event” is no longer to be found anywhere on the WSOP schedule. Event 55, the last big-buy-in tournament scheduled, was called the World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em event; the same name was used for event 54 in 2008 and shortened in 2009 to World Championship No-Limit Hold’em. The event now plays down to the final nine in July; the final table reassembles in November for the conclusion.

(n phrase) An online tournament series, consisting of many events, staged by the online cardroom PokerStars.com. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WCOOP.

(n phrase) Unofficial name for the World Championship No-Limit Hold’em event of the World Series of Poker.

(n phrase) A poker player who regularly plays on the highest level, often in international tournaments, and with consistent excellent results. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WCP.

(n phrase) An organization dedicated to establishing a worldwide professional poker players’ tournament schedule much like that of the Professional Golfers Association, that is, with sponsored prize pools and an international ranking system. Often rendered as the initialism WPA.

(n phrase) A series of tournaments on the tournament trail, held throughout the year at various casinos and cardrooms, the winners of which advance to a $25,000 buy-in final event, into which anyone can also buy and for which many satellites and supersatellites are available, and which crowns a world champion. The individual events are shown later on television. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WPT.

(n phrase) A yearly online tournament played among members of the rec.gambling.poker community. This is the world’s longest-running and oldest email tournament, and is found at wrgpt.org. And since bets are made by email, the tournament can take months to complete. Many now household names in professional poker got their start here, among them Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WRGPT.

(n phrase) The premier tournament on the tournament trail, originally held in late spring at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, moved in 2005 to the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino (the tournament and the brand now owned by Harrah’s Entertainment), where it runs now for more than a month in mid summer, consisting of more than 50 events with buy-ins starting at $500 to as high as $50,000 for the H.O.R.S.E. event and $10,000 for the main event, no-limit hold’em, and prize pools ranging from around a few million dollars to over $80 million (in the main event — see world championship event — in 2006, with its record number of 8,772 participants, the largest ever for a live tournament; the numbers have been lower since), attended by the best poker players in the world, celebrities, and many would-be stars, all of whom strive to earn the coveted custom gold bracelet that goes with winning an event. The 2008 total prize pool of $228 million for all events easily qualified the World Series of Poker as the richest sporting event in history. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WSOP.

(n phrase) One of the events of BARGE. See Roshambo. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WRC.

(n phrase) A series of $10,000-buy-in poker tournaments at several Harrah’s properties, each taped and aired on ESPN. Players earn points based on their performance in the WSOP circuit tournaments and the World Series of Poker. The top 100 point-earners receive a free invitation to that year’s World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions (an event with a sponsored prize pool in the millions of dollars), which is played shortly after the World Series of Poker world championship (the World Championship No-Limit Hold’em).

(n phrase) An expansion by Harrah’s into Europe of the World Series of Poker franchise. The first WSOPE was held in 2007 in London.

(n phrase) 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.”

(n phrase) The worst holding you might put another player on.

(n phrase) 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.

(n phrase) The perceived proper play, in an expression such as “It wouldn’t be good poker to fold here.”

(n) A chat term meaning “well played.”

(n) Shorthand, particularly in e-mail and Internet postings, for weak-passive.

(n, initialism) World Poker Association.

(n, initialism) World Poker Tour.

(n) In Omaha, an open-ended straight draw consisting of two board cards and three or four cards from a player’s hand. For examples, see full wrap, inside wrap, or wraparound.

(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.

(n, initialism) World Roshambo Championship.

(n, initialism) World rec.gambling Poker Tournament.

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

(n, initialism) World Series of Poker.

(n, initialism) World Series of Poker Europe.

(n phrase) World Series of Poker Circuit.

(n, initialism) World Series of Poker.

(n, initialism) Winner-take-all tournament.

(n) A chat term meaning “What just happened?” (Literally, “What the fuck?”)

(n) See Mighty Wurlitzer.

(n) Chat term for “Would you like cheese with that whine?” Response to someone who has been complaining entirely too much about a bad beat — often when what happened wasn’t much of a beat, anyway.