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Poker terms beginning with a "C"

Call

When a player before you has placed a bet, you can fold, call, or raise. Calling means placing the same number of chips in the middle of the table as your opponent has done so far.

Call the Clock

A procedure where a player calls for a timer to be put on another player who is taking an excessively long time to make a decision. The player typically has one minute to act, or their hand is declared dead.

Calling Station

A calling station is a derogatory term for a player who frequently calls bets and rarely raises, making them predictable and easy to read.

Cap

Cap refers to the number of raises that can be made per round.

Cap Game

A type of poker game where the maximum bet per hand is limited to a certain amount, often seen in Fixed-Limit games.

Card Dead

A situation where a player consistently receives poor starting hands over an extended period.

Case Card

The last card of a particular rank left in the deck. For example, if three queens are on the board, the fourth queen is the case card.

Cash Game

While in tournaments you pay your buy-in and then play with the chips you've received, in cash games, you actually bet real money during play. You can sit down and leave the table whenever you want. Another term used for this type of poker game is ring game.

Cash Out

In physical casinos, this means exchanging your chips for cash when you leave the premises. At online poker sites, this term refers to the transaction transferring money from your player account to your bank account or the extraction of funds via other payment methods.

Check

Similar to calling, this action allows a player to stay in a hand without investing more money. A check is only possible when no other player has placed a bet or made a raise before you.

Check-Raise

A check-raise is a poker strategy where you check despite having a strong hand, hoping to induce another player to bet. If this occurs, you then make a raise. This strategy is used to extract more chips from an opponent when you are confident you have the best hand. The only downside: the opponent can also check instead of betting.

Chip Dumping

A form of collusion where one player intentionally loses chips to another player to gain an advantage in a tournament.

Chip Leader

The chip leader is the player with the most chips in a tournament or cash game.

Clubs

One of the four suits of cards, alongside spades (e.g., Ace of Spades), hearts (e.g., Ace of Hearts), and diamonds (e.g., Ace of Diamonds).

Cold Call

Calling a bet after there has been a bet and a raise, without previously investing in the pot during that round.

Collusion

It's collusion when two or more players at the same table (or in the same tournament) cooperate to gain an unfair advantage over other players. In online poker, there have been many speculations and accusations in the past, some without any evidence, others proven. All of this has led online poker sites to invest more in security to ensure a safe poker environment. Nowadays, all respected online poker sites keep a hand history of all played cards, which are carefully reviewed in case of suspicion of collusion.

Community Cards

Community cards are cards that can be used by all players. In Texas Hold'em and Omaha, there are five community cards in the middle of the table, consisting of the flop, turn, and river.

Connectors

Two cards that are directly adjacent in value are called connectors, for example: King of Spades Queen of Hearts, 10 of Spades 9 of Hearts, 5 of Spades 4 of Hearts, and so on.

Continuation Bet (C-Bet)

A bet made by the player who took the lead in the betting during the previous round, often used to maintain aggression and pressure opponents.

Cooler

A situation where two strong hands clash, leading to an unavoidable loss for one player. For example, a set of kings losing to a set of aces.

Cut Card

The cut card is placed by the dealer after shuffling the cards as the bottom card of a stack. The reason for this is to prevent the actual bottom card of the stack from being visible while dealing the cards, which could give an advantage to a player who might see the card.

Cutoff

The player seated immediately to the right of the dealer. Also known as cutoff seat.

Cycle

In poker, to cycle through the deck means to go through all the cards in a deck over the course of multiple hands, often discussed in the context of shuffling and randomness.