Increase the stake. Also commonly used outside the context of poker.
U
| walk | A walk is the situation where all players fold to the big blind. | U |
| pat | Already complete. A hand is a pat hand when, for example, a flush comes on the first five cards dealt in Draw poker. Also see made hand. | U |
| rail | The rail is the sideline at a poker table - the (often imaginary) rail separating spectators from the field of play. Watching from the rail means watching a poker game as a spectator. People on the rail are sometimes called railbirds. "Going to the rail" usually means "Losing all one's money". | U |
| center pot | The main pot in a table stakes game where one or more players are all in. | U |
| up the ante | Increase the stake. Also commonly used outside the context of poker. | U |
| air | In a lowball game, "giving air" is letting an opponent who might otherwise fold know that you intend to draw one or more cards to induce him to call. | U |
| stack | The definition of the amount one buys in for and can bet. For example, a "low stakes" game might be a $10 buy-in with a $1 maximum raise. | U |
| drawing dead | Playing a drawing hand that will lose even if successful (a state of affairs usually only discovered after the fact or in a tournament when two or more players are "all in" and they show their cards). I caught the jack to make my straight, but Rob had a full house all along, so I was drawing dead. | U |
| cutoff | The seat immediately to the right of the dealer button. In home games where the player on the button actually shuffles and deals the cards, the player in the cutoff seat cuts the deck (hence the name). | U |
| Staring Down Other Players | If an opponent is staring you down, he’s trying to represent strength. Usually though, he has a weak hand – he might have something, but it’s something that can be beaten or drawn out on. | W |