Poker Beacon

Glossary

All glossary on Poker Beacon — curated, sourced and field-tested.

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44 entries

glossary

ADM

Italy treats the control of gambling as reserved to the state, which has exercised it since 2000 through AAMS.

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glossary

ANJ

The Autorité nationale des jeux is France's gambling regulator, an independent administrative authority instituted by the ordonnance of 2 October 2019 and in place since June 2020.

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Belgian Gaming Commission

Belgium's Gaming Commission licenses gambling by class. Operating a casino requires a class A licence, valid fifteen years and capped at nine; all nine are currently granted, so no new application is possible.

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Big blind ante

In tournaments using this format, a single ante is posted by the player in the big blind instead of every player anteing each hand, as cardroom rules for the format set it out.

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Blinds

A blind is a required bet made before any cards are dealt, used in button games to stimulate action and initiate play, as a standard cardroom rulebook sets out.

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Bounty

A bounty is a prize collected for eliminating another entrant, run as a distinct tournament format under a casino's posted tournament rules.

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Buy-in

The cost to enter a tournament, or the minimum amount needed to sit down in a cash game at a specific table. Usually twenty times the big blind.

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Connecticut iGaming

Connecticut channels regulated gaming through a narrow set of gatekeepers.

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Czech Gambling Act

Act No. 186/2016 sets the Czech framework for gambling: which game types exist, the conditions for operating them, responsible-gambling measures, and the competences of the administrative authorities.

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Delaware iGaming

Delaware's state lottery, which operates within the Department of Finance, launched what it describes as the first authorised online gaming system in the country, known as iGaming, on 7 November 2013.

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DGOJ

The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego is the Spanish state body responsible for the regulation, authorisation, supervision, coordination, control and, where necessary, sanctioning of gambling activities at national level.

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Equity

Equity is the share of the pot a player expects to earn, computed under the assumption that no further betting occurs and using only the cards in that player's hand together with the cards already revealed on the board.

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Expected value

Expected value is the probability-weighted average of the possible results of a decision, presented in university course material on poker theory as the general rule by which betting lines are compared.

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Freezeout

non établi par la source citée

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GGL

Germany's 2021 Interstate Treaty on Gambling permits public gambling only with a permit from the competent German authority; organising or brokering without one is prohibited, as is advertising unauthorised gambling.

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GRAI

The Gambling Regulation Act 2024, enacted on 23 October 2024, establishes the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, in Irish Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann, to license and regulate betting, gaming, certain lotteries and the sale or supply of gambling-related products and services.

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GTO

Game-theoretically optimal play refers to a Nash equilibrium strategy: one where no player can raise their own expected utility by unilaterally switching to a different strategy.

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Hand rankings

Hand rankings order the five-card combinations that decide a pot, as set out in a state-approved cardroom game description for Texas Hold'em.

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ICM

The independent chip model estimates what a player's standing in a tournament is worth in money.

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iGaming Ontario

Ontario separates who regulates its online gambling market from who conducts it.

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Interactive Gambling Act

An Australian federal law of 2001 that sets the rules for companies offering or advertising gambling services, covering gambling that takes place online through a website or app and via telephone.

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Kansspelautoriteit

The Netherlands Gambling Authority licenses remote gambling under the Remote Gambling Act, the Wet Kansspelen op afstand, which together with its subordinate legislation and policy rules came into force on 1 April 2021.

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KYC verification

Customer identity verification is the licence condition requiring a remote gambling operator to obtain and verify enough information to establish who a customer is before that customer may gamble, as codified in Britain's licence conditions and codes of practice.

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Late registration

Alternates, players registering late, and re-entries will be sold full stacks.

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Michigan iGaming

The Michigan Gaming Control Board is the state body charged with ensuring fair and honest gaming in the interests of Michigan residents.

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Nevada online poker

Nevada treats interactive gaming as a distinct licence category in the fee and tax schedule administered by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

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New Jersey internet gaming

New Jersey regulates internet gambling at state level through the Division of Gaming Enforcement, a unit of the Attorney General's Office that enforces the state's casino gaming laws and publishes both the internet gaming regulations and the list of approved internet gaming sites.

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New Zealand Gambling Act

The Gambling Act 2003 was the first New Zealand law to regulate remote interactive gambling, and its stance is prohibitive: such gambling is banned, with narrow exceptions for the Lotteries Commission, the Racing Board and sales promotion schemes taking the form of a lottery.

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Pennsylvania iGaming

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board regulates interactive gaming in the Commonwealth and publishes the roster of operators authorised to offer it, so that a player can confirm before wagering that a site is board-regulated.

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Pot odds

The ratio between the money already in the pot and the amount a player must pay to call in order to keep playing.

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Rake

Rake is the fee a cardroom operator takes from the pot in exchange for supplying a dealer, a table and a place to play, defined that way in Florida's cardroom statute as either a set amount or a percentage.

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Re-entry

Under the standardised TDA tournament rules, a re-entry is treated like a fresh entry: re-entrants are sold full starting stacks and randomly draw a table and seat from the same pool as new players, and are dealt in except between the small blind and the button.

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Remote gambling licence

In Great Britain, an operator needs a licence from the Gambling Commission to provide online gambling facilities to consumers, regardless of where in the world the business is based, and likewise whenever any part of its remote gambling equipment is located in Great Britain.

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Satellite

A satellite is a qualifying tournament whose prizes must include a buy-in to a larger tournament, as North Dakota's gaming rules define it.

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Self-exclusion

Self-exclusion is a formal agreement a person enters into not to gamble, described by Britain's gambling regulator as a tool for those who recognise their gambling is harming them.

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Showdown

The showdown decides the winner when more than one player still contends for the pot after every betting round is finished, as a casino poker room's rule book sets it out.

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Side pot

A side pot is the separate pot formed when a player facing a bet larger than their table stakes calls all in, as Colorado's gaming rule for player-banked card games describes it.

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Spelinspektionen

Sweden's Gambling Act (2018:1138) covers games played for money or prizes with monetary value that are provided in Sweden; online gambling not directed at the Swedish market is treated as falling outside it.

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Spillemyndigheden

The Danish Gambling Authority treats online casino as one licensed category, covering roulette, blackjack, baccarat, punto banco, poker, online bingo, gambling on gaming machines and other games mixing skill and chance, which Danish law calls combination games.

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SRIJ

Portugal's gaming regulation and inspection service publishes the legal framework for online play, the Regime Jurídico dos Jogos e Apostas Online approved by Decree-Law 66/2015 of 29 April, which governs the operation and the playing of online games and bets in the country.

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String bet

A string bet or raise is an attempt to bet or raise in multiple movements that includes a return to one's own stack without first declaring the intention verbally, or a visual deception meant to draw action out of turn before the action is complete, as a licensed poker room's standard operating procedures define it.

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TDA rules

The standardised tournament rule set published by the Poker Tournament Directors Association, a voluntary trade association of the poker tournament industry dedicated to adopting a uniform set of poker tournament rules worldwide.

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Texas hold'em

The flop game in which each player receives two down cards as a personal hand, known as hole cards, followed by a round of betting.

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West Virginia iGaming

West Virginia authorised interactive wagering, presented as iGaming, in fiscal year 2020, when the state legislature passed House Bill 2934.

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