Poker has its very own language, and the world of poker has many strange terms which can be confusing for new comers to the game.
When you are playing or have played poker, you will or might have come across terms that are unfamiliar to you.
That’s why here, we will answer some of the most commonly asked questions by new comers to the game.
Such as..
What Is Hero Folding In Poker?
In poker, a hero fold is where a player folds a very strong hand which would normally see a straightforward call due its strength. This is done when a player has a strong feeling, or is convinced, that they are beaten based on their opponent’s tells that they have displayed during the game.
Think back to, if you have seen it, Teddy KGB’s tell of eating Oreos whenever he has a strong hand in the poker movie Rounders which forces protagonist Mike to make a hero fold at the film’s climax. One live example being when a player flops a set in a game of Texas Hold’em with 100bb stacks.
Generally speaking, it’s pretty rare that a set should ever be folding at this stack depth but if a player is convinced that his opponent had a higher set then he can choose to make a hero fold when facing a lot of action. The other players at the table will likely be very surprised should they become aware that such a strong hand had been mucked.
A hero fold is not the same thing as a hero call which is where we make a call with a hand that we should usually be folding because of how weak it is. Basically, we make hero folds when we believe that our opponent has a very strong hand, and we make hero calls when we think our opponent is bluffing.
Hero folding can generally be fairly risky as it involves folding hands which should normally be played, however, hero folding in the right spots requires a very good understanding of our opponent and their tendencies. If we do it at the wrong moments then we run the risk of damaging our win rate, so it’s generally considered best to avoid hero folding unless we are pretty certain regarding what it is that we are doing.
On the other hand, hero folding can potentially raise our win rate if we have a very good grasp of our opponents tells and tendencies. But proceed with caution as hero folding can very easily damage your win rate too if you try to use it at the wrong time.
What Does Push Mean In Poker?
In poker a push is literally a shove and is achieved when a player takes their entire stack of chips and pushes them into the centre of the table essentially going all in. Generally speaking, pushes are associated with tournament poker.
In these games, when a player’s chip count is low, they are in a push or fold position and there is no more room left for manoeuvre, so their only real option is push all in or fold.
What Does Open Ended Mean In Poker?
When we say open ended in poker we are referring to a straight draw where the cards we need to complete our straight can land on the outside of our structure at either end. A good example of an open ended straight draw would be if we are holding 6, 7, 8 and 9. In this example, any 10 or 5 will give us what we need and complete our straight.
Because we can win it with more than one card, we are roughly twice as likely to make up an open ended straight draw as we would be with an inside straight draw otherwise known as a gut shot straight draw.
As is always the case with poker, correct strategies are linked to the we are playing, and this is also true when playing open ended straight draws. Some general strategic principles are however as follows.
Open ended straight draws to the nuts are always going to be stronger than non nut open ended straight draws as non nut open ended straight draws can be dominated when they complete. Open ended straight draws like to play aggressively especially if they anticipate generating a high amount of folds.
In a game of Texas Hold’em, if your open ended straight draw is constructed by using one or both of your hole cards, this is a good thing. Two card open ended straight draws are always going to be better than one card open ended straight draws naturally.
In Omaha, consider whether or not your open ended straight draw has additional draws to go with it. A naked open ended straight draw is one without a pair or straight draw to go along with it and is considered little more than rubbish in Omaha, even when they are drawing to the nuts. In variants of Draw and Stud, the higher the top card of the straight, the more valuable the straight draw will be.
What Are Suited Connectors In Poker?
In poker, suited connectors are hands made up by two consecutively numbered cards of the same suit as opposed to suited gappers which is a starting hand constructed with two non consecutively numbered cards of the same suit that can flop a straight.
Basically, suited connectors are cards that link together, and they are extremely useful to have in your hand. An example of an ordinary connector would be 7 & 8, however, a suited connector would be the 7 of clubs and the 8 of clubs as they both belong to the same suit.
If two of your cards are not directly linked to each other they are still worth keeping. This is because should the cards you require appear at the flop, you will still have the chance to complete a straight or even a flush. Suited connectors can also help to make a flush draw as well as an open ended flush draw.
What Are Over Cards In Poker?
In poker, we use the term over card in order to describe a card that is higher in rank in comparison to another card or group of cards. Let’s say that in a game of Texas Hold’em we are holding J & J pre flop and the flop texture delivers and K, Q, 10. We would describe this by saying that there are two over cards – the king and the queen – on the flop. Or, on the other hand, we could have A & Q and the flop brings 9, 5, 2, we would describe this by saying we flopped naked over cards.
When flopping a pair in a game of Texas Hold’em, it’s strength will often depend on how many over cards might land on the later streets. Of course, lower pairs are far more vulnerable to being dominated as there are simply more over cards that can hit left to be drawn.
A high pair such as deuce queens, however, is less susceptible to being outdrawn since there are only two over cards – the Ace and the King – left that can give our opponent a higher pair.