200 Timeless Poker Insults

by Rich McComas (updated Apr 24, 2004)

 

Please send me an email at rich@holdemsecrets if you know of anything that should be included in this list.  I have gathered terms for weak or predictable players, sharks, and cheats.  The year shown in parentheses is a year this term was found published in a poker book.

 

Cheaters:

Agent - An illegal partner helping someone cheat (1979)
Base Dealer - Bottom dealer (1979)
Bottom Dealer - A Cheat who Deals from the bottom of the deck (1984)
Card Mob - Two or more players working as a team to cheat others (1979)
Cellar Dealer - A Cheat who Deals from the bottom of the deck (1991)
Chiseler - Someone who borrows money and doesn't pay it back (1979)
Colluder - Someone who cheats with another player in the game ()
Confederate - An illegal partner helping someone cheat (1979)
Crumb Bun - Someone who borrows money and doesn't pay it back (1979)
Flat - Crooked (1984)
Good Man - A skilled poker cheat (1979)
Greek - A crooked player (1949)
Gyp - A poker crook or cheat (1979)
Hand Mucker - A card cheat who specializes in palming, holding out of play and reintroducing valuable cards into a game (1979)
Holdout Artist - A cheat who doesn't divide his winnings fairly with his confederates (1979)
Mechanic (Card) - A crooked dealer, One who unfairly manipulates the cards (1967)
Moustache - A term of oppobium, a no-good person (1984)
Number Two Man - Someone who specializes in dealing the second card from the top (1991)
Paper Worker - A cheat who uses marked cards (1991)
Paperhanger - A person who passes bad checks (1979)
Partners - A team of players in a sophisticated poker game using signals to cheat others (1979)
Philosopher - European term for a card cheat (1967)
Scammer - One who colludes with another player to seek an advantage (1984)
Second Dealer - One who deals seconds, who cheats as a dealer (1991)
Seconds Dealer - One who deals seconds, who cheats as a dealer (1984)
Sharp (Card) - A cheater who manipulates the deck (1984)
Sharper - A crooked player (1949)
Shill - A crooked accomplice, or a house man (1949)
Subway Dealer - Bottom dealer (1979)
Thief - A cheat, usually a mechanic or a scammer (1984)
Tommer - Bad person, opposite of George, which is imitative of great (1984)
Welsher - Someone who reneges on a lost wager or debt (1979)
Zebra - A poker player who has served time in Jail (1949)
 

Sharks:

Angle Shooter - One who takes unfair advantage of another player (1984)
Bird Dog - Someone who hustles players from one club to another (1984)
Blind Robber - Someone with weak cards who forces the blinds to fold (1984)
Boys - Racketeers who finance games (1979)
Coffeehouser - One who attempts to mislead by excessive speech or gestures (1979)
Cow - Someone half-staked by another player or by the house (1984)
Crossroader - Someone who travels over the country seeking poker games where he can ply his trade (1979)
Heavy - A big-time mobster (1979)
Hustler - A player who takes advantage of the ignorance of his victims (1967)
Jesse James - A pot stealer, a bluffer (1984)
Needle Artist - One who verbally angers another person, often through sarcasim (1984)
Needler - One who puts another person on tilt (1984)
Philistines - Loan sharks (1979)
Proposition Hustler - Someone who offers betting propositions that appear to be fair on first glance, but are not (1979)
Proposition Player - Someone paid a salary to play, but playing with their own money (1984)
Rounder - A player who making the rounds visiting various poker games, not as negative as Hustler (1979)
Sandbagger - One who check-raises (1984)
School Buddies - A group of players who usually play together ()
Shark (Card) - A keen or crooked professional player (1949)
Sheet Player - One who plays for the house, who is on the sheet of house stakes or cows (1984)
Stake Player - Someone playing with someone else's money, therefore having no personal risk (1984)
Vaca Vaca - Spanish for cow, someone who is half-staked (1984)
Zombie - A player who seems to have no emotions (1991)
 

Weak Players:

