The following sets of playing cards can be referred to by the corresponding names in card games that include sets of three or more cards, particularly 3 and 5 card draw, Texas Hold 'em and Omaha Hold 'em. The nicknames would often be used by players when revealing their hands, or by spectators and commentators watching the game. With TV and web broadcasting of Poker tournaments, nicknames became much more popular all over the world.[according to whom?]
Card initials
Alternative names
♣ flush
Golf Bag (set of clubs), Puppy Feet, Puppy Prints (from the design of the club)
Big Slick Did the Trick (a rhyme, if the appropriate two-pair hand is formed from the AK starting hand (aka Big Slick); poker professionals will tend to bet aggressively with this hand)
DUPLEX (Any two cards can be used. Basically two sets of trips. Instead of a 5-card hand called "Full House" you have a 6-card hand which makes a "bigger full house" or Duplex)
KKKAA
The Nativity (the famous Biblical story in which the Three Wise Men visit Joseph & Mary to witness Jesus Christ's birth)
Convenience Store Straight, Honeymoon in Vegas (if it loses, based on a scene from the movie of the same name)
TTTT
Larry (after Larry Fortensky, Elizabeth Taylor's eighth husband), Shotgun
TTT
Thirty Miles of Bad Road, Elk River, Gilroy, Judge Bean, Judge Duffy, Judge Judy, Judge Wapner, San Jose to Gilroy (approximate distance in miles between the two cities), Dallas to Fort Worth (ditto), Judas (his pay was "thirty pieces of silver")
TT
Fingers n' Toes (ten of each), Dubs Dimes, Duff McKagan, Top Titties
TJAAT
Golden String
TT33
Hot Waitresses (Tens with treys)
TK42A
Star Wars, Stormtrooper (Why aren't you at your post?)
The following is a list of nicknames for pairs of two playing cards, usually hole cards, used in poker derivatives such as Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em poker. These nicknames are usually used by the player when announcing their hand or by spectators or commentators who are watching the game.
Ace higher card
Card initials
Alternative name
Explanation
AA
Alan Alda
An alliteration, Alan Alda was the star of the television version of M*A*S*H[8]
AA like a AA battery commonly used in portable electronic devices
Big Smoke
AA is a strong pre-flop favorite ("smokes") over Big Slick (AK) or any other two-card hand.
Bullets
Looks like bullets, possibly a reference to the Dead Man's Hand, two pair of aces and eights, suggesting that Wild Bill drew a third bullet in the back, which filled his hand in death[8]
Named after the Norwegian rapper Arian Kollen. His initials are A K, and he has also won some considerable pots with this hand.
Walking Back to Houston
Gamblers who played this hand too strongly were often left with no getaway money.[8] Although other sources state its name was derived because the old time poker players would play this hand so well that they'd leave their opponents walking back to Houston[17]
Inspired by characters from René Goscinny's The Adventures of Asterix. Asterix represents the Ace due to the matching initial with Obelix representing the 8 due to their similar shape.
A7
Slapshot
Nicknamed Slapshot as a hockey reference as sevens are sometimes called hockey sticks and aces are bullets[19]
Aces are synonymous with flying (e.g., 'Flying Nazis', 'Pocket Rockets' and 'American Airlines') probably due to the shape of the 'A', a '4' is like an 'A', but with a missing 'wing', hence Plane Crash
No explanation found. The nickname is probably given for a number of reasons, including the association between cowboys and playing poker, the similarity between the "K" of "King" and the "C" of "Cowboys" and both characters are male. It could also come from a common nickname of the King card - the "Cowboy".
The "signature hand" of "Bill Fillmaff", a character parodying poker professionals in general and Phil Hellmuth in particular, portrayed by Internet personality Kevin Bowen[35]
Kalashnikov Jikita
Russian poker player Nikita Kalashnikov won $200 with this hand in an online poker room in 2020.
Mimics KJack,[8] thanks to the '70s crime drama starring Telly Savalas, who was himself a poker player and occasional participant in WSOP Main Events[32]
Milton Butts and I were playing poker in Bryan, Texas, where they had a good game going on the weekends. We'd been playing for a couple of days when a hand came up in which I had a K-9. I made a pretty good hand with it, but lost the pot and went broke. As I was driving back home to Houston with Milton, feeling kind of disgusted about going broke with that K-9, we passed by a sawmill where a man was sawing logs in the lumberyard. "As hard as that guy works for his money, I'll bet he would never go broke with a K-9", I told Milton. And that's how K-9 got named "Sawmill." Some of those names are still going around – Doyle Brunson mentioned the sawmill hand in his book, Super/System[37]
The nickname refers to Seattle's NBC affiliate, channel 5 with call letters KING Seattle TV channel 5 based in King County, Washington, United States. Their news team's slogan is "The Home Team"[30]
No explanation found, but the nickname is likely to come from Cowgirls the female equivalent of Cowboys (KK). Calamity Jane was also a friend of Wild Bill Hickok, a gunfighter who died during a poker game.
