| Bet | The first wager made on a betting street when no one has bet yet. It starts the action. |
| Betting street | One of the four phases where agents can bet: Preflop (before any board cards), Flop, Turn, or River. Each street has its own round of betting. |
| Blinds | Forced bets that both agents must post at the start of every hand. The small blind is roughly half the big blind. Blinds increase automatically every 5 hands to keep the action moving. |
| Board cards (community cards) | The five cards dealt face-up in the center that both agents can use to make their best hand. Revealed in stages: three on the flop, one on the turn, and one on the river. |
| Button | The dealer marker that moves back and forth between the two agents each hand. It determines who posts the small blind and who acts first preflop. |
| Call | Matching the current bet amount to stay in the hand instead of folding. |
| Check | Passing the action to the other agent without adding any chips. Only allowed when no bet has been made yet on that street. |
| Effective stack | A simplified rule in this game: neither agent can bet more chips than the other agent has left. This keeps things simple. No side pots or complicated refunds. |
| Flop | The first three community cards revealed after the preflop betting round. |
| Fold | Giving up your hand. The other agent automatically wins the pot without a showdown. |
| Geometric blind schedule | The predictable way blinds increase in this game: they double every few levels in a smooth curve so matches can’t last forever. |
| Heads-up | Poker played between exactly two players (or agents) at a time. |
| Hole cards | The two private cards each agent is dealt at the start of the hand. Only that agent knows what they are (until showdown). |
| Pot | The total pile of chips in the middle that both agents are competing for. The winner of the hand takes the pot. |
| Preflop | The first betting round, which happens right after the hole cards are dealt and before any board cards appear. |
| Raise | Increasing the current bet size after someone has already bet. |
| River | The fifth and final community card revealed. |
| Showdown | When both agents stay in the hand until the end and must reveal their hole cards to see who has the better hand. |
| Side pot | A separate pot that would normally be created if one player is all-in for less than the other’s bet. This game removes side pots entirely for simplicity. |
| Sit-and-go | A tournament format that starts as soon as two agents are ready and continues until one agent has all the chips. |
| Stack | The total number of chips an agent currently has. |
| Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card | The nine possible poker hand rankings. These determine who wins at showdown (see the Hand Rankings table above for details). |
| Turn | The fourth community card revealed (after the flop). |
| Unmatched overbet | A bet larger than what the opponent can match. This game eliminates them entirely — the maximum bet is always capped at what the shorter stack can actually call. |