Terms Starting with R

Rabbit Hunting

Rabbit Hunting is when a player at a table looks through undealt cards to see what would have come next, or beyond. (read more)

Race

Race is poker slang for a poker situation that is a coinflip, or roughly 50/50 chance for both opponents to win. (read more)

Race-Off

Racing off is part of the coloring-up procedure in a poker tournament, in which odd chips are consolidated and randomly awarded to players based on high cards. (read more)

Rack

A rack is a plastic tray that is designed to hold one hundred poker chips in five rows of twenty chips each. Empty racks are sometimes considered bad luck. (read more)

Ragged

'Ragged' describes a flop or a board texture that involves unsuited and non-connected cards; it ithe opposite of a 'coordinated' or 'draw-heavy' board. (read more)

Rags

Rags are crappy cards in poker, they are opposite of 'premium hands' or 'monster hands.' Examples of 'rag hands' in Hold 'Em are too numerous to list. (read more)

Railbird

A railbird is either a broke poker player who spends most of his time lurking around the sidelines trying to get staked, or a fan of the game who is spectating (read more)

Railing

When a poker player is simply watching the action rather than playing, they are known to be 'railing' the game, and are often referred to as a railbird. (read more)

Rainbow

A rainbow board is one in which each card is of a different suit. It is usually used in conjunction with the term rainbow flop. (read more)

Raise

To raise in a hand means to bet more than the minimum amount or more than a bet to you. To raise all of your chips means that you are all in. (read more)

Rake

A rake is a percentage taken out by the casino at a poker table. Online poker rooms also take rake out of every hand. Rakeback is a popular way to recoup rake. (read more)

Rake Race

A rake race is a competition to see who can accumulate the most paid rake at a rakeback affiliate site and results in a monetary prize. (read more)

Rakeback

Rakeback is the term used to describe poker affiliates returning a percent of their revenue share to players. The percent ranges from mid 20s to over 60. (read more)

Rakeback Pro

A rakeback pro is a player who is not a winning player in terms of win-rate but earns neough rakeback to produce a profit. (read more)

Ram Vaswani

Ram Vaswani is a British professional poker player, a member of the Hendon Mob as well as a red name on Full Tilt Poker. (read more)

Rambling, Gambling Willie

Rambling, Gambling Willie, an early 60s Bob Dylan song, tells the story of Wild Bill Hickock, his life as a poker player and eventual demise. (read more)

Range

Range is the term used to describe the group of likely holdings for a poker player or his opponent in a poker situation. (read more)

Range Merging

Range merging is an advanced poker concept that describes the need to play hands of varying strengths in a consistent and deceptive manner. (read more)

Rank

A card's rank in poker refers to its value in relationship to other cards in the deck, with ace being the highest-ranked card. (read more)

Rathole

Ratholing is the strategically dubious practice of leaving the table as soon as profit has been secured and returning to the table with the minimum buyin. (read more)

Raw Business

Raw business is a term used by some poker players to describe something that's really badass. (read more)

Ray Zee

Ray Zee is an accomplished, and now retired, poker player from the 'old school.' He has authored books on various forms of poker. (read more)

Razz

Razz is a game where the object is to make the lowest poker hand possible. A wheel--ace through five--is the nuts in razz. (read more)

Re-Raise

Re-raising is often frustratingly used by amateurs as a synomym for 'raise.' A re-raise can only occur in relation to an existing raise. (read more)

Real Money

The term Real Money is used within poker circles to make sure people understand that you are talking about poker played with money rather than play money. (read more)

Rebuy

A rebuy allows a player to buy back into a poker tournament after he has been busted. Rebuying is permitted if the tournament's structure allows for it. (read more)

Red Rock

The Red Rock is a resort and casino located in Las Vegas that offers full spa services. The poker room is a gorgeous venue with 20 tables. (read more)

Redeal

A redeal is when a hand is played over again, like a do-over, typically done after a misdeal. (read more)

Redraw

A redraw is a made hand that has a draw to an even better hand. (read more)

Regular

A regular in a poker game is a player who plays in the game frequently. The term 'regular' might also modify the game type 'stud hi/lo.' (read more)

Reload

Reload is a slang term in poker for when a player deposits money into a poker account that they already opened before. (read more)

Represent

When you play as if you hold a particular hand, you represent it with your style of play on that hand. (read more)

Results Oriented Thinking

Results oriented thinking is a faulty way of examining the merits of a certain play in poker, often times as a justification of a poor play. (read more)

Retarded Poker Sites

There are many poker sites that are retarded. Many have non-functioning software, poor customer service, non-existent security or other problems. (read more)

Reverse Implied Odds

Reverse implied odds in poker are meant to illustrate situations where it is bad to call since there is a good chance that you do not get paid off. (read more)

