Small Blind – The smaller of two or more forced bets put up in a flop game prior to the deal.

Most flop and draw games use blinds instead of antes to seed the pot. Blinds are forced bets that are usually posted to the left of, or in some cases directly on, the dealer button before the start of the deal. Games are often formatted with two or more blinds of different amounts, and are identified by their relative sizes as “big” blinds and “small” blinds. The small blind is generally posted to the right of the big blind, between the big blind and the button. Small blinds are also occasionally posted on the dealer button if you are playing in a game with three blinds, or if the natural movement of the blinds and button have been interrupted.

Rolled Up – The first three cards in 7 Card Stud, when all are the same rank.

Being rolled up is a Stud term (including its variations of Razz and Stud Hi-Low) and refers to a hand where all three of the first cards dealt to a player are the same value.

When a player’s hole cards are the same and also match his door card (first card dealt face up), he is rolled up (has trips). Whereas the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em is pocket aces, the best starting hand possible in 7-Stud is rolled up aces (or 3 aces). Starting with 3 of a kind is extremely strong is Stud. It is a well-hidden hand, which can only become stronger by turning into a full house or quads. Often, a player who starts out rolled up will keep his strength in check until 5th street, when the betting amounts double in Stud. However, if a player is rolled with low ranking cards (such as 222, or 444), he may elect to bet out in fear (and to secure the proper odds) of a higher made pair also making trips later on in the hand.

Even though the term “rolled-up” is used when playing Razz, it is not a valuable hand since the object is to make a hand of five low unpaired cards. An example of somebody using the phrase when playing Razz would go something like this: “I haven’t been dealt a low hand in thirty minutes. In fact, I was rolled-up this past hand!”

Rebuy – To buy more chips.

In a cash game, when a player runs out of chips (or is very low), he can simply take more cash from his wallet and rebuy more from the dealer.

However, the term rebuy is more commonly used in tournament play. When you purchase a seat into a tournament, you are said to make your buy-in. This original buy-in provides each player with an original stack of chips with which they start play. In a normal tournament, once a player loses his original starting chips, he is out of the tournament.

However, there are also tournaments wherein a player who loses all his chips can rebuy to replenish the chips they have lost with another stack, usually for the same amount of the original buy-in and for the same number of starting chips. These tournaments are called “rebuy tournaments” and usually allow players to rebuy only during a limited time period (referred to as the rebuy period), or for a certain number of rebuys. For example, players might be able to rebuy as often as they wish until the first break in a tournament (and then can usually do an add-on), until the end of a certain level, or they may only be allowed one rebuy for the entire event.

Rebuy tournaments allow players to take chances in accumulating large amounts of chips by gambling more often with speculative “all-in” moves early in the event. They know they can always rebuy more chips and continue playing if they lose an early confrontation. Normally, a player can only rebuy when his (original or subsequent) chip stack is below a certain point. Rebuy tournaments (depending on the original buy in amount) can be wild and crazy affairs, with players investing in 3, 4, 5 … up to 20 or more rebuys. This usually results in large prize pools relative to the number of players entered.

Straddle – An optional extra blind, usually posted by the player to the left of the big blind, which, if it is live, gives that player the right to last action before the flop.

Straddle bets are commonly employed in poker games which use blinds. Usually they are optional bets, but some games may require a forced straddle. In most cases, the straddle will be live, which means the player who posted it will have last action before the flop. A dead straddle is similar to a blind raise, except that it does not count toward the maximum number of allowable bets and raises on the preflop betting round.

House rules govern the use of straddles. Card clubs may allow them, disallow them, or restrict how they are used. Most commonly, straddles are only allowed to be posted to the immediate left of the big blind, for exactly double the amount of the big blind. This type of straddle is usually optional, and posted as a “live straddle,” giving it last action before the flop. Less commonly, house rules may allow a straddle to be posted form any position. A straddle which is posted on the button is called a “Mississippi Straddle.”