Alue Standard Poodles

Sable is a tricky one! It presents many different way in Poodles. Genetically, they can be either brown or black based; pheonotypically they can look silver based like Kovu and red based like the bottom dog in the above collage, or cream . A very typical expression of sable you will see is a dog with a solid cream body with brown and black tipped ears. Genetically, sable is "Ay" and is the dominant A locus gene. Since sable can present in so many ways, I always suggest color testing. Sable can also present in a "phantom" pattern like Kovu, but it is important to know that a dog cannot be both sable and phantom as they are both located on the A locus. 
Sables (except for brown) should have dark eyes, and dark inky black pigment on their eyes rims, nose, lips, and paw pads. They should have black or self colored nails (for browns/reds that would be "liver" colored). Browns should have liver points, reds should have black points and dark eyes but can have liver points Apricots can have liver points with amber eyes but it is undesirable. 

Phantom is one of the more straight forward patterns. Phantom is a recessive on the A locus. Phantom in Poodles is what other breeds call "tan points" such as the coloring on a Doberman. However, phantom Poodles can be many more colors than just black and tan! Poodles can be black/red, black/cream, blue/cream, brown/cream, and even silver! A phantom will have leg and chest markings along with a color break on their face with their base color and their point color (point color referring to the cream/red coloring on chest/eyebrows/etc), along with markings on their back legs and under their tail. Some phantoms will hold their pattern, others will fade.
In this collage we have two silver phantoms on the top, both actually related! Halo was thought to be a blue phantom when she was brought home, but as she has matured she has really silvered out. On the bottom we have an exciting new addition, a phantom parti! Phantom partis will only retain their phantom phenotype on their faces as the parti patern will generally block all other coloring out. While it isn't a true Poodle term, some will refer to phantom parti's as tri color. Next we have a brindle phantom and to round it out a brown and cream phantom.
Phantoms should have dark eyes and dark inky black pigment on their eye rims, nose, lips, and paw pads. Reds should have dark points, but may have liver though it is undesirable. Apricots are preferred to have dark points and eyes, but they are allowed to have amber eyes and light points. Brown phantoms will only have liver points. Brown dogs, solid or multi, can only have brown points.

And now the one everyone knows, onto Partis!! Parti means a dog that is 50% white with any other color. So, not only do you have solid colors like blue, black, silver, red, cream, apricot, brown, café, silver beige, but you can also have sable parti, phantom parti, and brindle parti! You will also hear people talk about tuxedos, and that just refers to how the secondary color pattern presents, they are still parti Poodles.
Partis should have dark colored eyes with dark inky black pigment on their eye rims, nose, lips, and paw pads. Partis will sometimes have what is called a white haw showing on their eyes, which is acceptable. They should have black or self colored nails. Brown partis should have liver points, red partis can have liver points but it is undesireable, apricot partis can have amber eyes and liver points, but that is not preferred. 

Seal is one of those patterns that very, very little is known about it. Most dogs who are seal test as dogs that shouldn't show any color patterns, so we aren't really sure which locus it comes from. What is thought about it currently is that it has a play on the K locus, the A locus, or a modifier that works on one or both. There are seal Poodles who have a brownish coat color but they will have dark eyes and dark inky black eye rims, nose, lips, and paw pads. Brown based seal Poodles will have brown points and self colored nails.