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Pa Ferguson:

Five-Card Studwith high card on boardand all cards like it as wild.

Pace:

See Betting Pace, Game Pace, and HandPace.

Pack:

The deckof cards.

Packet:

A portion of the pack.

Paint Cards:

A jack, queen, or king. There are also known as count cards, court cards, face cards, and picture cards.

Pair:

Any two cards that have the same rank.

Palmed Card:

A card concealed for future use by a cheater.

Pan or Panguingue:

A form of rummy played in some Nevada casinos and Californiapokerclubs.

Paperwork:

Markings added to cards by cheaters.

Partners:

Collusion cheaters.

Pasadena:

To fold. 

Pass:

To not bet, or to fold. 

Pass and Out:

A game in which checking is not allowed on the first round.

Pass the Deal:

To relinquish one’s turnto deal.

Pass the Trash (Garbage):

A High-LowStudgame involving the exchange of cards between players.

Pass-Out:

To foldwhen a bet or a foldis required.

Passed Pot:

When no one opens the pot. 

Passive or Passive Play:

A style of playthat is characterized by a reluctance to bet and raise.

Pasteboard:

A card.

Pat Hand:

A handin which the player keeps all his cards without drawing or twisting new cards.

Patience Poker:

See Crosscards.

Pay Off:

To calla bet when the bettor is representing a handthat you cannot beat but the potis sufficiently large to justify a call. For example, “he played it exactly like he made the flush, but I had top-set so I paid him off.”

Peek Poker:

See Seven-Card Stud.

Peeker or Peeper:

(1) A cheaterwho looks at an active players hand. (2) A cheaterwho peeks at cards yet to be dealt.

Peep and Turn:

See Mexican Stud.

Pelter (Bracket):

A five-card handcontaining a two, a five, a nine, and one card being either a three or a four, and the other card either a six, a seven or an eight. This is also referred to as a skeet.

Penalties:

See Bonus.

Penny Ante:

A very low-stakes game.

Penultimate Card:

The secondto last card in the deck.

Percentage:

(1) The housecut. (2) Probabilities expressed as percentages.

Perdue:

Cards refused by a player.

Perfect Low:

An unbeatable lowball hand, such as A-2-3-4-5, A-2-3-4-6, or 2-3-4-5-7, depending on the game.

Philosopher:

A cardsharp.

Pick-Up Checks:

To allow a player to bet or raisethe limit for every check made before his play.

Pickleman:

Five-seven (57).

Picture Cards:

A card with a picture, such as a jack, queen, or king. These are also known as count cards, court cards, face cards, and paint cards.

Pig in the Poke:

See Wild Widow. 

Pigeon:

(1) An easy player or a sucker. (2) A valuable card for a hand.

Pile:

A player’s money.

Pinch:

Five dollars.

Pineapple:

A variation of Texas Hold’em, where players receive three cards each and are forced to discard one of them after the flop is dealt, thus reverting to Hold’em.

Pink Eye (Red Eye):

A pink-tinted contact lens worn by a cheater in order to identify marked cards or luminous readers.

Pinochle:

Queen of spades-jack of diamonds, QsJd

Pips:

The spots or marks on the face of a card.

Piranha:

An aggressive bettor.

Pistol Stud:

See Hole-Card Stud.

Place and Show Tickets Split Pot with Twist Your Neighbor:

A game in which cards are drawn from the hands of other players and the potis split between the second and third best hands.

Place Tickets:

(1) The second best hand. (2) Draw poker in which the second best hand wins.

Play:

To call or stay in

Play Back:

To “playback” at someone is to raiseafter they have bet or raised.

Play On Your Belly:

To playstraight, without cheating.

Play the Board:

In flopgames like Texas Hold’emand Omaha, if your best five card handuses the five community cards, you are “playing the board”.

Played Card:

A card dealt to a hand.

Playing the Rush:

A pokerterm referring to a player who has just enjoyed a short-run of good luck, marked by winning a very large potof money in one handor winning several hands in close succession. If the player subsequently begins to playmore loosely or more aggressively, they are said to be “playing the rush”.

