Card-game glossary
Every hobby has its own language. Here's card-table talk in plain English — each definition starts simple, with extra depth when you want it.
A
- Ante
- A small, equal contribution of chips or counters each player adds to a shared pot before a hand begins.In friendly score-keeping games the ante just seeds the pot everyone is playing to win that hand. It ensures every deal has something at stake for the table's tally.Five-Card DrawSeven-Card Stud
B
- Bluff
- Acting as if your cards are stronger (or weaker) than they really are to mislead opponents.Bluffing is central to poker, but it also powers party games like Cheat, where players openly misstate which cards they just played.CheatTexas Hold'emOld Maid
- Book
- A collected set of all four cards of one rank, such as all four 9s.Books are the goal in Go Fish — the deck holds exactly thirteen of them, one per rank.Go Fish
- Bust
- To exceed the target total in a counting game, ending your hand immediately.In Blackjack, going over 21 is a bust and loses the hand no matter what the dealer does.Blackjack
C
- Community card
- A card dealt face up in the middle that every player may use as part of their hand.Texas Hold'em and Omaha are built around five shared community cards combined with private hole cards.Texas Hold'emOmaha
- Cut
- Splitting the shuffled deck and moving the bottom portion on top before dealing.Traditionally the player to the dealer's right cuts, as a fairness ritual that prevents anyone knowing the top card.
D
- Deadwood
- Cards in your hand that are not part of any set or run.In Gin Rummy, deadwood is counted by point value, and you may only knock when yours totals 10 or less.Gin RummyRummy
- Dealer
- The player (or position) responsible for shuffling and distributing the cards for a hand.Many games rotate the deal clockwise each hand, and some give the dealer's position strategic meaning.
- Deck
- The complete pack of cards used for a game — most commonly 52 cards in four suits.Some games strip the deck down (to 32 or 24 cards) or shuffle multiple decks together.
- Discard pile
- The face-up pile where players place cards they are getting rid of.In draw-and-discard games like Rummy, the visible top card of the discard pile is public information everyone can use.RummyGin RummyCrazy Eights
- Draw pile
- The face-down pile players take new cards from during the game.Also called the stock. When it runs out, most games reshuffle the discard pile to rebuild it.RummyCrazy EightsGo Fish
F
- Face card
- A Jack, Queen, or King — the cards showing a picture instead of pips.Face cards usually count 10 points in rummy-family scoring and trigger challenges in Egyptian Rat Screw.Egyptian Rat ScrewRummy
- Follow suit
- Playing a card of the same suit that was led, which many trick-taking games require when you can.Only when you have no cards of the led suit may you play something else, such as a trump.HeartsSpadesWhistEuchre
- Foundation
- In solitaire, the piles you build up by suit from Ace to King to win the game.Klondike has four foundations, one per suit; filling all four is the standard victory.Klondike SolitaireFreeCell
G
- Gin
- Melding all ten cards in Gin Rummy with zero deadwood, earning a bonus.Going gin also blocks the opponent from laying off cards, unlike an ordinary knock.Gin Rummy
- Go out
- To play or discard the last card in your hand, usually ending the round.In shedding games, going out first is the win; in rummy games it also freezes opponents' hands for scoring.RummyCrazy EightsPresidentCheat
H
- Hand
- The cards a player holds at one time, or one complete deal of a game.Context tells you which meaning applies: 'a strong hand' is your cards, 'the next hand' is the next deal.
- Hole card
- A card dealt face down that only its owner may see.Texas Hold'em gives each player two hole cards; Blackjack dealers keep one hole card hidden until the end.Texas Hold'emSeven-Card StudBlackjack
K
- Kicker
- A side card that breaks ties between otherwise equal poker hands.If two players both hold a pair of Kings, the higher unmatched card — the kicker — decides the winner.Texas Hold'emFive-Card Draw
- Knock
- Ending a Gin Rummy round by revealing your hand with 10 or fewer points of deadwood.Knocking is optional and risky: if your opponent's deadwood ties or beats yours, they undercut you for a bonus.Gin Rummy
L
M
O
- Off-suit
- Cards of different suits, most often describing a two-card poker starting hand.An Ace and King of different suits is 'Ace-King off-suit' — weaker than the suited version because it cannot chase one flush.Texas Hold'em
P
- Pair
- Two cards of the same rank, like two Jacks.Pairs are the building block of Old Maid, a scoring hand in poker, and the seed of a set in rummy games.Old MaidTexas Hold'emGo Fish
- Pass
- Declining to play, bid, or act on your turn when the rules allow it.In climbing games like President, a well-timed pass saves your strong cards for tricks you actually want.PresidentHearts
- Push
- A tie between a player and the dealer in a banking game, with no cards or points changing hands.In Blackjack, matching the dealer's total is a push — your result for the hand is simply neutral.BlackjackCasino War
R
S
- Set
- Three or four cards of the same rank, such as 7♣ 7♦ 7♥.Sets and runs are the two kinds of meld in rummy games. Suits never repeat within a set from a single deck.RummyGin Rummy
- Shuffle
- Randomizing the order of the deck before dealing.A thorough shuffle is the foundation of fairness in every card game — luck-based games like War are decided entirely by it.War
- Singleton
- Holding exactly one card of a suit (or rank) in your hand.In trick-taking games a singleton can be valuable — playing it makes you void so you can trump that suit later.BridgeHeartsSpades
- Soft hand
- A Blackjack hand counting an Ace as 11 without risk of busting.Ace-6 is a 'soft 17': you can draw another card safely because the Ace can drop to 1 if needed.Blackjack
- Stock
- The face-down pile of undealt cards that players draw from during play.Interchangeable with 'draw pile' in most games; in solitaire, the stock feeds the waste pile as you cycle through it.RummyGin RummyKlondike Solitaire
- Suit
- One of the four families of cards: spades ♠, hearts ♥, diamonds ♦, and clubs ♣.Each suit holds thirteen ranks. Some games care deeply about suits (Hearts, solitaire); others ignore them entirely (War, Go Fish).
- Suited
- Cards sharing the same suit, most often describing a poker starting hand.Suited hole cards can make a flush together, which is why 'Ace-King suited' outranks the off-suit version.Texas Hold'emOmaha
T
- Tableau
- The main layout of piles on the table in a solitaire game.In Klondike, the tableau is the seven columns where you build downward in alternating colors before moving cards to the foundations.Klondike SolitaireFreeCellSpider Solitaire
U
- Undercut
- Beating or tying the knocker's deadwood in Gin Rummy as the defender, earning a bonus.The threat of an undercut is what makes knocking with 9 or 10 deadwood a genuine gamble.Gin Rummy
V
W
- Waste pile
- In solitaire, the face-up pile beside the stock where turned-over cards wait.Only the top card of the waste pile is playable in Klondike, which is why cycling the stock takes planning.Klondike Solitaire
- Wild card
- A card allowed to stand in for any other card or trigger a special power.Eights are wild in Crazy Eights — playable on anything, with the player naming the next suit.Crazy Eights