RFB

RFB stands for 'room, food, beverage' and represents the pinnacle of casino comps, meaning the person getting 'RFB'd' will enjoy free housing and sustenance. (read more)

Ride It Out

'Ride it out' is an expression that is useful for poker players who are experiencing severe downswings as a way of coping with the variance. (read more)

Riffle

Riffling is the action of playing with poker chips and also refers to part of the complete deck shuffling procedure in poker. (read more)

Rigged

A lot of losing poker players claim that a game is rigged. While this claim is sometimes true, the vast majority of the time it's just a bad player whining. (read more)

Rigtard

A rigtard is a troll who insists on claiming that online poker is rigged -- often citing nonsensical anecdotal evidence and making wildly hysterical claims. (read more)

Ring Game

A ring game is the opposite of a tournament. It's the equivalent of a cash game and blinds never increase. Poker players can come and go as they please. (read more)

Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino

The Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino is located on Flamingo Road, just off the Las Vegas Strip. The WSOP has been held at The Rio since 2005. (read more)

River

The river is the last community card dealt in Hold'em and Omaha. It's also referred to as fith street and is where hands are won or lost. (read more)

RiverStars

RiverStars is one of the many nicknames for PokerStars, referring to players being drawn out on the river at a supposed higher frequency than normal. (read more)

RNG

RNG, the random number generator, is a device used in online poker to mimic the effect of shuffling and dealing from a 52-card deck. (read more)

Robert Varkonyi

Robery Varkonyi is the 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event winner and took home a $2,000,000 first place prize. (read more)

Robert Wexler

Congressman Robert Wexler represents the 19th District of Florida. He has introduced legislation that exempts online poker from existing U.S. law. (read more)

Robusto

Robusto is the hilarious-sounding way to describe being the opposite of 'busto,' in other words, having a bankroll or being 'pumped-up.' (read more)

Rock

A rock is a player whose poker game is solid. They rarely make mistakes and are some of the toughest players to beat at the poker table. (read more)

Rogue Poker Sites

While many online poker rooms are trustworthy, as with any industry, certain rooms cannot be trusted to pay out winnings. This is a list of rogue sites. (read more)

ROI

ROI, aka 'return on investment' is a measure of profitability for online poker tournaments by comparing buyins to winnings. (read more)

Roland De Wolfe

Roland De Wolfe is a pro poker player who formerly wrote for a poker magazine who holds WPT and EPT titles and over $4,000,000 in live tournament winnings. (read more)

Rolled Up

A rolled up hand in stud is the strongest possible starting hand. This applies to both games of stud 'straight high' and stud eight or better. (read more)

Ross Boatman

Ross Boatman is the younger brother of Barny Boatman, both gentleman native Londoners and members of the Hendon Mob and Full Tilt Poker. (read more)

Rough

Rough, of course, is the opposite of 'smooth,' a way of describing drawing to a flawed low hand in a game like 2-7 or having a weak razz hand. (read more)

Rounders

Rounders is a 1998 movie starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, who portray East Coast poker players, living in a midworld between grinding and grifting. (read more)

Royal Cards

Royal cards are any that can make up a royal flush, which include any Ace, King, Queen, Jack or Ten. (read more)

Royal Flush

A Royal Flush is a straight from ten-to-ace all of the same suit. It is the highest ranking straight flush, and the highest ranking hand in poker. (read more)

Rules Nit

A rules nit in poker is someone who spends an inordinate amount of time and energy focusing on or enforcing minor poker rules and regulations. (read more)

Run

'Run' is a term that's similar in concept to a 'rush' in poker or gambling, and it is usually expressed as 'making a run.' (read more)

Run It Twice

The term Run It Twice refers to a feature where once players go all in they can deal the remaining cards twice. (read more)

Runner

A runner is a card that must be hit in order to win a hand in poker. Related is a runner-runner, where two running cards must be hit in order to win a hand. (read more)

Runner-Runner

Cards that hit runner-runner occur on the turn and the river to make a winning hand for a poker player. A player makes two running cards for a win. (read more)

Running Like a Kenyan

The phrase 'running like a Kenyan' is an expression amongst poker players to brag how they are running great over a long period of time. (read more)

Rush

A rush is a series of results in a game of chance that work out in a gambler's favor within a relatively short timeframe. (read more)

Rush Poker

Rush Poker is a feature at Full Tilt Poker for cash games that pits one player in a large player pool and constantly moves tables after every fold. (read more)

Russian Poker Tour

The Russian Poker Tour (RPT) is an elite poker tournament series held in St. Petersburg and Moscow and is sponsored by PokerStars. (read more)

Ryan Daut

Ryan Daut is a WPT winner, a member of Cardrunners online poker training site, a Full Tilt Poker Red Pro as well as a math genius. (read more)