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The game of poker has been around for decades, and the poker community has created a whole dictionary of terms and phrases that signify different things within the game. Among those terms are the various names for poker hands, often used as a substitution for the more standardized hand names.
If you sit at a live poker table, you will hear terms like the bullets, big slick, or snowmen used by players nonchalantly, and you will want to know what all of those mean.
While poker hand nicknames don’t serve any strategic purpose, they are a fun element of the game and something every serious poker player learns over the long hours spent at the tables.
If you are new to the game or a bit rusty on your poker vocabulary, keep reading and remind yourself of the most popular poker hand nicknames.
Pocket Aces is the strongest possible starting hand in the game of No Limit Hold’em, and as such, it has picked up quite a few nicknames over the years.
All the poker hand nicknames for pocket aces have an origin story, as you would expect. AA is the abbreviation used for the popular airline company American Airlines, which led to players often jokingly talking about Aces as “American Airlines.”
The pocket rockets nickname got its roots in the fact that Aces look like rockets but will also take you all the way to the moon and back when you end up in a big all-in holding this premium hand.
The bullets nickname has a similar origin, as pocket Aces are definitely the most dangerous and lethal weapon you can have at any poker table.
Ace-King is one of the most controversial hands in the game of poker. While it is one of the strongest starting hands, it is not a pocket pair, leading to many players often referring to it as “just another drawing hand.”
“The Big Slick,” as AK is often referred to, is the strongest poker hand that will lead you down a slippery slope and put you in some dangerous situations, perhaps as often as it will win a big pot.
Poker players jokingly coined the name “Anna Kurnikova” for AK, thanks to the initials of the famous Russian tennis player being on the cards and the hand is one that "looks good but never wins anything."
Back in the old days of the game, poker legend TJ Cloutier coined the term “Walking Back to Huston.” He used it to refer to Huston players coming to Dallas to play cards, losing all their money with AK, and walking back to Huston with empty pockets and a bad beat story.
Holding a pair of Kings in poker is almost as good as holding a pair of Aces, but definitely not quite as good.
Poker players often refer to pocket Kings as “Ace Magnets," as it seems like every time they hold KK, someone has AA or an Ace hits to flop to make their hand a bluff catcher at best.
The more popular poker hand nickname for KK is "The Cowboys" because the two sound alike, and "Cowboys" sounds more in the spirit of the game of Texas Hold’em.
You may hear some other poker hand nicknames used in reference to Kings, with four Kings often called “The Four Horsemen” in Biblical reference to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Pocket Queens is another super strong starting hand in the game of poker, and holding QQ is a sight for sore eyes for any player.
The nickname “Ladies” came to this popular poker hand quite naturally, as it is customary to call any Queen a lady, and a pair of them surely deserve the title.
Pocket queens are almost always called “The Ladies,” although some players sometimes use other words, such as "Gals," to refer to this particular starting hand.
There is a running joke in the poker community that there is no right way to play pocket Jacks which was originally coined by poker streamer Brad Owen, who also coined the term “Pocket Jiggities.”
However, whether you think this is true or not, you should understand that JJ is one of the strongest starting hands in the game and not to be frowned upon.
The letter J resembles a fish hook in appearance, which led to the creation of one of the most popular poker hand nicknames out there.
As already mentioned, “Pocket Jiggities" is another popular nickname for JJ, which you will often hear from younger players who are involved in the streaming community.
Holding an Ace and a Queen in a game of poker is a welcome sight at the poker tables, although AQ is probably a hand you don't want to get too attached to.
Over the years, AQ has been a hand to bust more players out of tournaments than probably any other, which has given it a bad reputation.
The most popular nickname for AQ is Anthony and Cleopatra, for obvious reasons. In this scenario, the A on the Ace is the initial for Roman general Mark Anthony, who was married to Queen Cleopatra, making this one of the most clever poker hand nicknames out there.
Out of all the poker hand nicknames, the two used for pocket Tens and pocket Fives may need the least explanation and may be obvious at first sight.
Pocket Tens are referred to as Dimes. While pocket Fives have the nickname, Nickels, referring to the American dollar coins of small denominations.
Dimes and nickels are actually often used to play super low-stakes home games in American households, so the terms have multiple uses in the poker world but are mainly used as popular poker hand nicknames.
A pair of Nines is a hand that you might get quite excited about when riding a short stack in a poker tournament but will normally play carefully in more deep-stacked games.
The hand got its most popular nickname for the best NHL player who ever played, Wayne Gretzky, who famously wore the number 99 on his jersey.
While pocket Nines are a good hand, they definitely don't hold the same kind of status that Gretzky does in his spot, but the nickname stuck, nevertheless.
Some players may also refer to 99 as “The Hellmuth” as this was the hand that gave poker legend Phil Hellmuth the 1989 WSOP Championship, which led to even greater things that “The Poker Brat” achieved later in his career.
Pocket Eights are another hand with plenty of value in the game of poker, but it isn’t one you will be too ecstatic to get unless you improve upon it on further streets.
