Frederico Pereira

Deuce is simply a nickname given to a card with the rank of Two. It’s not especially important from a strategic point of view, but we might find ourselves lost in poker conversations if we don’t know that the two is sometimes referred to as the Deuce.

Crack means to improve to beat a strong holding in poker. The most common usage is in Hold’em games where a player pocket Aces gets beaten, but it can be used in any scenario where a strong hand loses.

A cooler in poker is a strong hand that runs into a stronger one with no way out. See famous coolers, how they differ from bad beats and why folding costs more.

The term burn means to discard the top card from the deck rather than deal it to the table. For example, in live Hold’em games, it’s common for the dealer to burn cards before dealing on every street. This is done to protect against cheating, or in case the value of the top card had been accidentally revealed to any player at the table.

The bubble is the situation in a poker tournament right before the prize pool is reached. Every player knows that if he busts out of the tournament right now, he’ll walk away with nothing. This creates a dynamic where a large number of the shorter stacks are simply trying to ‘hold on’ until that last player busts. Although the largest bubble is always right before reaching the prize pool, miniature bubbles can be created any time there is a considerable jump in payout.

A boat is simply a nickname for a full house in poker. This particular nickname may even be used more commonly than the actual hand name itself, pesumably because it’s easier to say than “full house.”A boat is made when we hold 3 cards of one rank and two cards of another, for example QQQJJ. This hand would be described as a boat “Queens full of Jacks”.