Under the gun: The seat immediately left of the big blind, first to act before the flop.
Under the gun acts first preflop with the entire table still to speak, which is the worst possible information position.
Correct play from here is much tighter than most players run: strong pairs, strong broadway hands, and little else at a full table. Every hand opened from this seat must survive the possibility of a raise from any of eight players behind.
The name comes from a much older game and simply means first to act under pressure.
Where the numbers come from
Related terms in poker
- Pot odds — The price a call is getting, compared against how often it needs to win.
- Outs — The cards remaining that would improve your hand to a likely winner.
- Equity — Your share of the pot, meaning how often you win it if the hand plays to showdown.
- Implied odds — The money you expect to win later if your draw comes in, beyond what is in the pot now.
- Position — Where you act in the betting order, and the largest structural edge in poker.
- Button — The dealer position, which acts last on every postflop street.
Where an entry quotes a number, that figure comes from the computed sections of this site rather than from another glossary, so the definition and the derivation cannot drift apart. Each entry links to the page where the number is worked out.