Poch:

The best pair, three-of-a-kind, or four-of-a-kind.

Pochen:

A German card game from which the name pokerwas partially derived.

Pocket Card:

Your unique cards that only you can see. Texas Hold’emplayers tend to callthem pocket cards; Studplayers tend to callthem holecards. See HoleCard.

Point:

The valueof a card.

Poker:

A money-management game that employs cards for the purposes of manipulation and deceptionin order to win money.

Poker Diamond:

A diagram that measures the idealness of a game.

Poker Dice:

Cubical dice, each with a nine, ten, jack, queen, king, and ace on its six faces.

Poker Face:

A face not showing any emotion or change in expression.

Poker Hand:

A collection of exactly five cards that constitute a hand, according to the accepted list of hands.

Poker Rules:

A loose, flexible, framework of traditions and guidelines for playing poker.

Poker Solitaire:

See Crosscards.

Pone:

The player seated immediately to the dealers right.

Pool:

A pot.

Poque:

(1) A French card game from which the name of pokerwas partially derived. (2) A French betting expression.

Position:

The relative situation of a player to the other players (fundamental position, seat position, technical position). There is early, middle and late position.

Position Bet:

A “position bet” is a bet made more on the strength of one’s position at the table than on the strength of one’s hand. A player on the button in Texas Hold’em poker is in a good position to steal the pot, if no one else opens.

Post:

To post a bet is to place your chips in the pot(or, more commonly, outin front of you so that your bet can be counted). In poker, “posting” usually means a forced bet, such as a blind.

Pot:

The money gathered in the middle of the table from blinds, bets, and raises. This money goes to the winner, or winners, as the case may be. If you have not yet folded, you are “in the pot”.

Pot Odds:

A mathematical solution used to calculate whether or not a particular situation is worth a call. It is the ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount of money it will cost you to call a bet. The greater the “odds”, the more likely you should call.

Pot-Limit:

Poker stakes in which the maximum permitted bet is the size of the pot. If there is a bet in front and a player wants to raise, the amount of money put in the pot to call is included in the amount allowed for the raise.

Pot-Limit Dig:

Pot-Limit poker, with no table-stake restrictions.

Pothooks:

Nines.

Poverty Poker:

A game in which a player can lose only a predetermined amount, after which he can playwith the winners’ money.

Powerhouse:

A very strong hand.

Pre-Flop:

Before the flop, such as raising pre-flop.

Premium:

See Bonus.

Price:

The odds you are getting for a draw or call. For example, “the potwas laying me a high enough price, so I stayed in with my gut-shot straight draw.”

Primero:

An old, betting card game of Spanish origin.

Priori Odds:

The probability that an event will occur.

Private Poker:

Poker played without money being cutfor the houseor for the host’s profit.

Proctor and Gamble:

A game with four cards in each handand three rolled tablecards with the last card, and all like it, as wild.

Progression of Bets:

The increase in betting limits for each round of betting.

Progressive Poker:

A game in which the ante, bets, and opener requirements increase after a passed pot.

Prop:

Short for proposition player.

Proposition Player:

A proposition player, or a “prop”, is a player who is paid by a cardroom to play poker, usually in order to keep games going when they get shorthanded, or else to get games started. Proposition players are paid a salary, but they gamble with their own money.

Protect:

(1) To keep your handor a chipon your cards. This prevents them from being fouled by a discarded hand, or accidentally “mucked” by the dealer. (2) To protect a handis to bet/raisein an effort to makemore people fold, thus reducing the chances of anyone outdrawing you.

Public Poker:

Poker played in gambling casinos or in public card clubs in which the pots are cutf or profit.

Pull Through:

A false shuffling technique used by cheaters.

Punching:

To mark cards with pinpricks.

Punters:

Players who gamble against the banker.

Puppy Feet:

Clubs.

Puppy Foot:

The ace of clubs.

Push:

To pass unwanted cards to players seated on one’s left.

Pushka:

(1) An arrangement concluded between two or more players in which they share part of the pots winings. (2) The container into which the shared chips are played.

Put Up:

To pay money owed to the pot.