A tell in poker is a piece of information that gives us additional clues about the type of hand our opponent is holding. For example, perhaps a player’s hands tremble when they pick up a big holding. Tells can cover a wide range of different areas including, timing, bet-sizing, verbalization, posture, eyes, hands, chip tricks and even use of a card protector. In the classic movie Rounders Teddy KGB has a (somewhat unbelievable) tell where he eats an Oreo every time he has a big hand.

To tank in poker means to spend time thinking about the best play in a hand. It is presumably a contraction of the words ‘time bank’, the option to request more time on a decision when playing online poker. A player can be described as ‘tanking’ or ‘going into the tank’ when they spend time pondering a decision rather than acting immediately.

TAG stands for ‘tight aggressive’ and is used to describe players with a tight aggressive play style. TAGs enter the pot only with strong hands and proceed by playing aggressively on the later betting rounds. The majority of winning poker players are TAGs earning it the title ‘king of all poker styles’ by many.

The table stakes rule prevents poker players from betting with more chips than they already have at the table. Before the table stakes rule, players might be able to force their opponents out of pots by betting more than their opponent could afford to lose. We could be playing a game for a few hundred bucks when our opponent suddenly throws his private yacht or Ferrari into the middle. With the table stakes rule, once a player is all in for his effective stack, he has the right to see a showdown without being forced to invest any additional chips.

Suited simply means that two of our cards are of the same suit. For example, the starting hand Ace of Spades, King of Spades in Hold’em is referred to as “Ace King suited” since both hole cards are of the same suit. PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) hands can be referred to as both suited and double-suited depending on whether there is one set or two sets of suited cards.

Stud refers to collection of poker variants that have similar characteristics. Stud games don’t use hole cards but rather a selection of upcards and downcards dealt to each player. Upcards are visible to the entire table while downcards are secret (like hole cards in Hold’em). The most popular Stud variant is Seven Card Stud which involves 5-betting rounds. Stud games are typically played in fixed limit format and don’t make use of a dealer button. The action order is instead determined by the strength of players’ upcards.