Because they're the only female cards. Queens tend to have derogatory names, especially when they lose, so Ladies is more likely to be used when they win.
From the Maverick TV show theme song, "Livin' on jacks and queens. Maverick is a legend of the west"[8]
Hawaii
According to the pros if you don't play QJ for a year you'll save enough money to go there.
Oedipus
an allusion to Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the ancient Greek tragedy in which Oedipus (the "J" in this pairing) unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother, Jocasta (the "Q")[32]
From an apocryphal story that a computer proved that these were the most commonly occurring cards on the Flop.[42]
There is also a story of an early computer simulation in which Q7 was a break-even hand[8][2]
Nickname for the IBM Q7 (AN/FSQ-7) SAGE computer. This type of vacuum tube computer was physically the world's largest computer ever built.
Named after the Jacks from the card game Euchre where jacks are the highest trumps and are called bowers, in turn from the German Bauer (literally, farmer)
After Mark Twain's novel set in 1547, which tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII. They end up changing places.
Heckle and Jeckle
Nicknamed Heckle and Jeckle after twin cartoon jaybirds (2 Jays) that first appeared on television in 1946 (Heckle and Jeckle were, in fact, magpies).[30]
Jack Shit
Popular English phrase referring to "nothing", in this context referring to the fact there is a Jack with the worst possible kicker and also something widely regarded among poker players as a "nothing" hand.
A term Antonio Esfandiari coined for his favorite hand, making joking reference to his Persian heritage. He used the term on Poker After Dark, apparently after his friends teased him about the hand, no further explanation given.[51] However, Esfandiari also used the term on the commentary track of the World Poker Tour Season 2 DVD set, so the term dates back to at least 2004.
49 refers to San Francisco's Football team, the 49ers, which in turn refers to men of the 1849 gold rush in the Sierra Nevada mountains east of San Francisco[27]
Sandy Dunlop became 2013 champion of the Black Cat Poker tournament with these hole cards
92
Montana Banana
It is a widely asserted myth that this nickname originates from the legalization of poker in Montana by Proposition 92. However, poker was legalized in Montana by the Card Games Act, 23-5-311.[52] The nickname is referring to how it is more likely that bananas will grow in chilly Montana than that this hand will make money.[42]
Other sources suggest it is Joe Montana's quarterback rating[19]
The California Grand, in Pacheco is right alongside Highway 680.
85
The Hamilton
This hand is so named after a well known Scottish player. It is of course not a powerful hand but can on occasion make a well disguised straight. Its main function, though, is to tilt other players.[8]
Chad
Football player Chad Ochocinco wears uniform number 85. Ochocinco, translated literally from Spanish, means "Eight Five."
A Double Down is a player decision in Blackjack, in which you are betting that your hand can be won with one more card. A player may only double down on his first two cards dealt. When a player doubles down, the original bet is automatically doubled (a second chip appears) and the player receives one more card.[58] Since there are more 10 point cards than any other, doubling down is most worthwhile on an 11-point hand, 7-4 being worth 11 points.
Joseph Hachem won the 2005 World Series main event holding 7♣3♠ when the flop came 4♦5♦6♥[27]
Swedish Busboy
Sven with a Tray, see also San Francisco Busboy and Dutch Waiter[8]
72
Beer Hand (offsuit)
It's called the Beer Hand because it's either time for a beer; or if you win with this you need to get other players a beer; or only a person full of beers would play this hand.[27]
The beer hand has the worst chance of winning of all possible pocket cards in a full table playing Texas Hold'em. It is slightly better in short-handed games because the fact that it is not possible to make a straight or flush without hitting four appropriate community cards is less important in short-handed games.[59]
The Hammer isn't specifically the 72 hand. At least not officially. In poker, the hammer is defined as the last position (the cut-off), particularly when you're heads-up. The 72 offsuit got the nickname as a result of a competition to play "The Hammer" on "The Hammer" and has been adopted into legitimate Oxford Dictionary poker parlance[60]
Royal Arlo if suited, named after Arlo Payne, a long time regular poster to the usenet newsgroup rec.gambling.poker[citation needed]
63
Blocky
Another nickname of Broomcorn from the story in Doyle Brunson's Super/System. He used to play 63 as an ambush hand[8]
Jimmy Summerfield (offsuit)
Kevin Larsen says:
One time while playing with Jimmy, she [the dealer] had noticed that trash cards were hitting the flop quite often especially 6's and 3's, so Jimmy wins a huge pot after she told him to play the 63 off he was holding. Thus was born the "Jimmy Sommerfield".
