Terms You’ll Hear In Poker Tournaments

If you’ve ever watched or played a high stakes poker game, you’ve probably felt at times that the commentators were speaking another language. It’s quite common to hear a lot of professional jargon being used casually during poker tournaments. Instead of sitting through unintelligible discussions, brush up on these terms to better follow the poker game.

Chip Dumping
It’s quite common in the early rounds of poker tournaments for several players to go “all in.” This usually indicates that these players are playing with a joint strategy whose goal is to collect as many chips as possible and then cash out. By going “all in,” they encourage others to call a high amount of chips, enriching the pot. When one of these two players wins, they will cash out of the game and split the pot with the other “all in” player who lost.

Bubble
No professional playing in poker tournaments wants to be caught on the “bubble.” The “bubble’s” position is always the cusp of something big. If, for example, a player is eliminated in the round right before the payout structure begins, this player was eliminated “on the bubble.”

Blinded
In poker tournaments, players with low amounts of chips are in danger of being “blinded,” or being eliminated by paying forced bets.