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| N/L |
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Shorthand, particularly in e-mail and Internet postings, for no-limit. "I was playing n/l h/e at the Pasatiempo last night, and this hand came up..."
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| Nail |
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1) Mark a card, often with a fingernail. Also called spike, spur. 2) Catch the specific card you need to win, particularly as the last card in hold 'em or seven-card stud. "I nailed an ace on the river." 3) Catch someone cheating.
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| Nail-Pricking |
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Marking cards with one's fingernails, particularly sharp thumbnails.
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| Narrow the Field |
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To bet or raise in order to scare off other players whose hands are currently worse than yours, but have the potential to improve.
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| Natural |
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1) A card that is not wild. 2) In a wild-card game, a hand that does not contain any wild cards. For example, in deuces wild, a natural straight, such as 10-J-Q-K-A, would have no deuces.
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| Needle |
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Anger by means of verbal abuse, often by application of sarcasm. "You're gonna get punched in the nose if you keep giving him the needle."
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| Needle Artist |
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One who regularly applies the needle (Anger by means of verbal abuse, often by application of sarcasm.) to others.
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| Needler |
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Needle artist (One who regularly applies the needle (Anger by means of verbal abuse, often by application of sarcasm.) to others.).
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| Neener |
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9 (the card or the lowball hand)
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| Nevada Lettuce |
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A $1000 bill. Since such bills are no longer in circulation, the term is now rarely used.
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| Nick |
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Short for nickel, that is, a $5 chip.
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| Nickel |
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1) $5 or a $5 poker chip. Also called a red or a redbird. 2) A 5. In high poker, three nickels means three 5s. 3) In lowball, having a 5 as the second highest card. A nickel 8 is an 8-5.Five dollars, usually represented by a red casino check.
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| Nickel-Dime-Quarter |
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1) A small-stakes home game, with those being the chip sizes and betting limits. Usually, five cents is the smallest bet permitted and 25 cents the largest. Sometimes the nickel refers to the ante, the dime the minimum bet, and the quarter the largest. Also, quarter game. 2) Any small-stakes game.
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| Nickel-Dime-Quarter Game |
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Nickel-dime-quarter (A small-stakes home game, with those being the chip sizes and betting limits. Usually, five cents is the smallest bet permitted and 25 cents the largest. Sometimes the nickel refers to the ante, the dime the minimum bet, and the quarter the largest. Also, quarter game.).
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| Nickels and Dimes |
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Dime store (In lowball, a 10-5. For all meanings, also called nickels and dimes, Woolworth, or Barbara Hutton.).
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| Nina |
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9 (the card or the lowball hand)
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| Nine |
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In high poker, three 3s
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| Nine-Way Hand |
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1) Nine-way straight. 2) In the 52-card deck, a hand containing four cards to a flush.
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| Nit |
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To bide your time, patiently waiting for a playable hand.
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| Nits and Lice |
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In high poker, two small pair, usually 3s and 2s. Also called mites and lice, mits and mites.
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| No Gypsy |
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In the larger double-limit games, usually above 15-30, with a live blind, the situation in which players are not permitted to open by just calling the blind, that is, opening with a bet the same size as the blind. Thus, the minimum opening bet is always two bets.
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| No Pair |
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1) In high poker, a hand lower than one pair, usually named by its high card, as, for example, ace high. 2) In lowball, any hand without a pair. No pair usually implies a hand topped by a nondescript high card, as a 10 or worse, but some needle artists show down a good hand, like a 6, accompanied by the announcement, "No pair."
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| No Peeky |
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A poker game played only in private or home games, a form of five- or seven-card stud in which each player gets all his cards face down, and is not permitted to look at them. The first player to the left of the dealer rolls (that is, turns face up) one card, at which point there is a round of betting. The second player then rolls as many cards as it takes to beat what the first player has exposed, at which point there is another round of betting. This continues on around, with each player rolling only as many cards as it takes to beat the previous player's exposed cards, followed at each such point by a round of betting. If at any point a player exposes five cards that cannot beat the player to his right, that player is out. Sometimes called beat your neighbor.
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| No-Brainer |
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A hand so good that it can be correctly played even by someone with no brains. In lowball that would be a good 6 or better, and in high, aces full or better
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| No-Peek |
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A class of poker games where players do not get to see their cards before betting. Rarely played in public games.
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| No-Rebuy Tournament |
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Freeze-out tournament (A tournament in which players start with a specified amount and then can buy no further chips; once they lose their chips, they are out, as opposed to a re-buy tournament. The tournament continues until one player has all the chips. As players are eliminated, they may receive prizes based on the order of their elimination. For example, the final remaining player may win 50% of the prize pool, the next-to-last 25%, the third 10%, and so on.)
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| No-Spotter |
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An ace, deuce, trey, or the joker, so called because when the card is lying face down and you lift its lower right corner you see no spots. Some lowball players couple the knowledge that a card could be one of these but that they don't know which one with game theory to decide on whether or not to bet.
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| Noncomoquer |
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In lowball, a card that does not pair one in your hand (thus making specifically the hand you were drawing to). When a player makes a good hand, he may say, "I caught a noncomoquer." Comes from pan (panguingue).
