Poker glossary: T
23 poker terms starting with T. Each entry has a clear definition, a worked example, and links to related concepts.
Table Image
Table image is the way opponents perceive your style based on what they have seen you do: hands shown at showdown, bet sizes, the speed of your actions, and how often you've rec...
Table selection
Choosing which cash-game table and seat to sit at based on opponent quality. Picking softer opponents is often a bigger edge than out-playing tougher ones.
TAG
TAG (tight-aggressive) is a player profile that enters fewer hands than average but raises or bets when they do enter. Tight selection plus active aggression is the textbook 6-m...
Tell
A tell is a physical, behavioral, timing, or betting cue that may reveal information about an opponent's hand strength, confidence, or decision process. Tells are noisy. Treat a...
Thin Call
A river call against a small bet where your hand only barely beats the opponent's value range. The price clears, but the edge is small and the call rarely scoops a big pot.
Thin Value
A river value bet where your hand only barely beats the opponent's calling range. Sized small (often 20-40% pot) to invite calls from weaker showdown hands.
Thin Value Trap
A thin value bet is a wager with a marginal or moderate-strength hand meant to be called by worse hands. ("Thin" means your hand is only slightly ahead of many likely callers.)...
Three of a Kind
Three of a Kind (called "Trips" or a "Set") is a five-card hand: three cards of the same rank plus two unrelated side cards. It beats one pair and two pair in Hold'em standard h...
Three-Bet Range
A three-bet range is the set of hands you re-raise with after another player has opened. It's a hand set, not an action, and the shape depends on the opener's seat, your seat, s...
Three-Way Pot
A three-way pot has three players still in the hand. Bluffs leak more often than heads-up, top pair loses value, and pocket pairs gain when three players see the flop.
Tie
A tie, or split pot, occurs when two or more players have exactly equal five-card hands. When that happens, dealers divide the pot equally among the winners. Recognizing ties at...
Tight-Aggressive
Tight-aggressive is a poker player style that enters a selective range of hands and tends to raise or bet instead of limping or calling. The shorthand is TAG, which most coachin...
Tight-First
"Tight-first" means you play fewer hands and focus on strong starting cards. Fold marginal or speculative holdings-hands that depend on specific flops, like small suited connect...
Tilt
A temporary, emotion-driven deviation from your normal poker strategy, usually triggered by a bad beat or a long card-dead stretch. Tilt is a state, not a player type.
Timing Tell
A timing tell is information you infer from how quickly or slowly an opponent acts. Snap-checks, snap-calls, long tanks, quick bets, and delayed raises can all hint at hand stre...
Top Pair
Top pair occurs when one of your hole cards matches the highest community card, forming a pair. Example: you hold A♦ K♣ and the flop is A♠ 7♦ 2♣ - you have top pair (pair of Ace...
Trap
A trap is a postflop or preflop line that hides a strong hand and invites the opponent to put chips in with worse. It is the plan-level cousin of slow play: pick a villain you e...
Triple Barrel
A triple barrel is the third bet in a flop-turn-river sequence, fired by the player who took the betting lead before the flop. The first barrel is the c-bet, the second is the d...
Trips
Trips (three-of-a-kind) are any hand with three cards of the same rank. In Hold'em, trips usually occur when one hole card pairs with two matching community cards. Example: you...
Turn
The turn is the fourth community card and the street where ranges narrow and the pot grows, so mistakes cost more. Decisions that looked correct on the flop can become costly on...
Turn Class
Categorizing the turn card by what it does to ranges: blank, draw-completing, scare, or overcard. Each class has a default sizing and intent, and reading the card right is what...
Two Pair
Two cards of one rank, two of another, plus a kicker. Beats one pair, loses to trips. Higher pair ranks win first, the kicker breaks the tie when ranks match.
Two-Tone Board
A two-tone board is a flop with two cards of one suit and a third card of another suit (e.g., J♠ 8♠ 6♥). It's the most common unpaired flop texture and the one that puts a flush...