ATM - someone who needs to go back to the ATM for more money (2004)
Automatic - someone who automatically raises every time (2004)
Bear - An extremely tight player (1967)
Bird - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Bonus Baby - (2004)
Bulldozer - Player who raises too often (1949)
Bumblepuppy - A weak or careless player, a novice (1949)
Caller - (2004)
Calling Station - Someone who calls other betters too often (2003)
Canary - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
C-Game Player - Player in a Third class game (1949)
Chicken - A weak player, stingy (1949)
Chippy - An inexpert poker player (1979)
Chopper - Someone who plays briefly in several games, wins and leaves the table (1984)
Chump - A weak player, a sucker (1949)
Circus Tent - A bunch of a horrible players (clowns) at the same table (2004)
Clown - A horrible player (2004)
Cowboy - A fast and reckless gambler (1979)
Crier - One who complains a lot while playing (1984)
Crying Winner - One who complains a lot while winning trying to convince others he is not winning (1984)
Culbertson - A bridge player in a poker game (1949)
Customer - A caller whose chips you expect to win (1949)
Dog - An underdog, someone favored to lose (1992)
Ducks - Fish that swim above water (2004)
Duffer - An elderly or experienced player who's game is weak (1949)
Ear Bender - An excessively talkative player (1979)
Easy Mark - (2004)
Easy Money Guy - Someone who gambles big and blows his winnings (1979)
Elephant - Player who plays too many hands (2003)
Fence Hopper - Someone who comes in cold to a pot (1984)
Fish - A losing caller, a weak player (1949)
Gallery - Those who are watching the game only (1949)
Gambler - (2004)
Gamemaker - (2004)
Gayboy - (2004)
Girl - (2004)
Gooner - (2004)
Goose - A silly player (1949)
Greenhorn - A new player (1949)
Greenie - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Grifter - (2004)
Grinder - Someone who plays tighter than he usually does (1984)
Guppy - a little fish (2004)
Hardrock - Extremely tight player (1984)
Hellmuth - because they complain about people drawing for a flush, str8, etc (2004)
Hit and Run Artist - Someone who plays briefly in several games, wins and leaves the table (1984)
Hitchhiker - A fool who calls a large bet (1984)
Holdem Player - someone who plays 7-card stud with a holdem background (2004)
Hollywood - Someone who is overacting, feigning a different hand than they really have (1984)
Horse - To make a silly play whose only virtue is cheapness (1949)
Jackal - Crazy, illogical, and unpredictable player (2003)
Jerk - A hanger-on around gambling joints who runs errands for players (1979)
Jinx - Cursed by bad luck (1949)
Jonah - A player in bad luck. Anyone who brings bad luck (1949)
Keno Player - someone who thinks poker is a game of chance (2004)
Kibitzer - An onlooker, not a player, from the German "kibitz," a species of bird that watches other birds while they build their nests (1949)
Live One - fish, a very loose player, usually one who loses (1984)
Lob - A hanger-on around gambling joints who runs errands for players (1979)
Lobster - One who is prey to crooked gamblers (1949)
Lock 'em up Joe - One who only bets on a cinch hand (1949)
Lollipop - (2004)
Loose Player - A player who gets involved in most pots regardless of whether he holds a weak or strong hand (1979)
Loosey - An extremely loose player (1984)
Loser - A losing player (1984)
Low Man on the Totem Pole - The loser in a showdown (1949)
Lowroller - (2004)
Lugger - A person who transports players to a game, not a steerer (1979)
Mamma's Boy - (2004)
Maniac - Loose aggressive player who raises a lot (2003)
Mark - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Money Burner - (2004)
Moneymaker - a shooting star, coming from nowhere, after Chris Moneymaker (2004)
Monkey - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Mooch - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Mouse - Someone who plays too conservatively (2003)
Mullet - an oily fish that can easily be caught by the dozens with one cast (2004)
Old Man - (2004)
On Tilt - One who plays poorly and irrationally, often because of needling or a bad beat (1984)
Pensioner - (2004)
Pheasant - An experienced poker player, the target (1979)
Phony - A person who pretends to be something they are not (1979)
Pigeon - A very poor player (1984)
Playboy - (2004)
Policeman - same as Sherriff (2004)
POS - Piece of Shit (2004)
Producer - Someone who brings a lot of money to a game and puts it into circulation, allowing many people to win a part of it (1984)
Punk - A small-time character or chiseler, a young novice who hangs around poker games (1979)
Quack - A noisy complaining player when losing (1979)
Quitter - Someone who can't stand the pressure and leaves after losing a big pot (1979)
Rabbit - A greenhorn, a weak player (1949)
Railbird - Someone watching from the rail who is too broke to get into the game (1984)
Retarded Pit Bull - won't let go once he catches the slightest bit of hand (2004)
Retiree - (2004)
Richboy - (2004)
Rock - Extremely tight player, or a player who won't lend any money (1984)
Rock and Roller - (2004)
Rockman - (2004)
Rocky - A very tight player (1984)
Salty - Having poor luck (1984)
Second Fiddle - The player with the second best hand (1949)
SFB - someone who has shit for brains (2004)
Sheriff - Someone who calls others to make sure they aren't bluffing (2003)
Shirley - A timid player, having no gamble (1984)
Shit GG - someone who types this in online games because they lose, and say "shit, good game" (2004)
Sick Friends - Substantial losers (1949)
Slider - Someone who frequently goes all-in (2003)
Soft - (2004)
Soft Touch - (2004)
Speedbump - one who slows down the game (2004)
Speeder - One who plays recklessly and fast (1984)
Speedster - (2004)
Square - Someone playing with no advantage (1984)
Squawker - One who complains about losing (1949)
Steamer - (2004)
Stiff - An unlucky player (1979)
Stoney - A name for a very tight player (1984)
Stranger - A newcomer unknown to other players (1949)
Sucker - A caller with little chance to win, a weak player (1949)
Table Captain - a control freak at the table, telling the dealer what to do (2004)
Tapioca - Tapped out, broke (1984)
Tapped Out - broke, tapped on the shoulder to leave the game, or leave a dance competition (1984)
Tight Ass - Playing very conservatively, showing no gamble (1984)
Tilter - (2004)
Tinhorn - ()
Travel Channel Player - (2004)
Trick - Poor player, from pimp slang (1984)
Trust Fund Baby - (2004)
Unpaid Shill - A player who is the first person to open the game and the last to quit (1979)
Vice President - The player with the second best hand in a showdown (1949)
Weak - (2004)
Weakie - (2004)
Weakster - (2004)
Whitebait - Weak players, those who play only for small stakes (1949)
Wildman - (2004)
Wimp - (2004)
Wuss - (2004)
Z-Game Player - Players in the worst game in the house (1949)

 

The terms listed above were found primarily in the following sources:

 - Secrets of Winning Poker, by Coffin, 1949

 - Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker, 1979

 - Free Money, by Wiesenberg, 1984

 - Poker Strategy and Winning Play, by Livingston, 1991

 - Play Poker Like the Pros, by Hellmuth, 2003

 - newsgroup discussion in rec.gambling.poker, 2004

 

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