Hold'em championship

Poker Jargon in Everyday Life

In the United States, poker gained popularity in 1970s through the hosting of the World Series of Poker. This much awaited tournament of poker players is still attracting many people who have never played the game of poker before. Then, poker invaded broadcast media. That is, the poker tournaments can now be viewed by people using their television.

Poker has also crossed the expanse of oceans and the barriers of language. People in other continents, particularly in Asia, are now looking towards poker as an entertaining and challenging game of skill and concentration. Many historians attribute the spread of poker to the soldiers of the United States military, who were assigned to several regions in Asia.

As the game of poker continues to spread, the phrases that are normally used during the poker game, also became popular. Perhaps the popularity of the poker jargon is even greater than the popularity of the poker game itself. That is, some people who are not players of poker utilize poker jargon. And many of these people may never know that they are using poker phrases.

Here are some of the poker jargons that are used by average people in their everyday lives.

- Ace in the hole - In poker, this means that a poker player is holding a high card (the Ace) and he has a distinct advantage over other players. In everyday life, an ace in the hole is having something that will give the person an upper hand over a certain situation.

- Call the bluff - In poker, a player calls a bluff when he makes a call against a player who is betting as if he has strong cards but actually has weak cards. In everyday life, calling the bluff is tantamount to saying that a person is not telling the truth.

- Poker face - In poker, a player must maintain a face that will not reveal what the person feels about the cards. If he has high cards, he should not look as if he is already anticipating his win. If has low cards, he should not show to his opponents that he was pitiful cards. In other words, a player must never show poker tells. A player who is like this, is said to have a poker face. In everyday life, "poker face" applies to people who maintain a bland facial expression even when he is guilty (or excited) about something.

- Up the ante - In poker, a player ups the ante by betting more. Such makes the amount in the pot bigger and more attractive to poker players. In everyday life, to up the ante is to risk more so that one can reap more profits.

Aside from the terms above, there are more poker jargons, such as the "Cash in", "Beats me", "Blue chip", "Pass the buck", "Stack up", "Wild card", and "When the chips are down.