Poker Lingo for Grinders

In the world of poker, lingo is a common language. Poker players understand each other, in a way that the common Joe cannot understand them. And this is one of the ways to distinguish experienced grinders from the beginners, and players that are not on their level yet. 

In order to sound and look more like a good poker player, you must understand some of the poker lingo. Let’s go over some of the most commonly used terms.

The term is used when a first raise is re-raised. To put it simply, the first player places a bet, the second player raises, and a third player (or the original raiser) re-raises the initial raise. Used in pot limit and no limit games, 3-bet is a term the players use when putting the third bet, or the second raise. The third bet can be placed in any round of action.

The goal of the 3-bet is to send a message to the player raising, or telling him “okay, you have a nice hand, but I am sure I have a better one”. A 3-bet is often made by the big or small bind.

In the world of poker, the 3-bet is considered the strongest move players make, and one that oozes with confidence. The only play that is more courageous and shows more confidence and arrogance than the 3-bet is the “All in” move. 

3-bet can significantly change a hand, and the player making the move is very confident in the strength of his hand. However, since this is poker, that doesn’t always have to be the case. It might be just another bluff.

If there is one play stronger than 3-bet, that is the 4-bet. It is a term used to reflect the raise after the 3-bet. Let’s try to explain it. Player A bets, then player B raises, followed by player A making a 3-bet (re-raising), and then player B goes for 4-bet.

In the world of Poker, a 4-bet usually means the player calling the raise has an extremely strong hand, something along the lines of pocket Kings or pocket Aces.

Since this is poker we are talking about, 4-bet is a very risky tough move to read. Experienced players are known to use the 4-bet or 3-bet to push other players off of their hand. This happens even when the player making the 3 or 4 bet has a mediocre hand. 

He/she is obviously bluffing, but if they are aggressive from the start, it is hard to notice when the player is bluffing, and when they are holding a strong hand.

Cold call is a term used for calling more than one bet at once. For example, there are four players on the table. Let’s say player A opens the round with an initial bet of $10, then player B calls the bet, and player C raises for $30. If player D calls, he calls both the initial bet and the raise, and he is making the cold call. 

Cold call is mostly used in Texas Hold’Em, where players raise in a pre flop round and the next player cold calls. The blinds also count as a bet in this case.

A jam is a pot where more than one player are calling “raise”. The adjective jammed is used when there is significant number of bets, raises and re-reraises. As a verb, the term jam is used when a player is aggressive, and he places several bets and raises during one hand.

Merge is arguably one of the most complex terms in the poker world to explain, and one of the hardest moves to pull off.

In simple terms, merge, or merging, is a bet on the river (the fifth card in community card games). The complexity of the bet is that you are betting when you have a hand that is strong enough to beat weaker hands, but also weak enough to get a fold from a high and strong hand the opponents might have.

How does it work in reality? In most cases, people with weak hands will think you are bluffing, and will call your bluff. The term used for those players is bluffcatchers. But if your hand is strong enough, you will be able to beat their weak hand. As for the strong hands, once you bet on the river, the players will mostly consider that you must have something extremely strong in order to place a bet. The expectation here is that they fold.

Mastering the art of merging requires a lot of training and experience. But in the end, it is well worth it. The only risk is that it might backfire, as stronger hands call your bluff and bet against you.