GGPOKER

Welcome to the GGPoker Poker Glossary — your complete reference for poker terms and concepts. Use the jump links below to navigate, or browse the full list alphabetically.

0-9 & A | B | C | D | E-F | G-H | I-L | M-N | O-P | Q-R | S | T | U-W

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M-ratio | Made Hand | Maniac | MDF | Mechanic | Micro-Limit | Middle Pair | Middle Position | Misdeal | Missed Blind | Moneymaker Effect | Move In | MTT | Muck | Mystery Bounty | Nash Equilibrium | Nit | No Limit | Nosebleed Stakes | Nothing | Nut Flush Draw | Nuts

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M-ratio	A measure of tournament chip stack health relative to the cost of playing each round. Calculated by dividing your stack by the total blinds and antes per orbit. A low M means the pressure is mounting.
Made Hand	A complete hand that can win as-is, as opposed to a drawing hand that needs additional cards to become strong. Top pair is a made hand; a flush draw is not.
Maniac	A player who bets and raises at an extremely high frequency, often regardless of hand strength.
MDF	Minimum Defense Frequency. The smallest share of your hands you must keep calling or raising with, so an opponent can’t win just by bluffing every single time. The bigger their bet, the fewer hands you need to defend with.
Mechanic	A skilled cheater or fraudster who uses sleight of hand or other techniques to manipulate the deck and gain an unfair advantage over other players.
Micro-Limit	Games played at very low stakes – typically fractions of a cent to a few cents per blind online. The financial variance is minimal, which makes these tables popular for beginners or players building their bankroll from scratch.
Middle Pair	Pairing the middle-ranked card on the board with one of your hole cards. On a K-9-3 board, making a pair of nines is middle pair. It’s a made hand, but it’s vulnerable to anyone holding the top card.
Middle Position	Seats at the table between early and late position – typically between under the gun and the cutoff. You have more information than early position players but less than the button.
Misdeal	A hand that must be redealt due to a procedural error during the deal. Common triggers include a card (maybe 2 cards) being accidentally exposed face-up, a player receiving too many or too few cards, or cards being dealt out of sequence. What qualifies as a misdeal varies by setting. Some errors must be caught before any action to be declared a misdeal, while others can be raised at any point. The floor is typically called to confirm. Most cardrooms have specific written rules covering misdeal conditions.
Missed Blind	When a player fails to post a required blind on their turn, most commonly because they were away from the table or were seated late. To be dealt in, they typically must post the missed blind before receiving cards.
Moneymaker Effect	The description given for the poker boom that followed Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP victory. After watching an unknown everyman go on to win the Main Event, millions were inspired to play Texas Hold’em.
Move In	See All-In
MTT	Multi-Table Tournament. A tournament that starts with many players distributed across multiple tables and consolidates over time as players bust, until a single final table remains and eventually a winner is determined. Prize pools scale with field size and number of entries. The most prominent poker events, including the WSOP Main Event and GGPoker’s flagship series, are MTTs.
Muck	1) See Fold. 2) The pile of dead cards not currently in play.
Mystery Bounty	A tournament format found on GGPoker where bounties for eliminating opponents only start being paid once the field is In the Money. Bounty rewards are randomized and usually total half the total prize pool. While most bounty payouts are small, there will be some worth multiple buy-ins.
Nash Equilibrium	A game theory concept describing a situation where no player can improve their result by changing their own strategy alone, as long as everyone else keeps playing the same way. In poker, this idea is the foundation behind GTO strategy and push/fold charts.
Nit	A player who plays an extremely tight range, folding most hands and only getting involved with premium holdings.
No Limit	A betting structure with no cap on bet size. Players can wager any amount up to and including their entire stack at any point. No-limit Hold’em is the most widely played format.
Nosebleed Stakes	An informal term for the highest levels of poker, where blinds and buy-ins reach amounts unimaginable at most tables. There’s no fixed threshold, and the bar has shifted over time, but it generally refers to the very top tier of stakes being played. Named for the altitude, and the vertigo that comes with being that high. High-profile nosebleed sessions attract significant poker media attention, making the term familiar even to players who have never been, nor will ever be, seated in one.
Nothing	A hand with no pair or draw, relying entirely on a bluff to win. Also called Air.
Nut Flush Draw	A draw to the best possible flush in a hand, held by whoever has the highest remaining card, usually the Ace, of the relevant suit. For example, holding two spades including the Ace of spades with two spades on the board gives you the nut flush draw
Nuts	The nut hand is the best possible hand in a given situation. Players sometimes evaluate hands by ranking them as being the second nuts or the pure nuts.

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About the Author: Shawn Altbaum has been writing and editing in the online gaming industry since 2007, reporting live from the WSOP Main Event and conducting interviews with professional players. An active poker player, he combines industry expertise with firsthand knowledge of the games he covers. He currently serves as Global Head of Copywriting at NSUS Group, overseeing brand voice and content strategy across GGPoker.