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| Nonstandard Hand |
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Any of various hands not usually recognized as having value in card rooms and casinos, generally only found in draw poker. Nonstandard hands include hands such as big dog, little dog, big cat, little cat, kilter, skip straight, blaze, and the like. Also called freak hand, special hand.
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| Nose |
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Playing one's own money, as opposed to playing house chips.
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| Nose Open |
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On tilt (Playing poorly and irrationally due to emotional upset, often caused by the player in question having had a good hand beat by a freak draw from another player (often in complete disregard of the odds and good play) or the player having lost a pot because of his own bad play. Also called steaming, having one's nose open, opened up, unglued and being wide open). "He's got his nose open." Sometimes nose wide open.
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| Nose Wide Open |
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On tilt ( Playing poorly and irrationally due to emotional upset, often caused by the player in question having had a good hand beat by a freak draw from another player (often in complete disregard of the odds and good play) or the player having lost a pot because of his own bad play. Also called steaming, having one's nose open, opened up, unglued and being wide open). "He's got his nose open." Sometimes nose wide open.
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| Not Playing with a Full Deck |
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An honest deck, that is, one containing all the cards. From this came the phrase playing with a full deck, which originally meant playing honestly, but was later expanded to mean rationally, and usually used in the negative as not playing with a full deck, that is, crazy or crazily.
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| Notch |
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Just barely beat someone, usually by one card. In lowball, if your 8-6-7-3-2 loses to a 8-6-7-3-A, or, in hold 'em, your pair of aces K-Q-7 is beat by a pair of aces K-Q-8, you have been notched.
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| Nubbin |
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A very small amount of chips, or a very small profit.
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| Nucleus Players |
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The regular players in a game, usually a home or private game; those players around whom the game is built.
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| Number Hand |
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In ace-to-five lowball, a 6 or wheel (sometimes a "good" 7); so called because players often refer to these hands by their positions on the scale of hands, starting with number one for a wheel, number two for a 6-4, and so on.
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| Number One |
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In ace-to-five lowball, a wheel (A-2-3-4-5.).
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| Number Two Man |
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Seconds dealer (A mechanic (card manipulator) whose specialty is dealing the second card from the top. The reason for such a move is to hold back the top card, which he knows because he has peeked it, until he can deal it to himself, to a confederate, or to someone he is trying to cheat. Sometimes second dealer. Also called deuce dealer.)
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| Nursing |
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1) Fondling one's cards. 2) Playing extremely conservatively, usually with a small stack; usually followed by [one's] chips or stack.
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| Nut |
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1) Daily requirement. When a player refers to his nut, he means how much he has to win just to "break even." Anything over that is "gravy." 2) Overhead. For a card room, the nut is expenses, beyond which comes the profit. 3) Difficult situation; usually part of the phrase tough nut to crack. 4) In hold 'em, pertaining to the best possible hand at a given point in a pot; usually followed by flush or straight, sometimes by high or low. For example, if four spades are on the board, whoever has the ace of spades as one of his hole cards has the nut flush.
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| Nut Flush |
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In hold 'em, pertaining to the best possible hand at a given point in a pot; usually followed by flush or straight, sometimes by high or low. For example, if four spades are on the board, whoever has the ace of spades as one of his hole cards has the nut flush.
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| Nut Hand |
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In a given situation, an unbeatable hand.
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| Nut High |
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In any high-low game with community cards, the highest possible hand based on the cards showing.
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| Nut Low |
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In any high-low game with community cards, the lowest possible hand based on the cards showing.
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| Nut Straight |
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In hold 'em, pertaining to the best possible hand at a given point in a pot; usually followed by flush or straight, sometimes by high or low. For example, if four spades are on the board, whoever has the ace of spades as one of his hole cards has the nut flush.
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| Nut-Nut |
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In any high-low game, having both the best possible low and high. In a community card game, this means the best possible based on the cards showing. For example, in Omaha, with 3-4-5-K-Q of mixed suits (no three cards of the same suit) on the board, the nut low would be A-2 and the nut high 6-7, so a player having A-2-6-7 would have nut-nut. With A-2-3-3-K on the board, a player holding nut-nut would have 3-3-4-5, four treys for high and a wheel for low. The term is also sometimes more loosely used for hands that are nut low, near-nut (but obviously unbeaten) high.
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| Nuts |
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1) Very good hand; usually preceded by the. "Every time I get a good hand, they show me the nuts." Also, the berries, a duke, the Holy City, the Brazilians, the Brass Brazilians, the Royal Brazilians, the como se llamos, the watchamacallits, los cojones, the golyoonies, the World's Fair, and others. 2) The best possible hand at a given point in a pot.
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| Nuts Player |
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Someone who plays only the nuts, that is, a conservative player who rarely makes large bets (in a no-limit game) or rarely initiates the betting or raising (in a limit game), and then usually only with a strong hand
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| Nutted Up |
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1) Rocked up, that is, describing a very tight game, one full of nuts players. 2) Having made the nuts. "Just my luck: trying to bluff a rock when he's nutted up."
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