Common Poker Terms in the English Language

Poker has been a big part of American culture since the eighteenth century. Frontiersmen exploring the Wild West, prospectors in search of gold, and even Mississippi river rats all had one thing in common: they played poker. The game was believed to have first developed in the Mississippi area, and was spread throughout the United States through the river and during the California Gold Rush. Travelers gathered in saloons, on riverboats, and under the stars to swap stories, gamble, and play poker together, and the game has spread to the entire world. In fact, it is believed that the American military is responsible for poker's presence in Asia and in other countries throughout the world. Poker has been such a ubiquitous part of the human experience, that poker jargon has found its way into the English language.

Even people who do not know how to play poker, or are aware of the terms' other meanings in relation to the game, use phrases such as "ace in the hole" and "poker face."

Colloquially, an "ace in the hole" is an expression that means a hidden asset that is supposed to ensure a person's success in a certain endeavor. In poker, an ace is often considered to be a card with a very high ranking. In a poker game where the higher hand wins, an ace can be a great asset in assuring victory. In a game of stud poker -a family of poker variants where some of the cards being dealt are placed face-down and some are dealt face-up- a hole card is a card that has been dealt face-down. If a person has an ace in the hole, it means that even though their other cards are visible, they still have a secret asset that can prove useful to winning the pot.

When a person has a "poker face," it means that someone has no facial expression or shows no emotion whatsoever. In poker, players are dealt a particular hand, and each player has to make a bet that matches or exceeds the previous bet that had been made on their turn. If a player believes that the hand that they have been dealt cannot stand up against their opponents' hands, they have the option of folding, which means that they no longer contend for the pot and that they no longer have to make any further bets. If all the players, except one, should fold, this one player wins the entire pot. Because of this, it is possible for a poker player to win a game by bluffing. Bluffing is when a player may not have a very good hand, but they continue to make bets and pretend that they have a good hand, expecting all of the other players to eventually fold. This involves being able to "read" fellow players and ascertain how confident they feel in their own hands. The less emotion or the more difficult it is for a person to be read, the easier it is for them to bluff their way to victory.