Live

Live as an adjective has a number of meanings in poker:

= An Active Player's Hand =

A player's cards are described as being "live" if they are not yet dead, that is if they have not been discarded by the player or placed into the muck or killed through some other means. A player holding live cards is allowed to continue to participate in the hand being played; a player holding dead cards is not.

= Cards Which Are Not Held By Other Players =

In situations where one player can see another player's cards (not by cheating, but by the rules of the game), a card in one player's hand which does not have any cards of equivalent rank in other player's hands is called "live". Live in this context is good: a player generally wants live cards. The two most common situations where this term is used are:


 * In Hold 'Em tournaments when all but one active player is all-in

Normal tournament rules dictate that once all players in a hand are all-in except for one, all players must turn their hands face up prior to the subsequent board cards being dealt. Once this occurs, players can see the other players' holding and can evaluate their chances. The use of "live" is often seen when one player shoves all-in before the flop, and another player with more chips calls. The cards are turned up, and the player with the currently-worst hand hopes that they have "two live cards", that is, that neither of their two hole cards is shared by the other player. If they did share a card, then the player who is behind has a statistically much worse chance of winning the hand, since pairing that shared card would not help them (the player with the better hand would have a better kicker).


 * In Seven-card stud when analyzing the strength of one's hand

Basic strategy in seven-card stud is to determine the likelihood that a starting hand with a draw will become a made hand, or that a starting hand with a pair will become three of a kind. In order to do this, players look at other players' upcards to determine how many of their starting three cards are "live", that is, are not currently seen in other players' hands. "Live" can also (though less often) refer to cards of the same suit as one's starting hand, if one is contemplating trying to make a flush. It is again good to have live cards. For example, a player who starts 7-card stud with a hand like "(K-9) 7" would look at other players' upcards to determine if anyone is showing a King, Nine, or Seven. If no one is showing such cards, then all three of this player's starting cards are considered "live": that is, are most likely to be able to pair on fourth street.

= Poor Playing =

A poker player can be described as being a "live one" if they are generally poor and tend to lose money at the table. This is equivalent to being a "fish".

= A "One-Card Shared Low" =

In Omaha hi-lo and other games where players are trying to make a low for at least part of the pot and are restricted in how they may do so, a "live {card-rank}" is the name given to a low which is valid but is equivalent to a player "playing the board" except for their one card of the specified rank. Note that in some games, e.g. Omaha/8, the player is not allowed to actually play only one card from their hand, but a "live" low means that the player's low is the equivalent to what they would have if they were allowed to play only one card.

For example, in Omaha hi-lo, a player can only use three cards from the board and must play two from their hand. If the board is

and a player holds

then they are considered to hold a "live 3". Their low hand is 7-5-3-2-A, which is the hand they would hold if they were allowed to play only one card. When they play two cards, they play their 3-5 and the A-2-7 from the board. Notice that any other player holding a 3 and one of the other low cards from the board would tie this player: that is why using a name like "live 3" helps identify lows. All players with a live 3 have equivalent hands, but a player with a 6-3 in their hand would beat them (making 6-5-3-2-A low). A 6-3 on this board would not be a "live 3".

= A Bet That Can Still Be Increased =

Any player's initial bet is considered "live" if the player is guaranteed to have the option to raise that bet in the current betting round when the action gets back around to the player. The most common scenario where this is true is when players post blinds in games that have them. The blinds are considered live.

Note that a common house rule for what a player must post when returning from a break (if the player is not scheduled to be the big blind in the hand) is that the player must post an amount equal to both the small and big blinds, but only the amount of the big blind is considered "live": the small blind amount is considered dead money and is often physically separated from the big blind amount by the dealer, in order to emphasize that fact.

In this sense of the word, "live" is the opposite of dead money.

= Straddle =

When straddling in a limit game (and occasionally when doing so in a no-limit game), the straddle is described as being a "live {amount}", to emphasize its amount (so that later players know how much it is to call) as well as the fact that it is live, and can be increased by the player when the action returns to him.