Once, while playing down on the coast, a player wins a big pot. He slaps his cards down on the table and announces "I've got a Jimmy Somerfield!". Then Jimmy says "Let me introduce myself", and shows the player his ID.
I was dealing a four eight game one night to Jimmy, a few other dealers and a bunch of locals. A fairly loose game. The pot is capped six or eight way action. Jimmy announces preflop "I've got my hand !" Nobody believes him when the flop comes 6 6 3 He gets four or five callers to the river. Monster Pot![62]
I was in San Antone playing a big no-limit game with Jack Straus, Sen. Red Berry, and a bunch of the old-time players. Jack was on top of you all the time, but in full ring games, he wasn't as tough as he was shorthanded or heads up. He had two aces and I took the flop with a 6-2. A deuce came on the flop, he made a bet, and I called him. Off came another deuce on the turn, he bet, and I called him. A third deuce came on the river and we got all in. When I showed him that 6-2, he said, "What the hell were you drawing at there, Cowboy?"
"Oh, I wasn't drawing at nothing", I answered. "Just aiming at another deuce. I guess I'm Aimsworth."[37]
There is debate as to where this term originated. The most commonly accepted source of the nickname is that many years ago, before Rec.gambling[64] was split into several groups, followers of the group who were blackjack players were fond of saying "Presto!" as they turned up a 21. This became a sign of recognition of fellow travelers. Around this time (circa 1991), the World Rec Gambling Poker Tournament(WRGPT), of which the first few were played slowly over email, came into being. During WRGPT2(92-93), the attribution of pocket fives as the "Presto Hand" was made by the player Howard Simonson, after using pocket fives to knock out several players from the tournament some number of times. [If a copy of the table-talk from WRGPT2 can be found and cited, this can be absolutely confirmed] Consequently, the term stuck among the rec.gambling minions, and has become a common poker term today.[65] There is also suggestion that the hand won more often than it should due to a computer glitch.[19]
However, there is a counter-argument that there used to be a club in London called the Presto Club. The address was 55 Victoria Street, London. Therefore, whenever someone was dealt 55 in hold'em, they'd say they were dealt "Presto", because of the club's street address. When English players played events worldwide, the word spread, and it caught on everywhere.[66]
A poker player that Doyle Brunson described as being "laid back and quiet". He played this hand after being raised preflop and caught a straight on the flop to beat another guy's trip aces[30]
Juggernaut
Well-known Magic: The Gathering artifact card with power of five and toughness of three.
Named for one of the greatest bluffs on High Stakes Poker, when Phil Ivey raised pre-flop with a five-deuce offsuit, was re-raised by Lex Veldhuis with KJ suited, and then went all in causing Lex to fold his hand.
Four higher card
Card initials
Alternative name
Explanation
44
Sailboats
The fours look like sails on a boat.
Obama
Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States
This nickname likely comes from baseball where a "Can of Corn" is an easily caught fly ball. Supposedly comes from a general store clerk reaching up and dropping a can from a high shelf.[70] Likely to be analogized due to the ease in which 32 is caught since it is the lowest possible non-hand (22 being a pair).
From the famous photo of Nixon getting on a helicopter giving two victory signs
One-eyed royals
The phrase one-eyed royals is jargon referring to the three face cards showing only one eye: the Jack of Spades (J♠), Jack of Hearts (J♥) and King of Diamonds (K♦). The faces depicted on these three cards are shown in profile, resulting in only one eye being visible. The variant form "one-eyed Jacks" excludes the King of Diamonds. The cards are also sometimes referred to as "one-eyed Jacks and the Man with the Axe", which relates to the King of Diamonds being the only one to bear an axe instead of a sword. These cards are frequently designated as wildcards in home games of draw poker. Other such phrases include "Suicide King", denoting the King of Hearts (K♥) bearing a sword through his head, and 'Bedside Queen', denoting the Queen of Spades (Q♠) bearing a staff that resembles a wooden bedpost. The name "Allergic Queen" also refers to the Queens facing away from the flowers they hold.
