Poker Glossary

Push/fold, ICM, and the tournament terms that come up around them - each answered directly, then pointed at the solved chart, calculator, or guide that takes it further.

B

Bubble Factor

Bubble factor is the ratio between the tournament equity you'd lose by busting a confrontation and the equity you'd gain by winning it. A factor of 1 means the spot is chip-EV neutral; above 1, you need more than 50% equity to profitably get the chips in.

The term comes from Lee Nelson, Steven Heston, and Tysen Streib's Kill Everyone. It isn't a property of the pot - it's a property of each player's own stack and tournament life relative to the payout structure, which is why the same all-in can have a very different bubble factor for each player in it.

Bubble Factor Calculator →

C

Calling Range

A calling range is the hands a player continues with against another player's raise or shove, rather than folding - at push/fold depths, that usually means calling all-in.

Chip Chop

A chip chop is a way to split a tournament's remaining prize pool: every player is guaranteed the last paid prize, then the rest of the pool is divided in exact proportion to chip count.

It's simpler and easier to explain at the table than an ICM chop, but less accurate - it ignores the extra value a short stack gets from being unable to lose more than it already has. In practice, chip leaders tend to push for a chip chop and short stacks tend to push for an ICM chop, because the gap between the two always favors the short stack.

ICM Calculator →

E

Effective Stack

The effective stack in a hand is the smaller of the stacks involved - the most that can actually change hands, since neither player can win or lose more than the shorter stack has in front of them.

If you have 40bb and the only other player left in the hand has 12bb, the effective stack for that confrontation is 12bb, even though your own stack is much deeper - the extra 28bb simply can't come into play against that opponent. Multiway, the effective stack against each opponent can differ, which is exactly why push/fold charts are built per stack depth rather than per literal chip count: the chart applies to whatever the effective stack actually is in the hand you're in, not the number on your own stack.

What Is an Effective Stack? →

Exploit

An exploit is a deliberate deviation from a balanced (GTO) strategy, built to take extra value from one opponent's specific known tendency - folding more against someone who folds too much, calling wider against someone who bluffs too much.

An exploit wins more than a GTO strategy against the exact tendency it targets, but it gives up balance to get there - if that opponent adjusts, the same deviation that was profitable becomes exploitable right back. That tradeoff is the whole reason GTO and exploit are treated as two separate, situational skills rather than one “correct” strategy.

GTO vs. Exploit →

F

Final Table Deal

A final table deal is an agreement among the remaining players to redistribute the prize pool by some formula - usually an ICM chop, a chip chop, or a hybrid of the two - instead of playing the tournament out to a single winner.

Fold Equity

Fold equity is the extra value a bet or shove carries from the chance an opponent folds, on top of whatever raw equity the hand has if it actually gets called.

It's the reason a weak hand can still be a profitable all-in: even a hand that's a significant underdog when called can show a profit overall if it wins the pot uncalled often enough. Fold equity is highest against tighter opponents and shrinks toward zero against opponents who call almost everything - which is exactly the kind of read an exploit deviation is built to use.

What Is Fold Equity? →

G

GTO

GTO stands for Game Theory Optimal - a strategy derived from game theory that can't be exploited, because it's already balanced against every possible counter-strategy an opponent could try.

Playing GTO means never leaning far enough toward any one action that an opponent can profitably counter it. It's the same concept as a Nash equilibrium strategy, applied to poker specifically - the free ranges on this site are chip-EV GTO solves, unexploitable by construction.

GTO vs. Exploit →

I

ICM

ICM stands for Independent Chip Model - the standard formula for converting tournament chip stacks into real prize-pool equity, given the payout structure and every stack at the table.

It exists because tournament chips, unlike cash-game chips, can't be cashed out at a fixed rate - a stack's dollar value depends on how many players are left, how many places pay, and what those places pay, not just its chip count. ICM prices all of that in, which is why the same hand can be a clear shove for chip-EV and a clear fold once real money is on the line.

What Is ICM? →

ICM Chop

An ICM chop splits a tournament's remaining prize pool according to each player's real Independent Chip Model equity, rather than raw chip count.

It's the more accurate of the two common deal-making methods, since it correctly values the extra security a short stack has from being unable to lose more than its own stack. The tradeoff is that it costs the chip leader more than a simple chip-count split would, which is exactly why a hybrid deal - somewhere between a full ICM chop and a chip chop - is common when the leader won't agree to pure ICM.

ICM Calculator →

M

Min-Cash

A min-cash is finishing in the lowest paid position of a tournament - the smallest prize that still counts as making the money, as opposed to busting on the bubble and winning nothing at all.

N

Nash Equilibrium

A Nash equilibrium is a set of strategies, one per player, where no player can improve their result by changing their own strategy alone. In poker, “GTO” and “Nash equilibrium” describe the same target: a strategy that can't be exploited, only matched.

P

Push/Fold Poker

Push/fold is a simplified preflop strategy for short stacks: every decision collapses to two options, move all-in (“push”) or fold, instead of the raise/call/re-raise menu a deeper stack has available.

It isn't a simplification made for convenience - it's usually the mathematically correct one. Once an effective stack gets short enough, a standard open-raise leaves too little behind to fold profitably to real aggression, and raising anything less than all-in just telegraphs a hand you can't defend. At that depth, if a hand is worth playing at all, it's almost always worth shoving.

The exact depth where push/fold takes over depends on position and format, but 15-20bb effective is the common starting point, tightening to “always” by around 10bb.

Short Stack Poker Strategy →

R

Risk Premium

Risk premium is the extra equity a player needs above the raw pot-odds breakeven point before an all-in becomes profitable, once tournament survival itself is worth something beyond the chips at stake.

S

Satellite Tournament

A satellite is a tournament where the prize isn't cash but entry into a bigger event - and every seat awarded is worth exactly the same, no matter which paid position a player finishes in.

That flat payout structure changes strategy completely. In a normal tournament, doubling up is always worth something. In a satellite, once a stack is deep enough to be a near-lock for a seat, doubling up buys nothing further - the outcome is still just “one seat” - while busting loses everything. That's the specific, narrow situation where folding the best hand at the table can be the correct play.

Satellite ICM Calculator →

Short Stack

There's no official cutoff, but the useful dividing lines are around 20bb effective (where postflop play starts collapsing toward push/fold), 15bb (push/fold for almost every position), and 10bb (push/fold everywhere, no exceptions).

“Short” is relative to what's actually threatened in a hand, not an absolute chip count - a 20bb stack is short at a table full of 100bb stacks and completely normal at a table where everyone has 18-25bb. What matters strategically is the effective stack in any given confrontation, since that's the number that decides whether raise-fold is still a live option or the hand is already push/fold.

Short Stack Poker Strategy →

Shoving Range

A shoving range is the full list of starting hands that move all-in profitably from a given position at a given stack depth - the output of a push/fold solve, usually shown as a 13x13 grid.

T

The Bubble

The bubble is the stretch right before a tournament starts paying out - the money bubble specifically is the single spot where the next player eliminated wins nothing and everyone else left cashes.