Still, 88 is not cold as ice, so that’s not where this popular nickname comes from. Instead, 88 is called “Snowmen” simply because the number 8 resembles a snowman to some degree.
Fans of NASCAR also often call this hand Dale Jr, as 88 was the number of the car this legendary driver used to drive in the races.
Sevens may be super valuable in slots, but they are very average in poker, and a pair of Sevens is not much better either. Yet, you can win some huge pots if you can improve to a set of Sevens in Texas Hold’em, making this hand one you almost always want to play.
The most popular poker hand nicknames for 77 are candy canes and hockey sticks, both derived directly from the way the number 7 looks, similar to 88, 44 and some other poker hands.
Much like 88 is snowmen, and 88 is hockey sticks, a pair of fours is usually called “Sailboats” simply because the 4 on the card looks a bit like a sailboat.
Fans of the popular Star Wars trilogy have also come up with some clever references, such as calling it Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. The two have to do with the double use of the word fours/force and the popular phrase “May the Force be with you” in the films.
Whether you call them Sailboats, Dark Side of the Fours, or Darth Vader, your 44 won’t be too good unless another pops up on the flop, so make sure to be careful with this particular hand.
If you sit at a live poker table and start talking about a pair of "Twos," you are probably going to get some strange looks and possibly a few laughs.
That's because poker players generally call 22 pocket Deuces, and there isn't really a particular reason for it. Similarly, you should call your 33 Treys instead of Threes, and both nicknames have their origin in the French language.
Now, if you want to be a bit more creative, you can also call 22 "Ducks," and if you look at the number two long enough, you will definitely figure out why.
There are some poker hands that don’t have real nicknames despite being very popular and usually played when dealt, and JT and QT fall into this category.
For that reason, people often use the two letters to create new nicknames, and Quentin Tarantino and Justin Timberlake are two that are often used to refer to QT and JT.
That said, you can absolutely make up a unique hand nickname in your home game if you happen to have a person in there whose name starts with these initials, and the same goes for hands like KJ, KT, and any other Broadway cards.
Holding a Ten and a Deuce is never considered a favorable outcome of a Texas Hold’em deal, but this hand has a very special meaning for one legendary poker player.
Doyle Brunson won not one but two consecutive WSOP Main Events holding these cards in the final hand, which has made T2 a legendary hand.
In poker rooms around the world, people will talk about being dealt “Doyle” and overplay this hand to no end just to “honor the legend.”
While we absolutely don’t recommend playing T2 in almost any scenario, make sure to remember this hand nickname so you are clear on what’s going on the next time it comes up at the poker table.
Chris Moneymaker is one of the most legendary poker players out there, as his 2003 WSOP Main Event victory sparked “the poker boom” and started a whole new era for the game of poker.
Chris famously held 54 in the last hand of that event, playing heads-up for the title against legendary gambler Sammy Farha.
Had Farha won the tournament, 54 would certainly not be called "the Moneymaker," and many of us may never have found poker in the first place.
The poker world owes a great debt to Moneymaker, and calling this particular hand by his name is a great way to pay respect where respect is due.
The origin of many poker hand names is pretty dull and mundane, but this is one of the most recognizable exceptions.
According to the legend, Wild Bill Hickok, a legend of the Wild West, was shot from the back and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota.
The legend was shot during a hand of Five Card Stud, and when the dust settled, his hand was revealed as two pairs of aces and eights.
To this day, holding two pair of aces and eights is considered bad luck by some, while even being dealt A8 to start the hand is often called holding “the Dead Man’s Hand.”
If you have an Ace-high straight on a board that isn’t paired and doesn’t have three cards of the same suit on it, you are holding the best possible hand.
This hand, the Ace-high straight, is called “Broadway” universally around the world. Each of the cards making up the “Broadway” is called a Broadway card as well, and you will even encounter this term when learning poker through serious training courses.
The next time someone tells you they held "Broadway," remember that they are talking about the best possible straight and let them tell you their bad beat story to the end.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from "Broadway" is "The Wheel," which is the lowest possible straight in any game of poker.
Made up of the five lowest cards, "the Wheel" is still a powerful hand in many cases and is especially highly regarded in split-pot games such as PLO8 and Stud8.
There are many poker hands that you don’t want to play too often, but 72 is definitely one that you want to fold practically every time.
Statistically the worst hand in poker, 72 is often referred to as “the Hammer.” The logic behind this name is that holding 72 is as useless as holding a hammer at the poker table.
Of course, if you want to really spice things up, you can always start playing the popular 72 game, which you have probably seen played in some TV cash games, as this is the only way to give “the Hammer” some value.
Finally, another term that has to do with poker hand nicknames is "the Nuts." This is the one you will probably hear the most, although it doesn't refer to any particular card combination.
If a player at the poker table announces they have "the Nuts," it means that they have the best possible combination of cards at that point.
Before the flop, “the Nuts” means AA, while it can mean a whole host of hands depending on the board texture on later streets.
The next time you have the best possible hand, you can also announce “the Nuts” and watch everyone else throw their cards into the muck in disgust.
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