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POKER VOCABULARY

Everyone starts with little to no knowledge of poker.  You probably overhear another spectator say something like “The betting got better after the river, don’t you agree?”  Or “That player should have raised the bet instead of folding. He just didn’t have the nerve to go through with it.  Looks like a newbie to me.”  You hear talks about the flop, board, blinds, etc.  And at that time your mind is probably racing while trying to match those terms to what you’re seeing currently.  I will try not to overwhelm you and cram your mind with too many concepts to grasp all at the same time.  I will try to teach you a couple of terms most commonly employed to get the game going.  The two terms for the day are blinds and antes.

Poker Blinds Defined

One of the most common ways to get poker rolling is for the two players on the left side of the dealer place blind bets.  The first one directly on the left side of the dealer puts a small bet while the next player after him puts a big blind.  You guessed right if you think the bet was blind because you’re already placing a bet even though no cards have been dealt with yet.  If you’ve put two and two together why one is called a big blind and the other places a small blind is because of the amount of money placed as bets.  The big blind is equivalent to the smallest bet possible during the play while the small blind is roughly half or third of the big blind.  To illustrate, if the first player put out a bet of $3, the next player should bet no less than $6 to a maximum of $9.

Poker Ante Explained

If you know that AM when referring to an early time of the day as “ante meridian” then you probably have a rough idea what ante is to poker.  Now, ante is another way to start the game rolling.  All players of the game starts contributing a fixed amount to the pot before each hand, so that you guess that it’s generally a small amount.  However, unlike blinds, antes are not counted as bets but just a way to get the pot started.

Think you can differentiate blinds from antes?  Great!  Then, start checking out the game before they start and see if they used blinds or antes to get the game started.