Slang Names for Poker Hands
In poker, players may often use slang terms for particular types of hands. Though most are recent neologisms, others date to poker's antiquity. All such slang terms typically connect a common concept (from life experience or storytelling) to the hand, in order to more easily characterize its general status relative to other hands.
Dead Man's Hand: Two pair, aces and eights. This is the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot and killed, and plays a relatively wide cultural role.
Pink, All Pink: Flush of Hearts or Diamonds
Blue, All Blue: Flush of Clubs or Spades
Puppy Feet, Pups: Flush of Clubs
One Jack Off: JJJxx
Four Pips: AAAAx. (Each ace has one pip.)
Harlem Night: Spades with clubs (from the racist term of spade for African-Americans and Harlem’s reputation for violence).
Motown: JJ55x (Jacks and Fives, Jackson Five)
Devil's hand: 666xx (refering to the Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation)
Wheel: Ace to five low straight, also known as a Bicycle, or "The Name of the Game" in Bicycle.
Steel wheel: Ace-to-five straight flush. So called because it's one of the strongest hands in the game (only beaten by higher straight flushes).
Big Bobtail: An open ended 4 card straight flush.
Boat: Short for Full Boat which means Full House, shorthanded as XXXs full of YYs, such as "Aces full of Jacks" where the hand is AAAJJ.
Klan Rally: Three Kings (KKKxx). Also known as Alabama Night Riders and Three Wise Men
Trips,Set: Three of a kind. The term "set" is usually used with the rank in question: "a set of Xs". In hold 'em games, the term set is used to refer to the situation when the player has three of a kind with a pair in the hole, but not when there is a pair or three of a kind on the board.
Quads,Quartet: Four of a kind. When spoken, either "quad Xs" or "a quartet of Xs" (less common) would be used.
Sometimes, four-of-a-kind is jokingly refered to as "two pair". If the quads are of low rank, they're often called "two small pair." This description is almost always followed by "a pair of red Xs and a pair of black Xs," where X is the rank of the four-of-a-kind.
Two pair is commonly shorthanded as Xs up or Xs over Ys, with the top pair as X and the bottom pair as Y. For example, KK998 would be "kings up" or "kings over nines".
Full house is commonly referred to as Xs full of Ys where X is the three of a kind and Y is the pair. For example, 555KK would be "fives full of kings".
Texas Hold 'Em Slang
The following refer to hole (pocket) cards:
A-A: Pocket Rockets, American Airlines, Bullets, Two Pips
A-K: Big Slick, Machine Gun (AK-47), Anna Kournikova ("looks great, never wins")
A-Q: Little Slick, Mrs. Slick, Catch of the Day, Doyle Brunson (see note at bottom)
A-J: Blackjack, Ajax, Apple Jacks, Jack Ass, Apple Juice,Pheonomanal
A-10: Johnny Moss, Corners
A-8: Dead Man's Hand (by analogy with Wild Bill's aces and eights)
A-3: Baskin-Robbins (plays off the number 31: 31 Flavors)
A-2: Michael Jackson (Big hand touching little hand), Hunting Season (bullet and duck)
K-K: Cowboys, Penn and Teller, Elvis Presley, King Kong, [Brokeback Mountain] (two red kings = two bleeding cowboys)
K-Q: Marriage, Royalty
K-Q suited: Royal Marriage
K-Q offsuit: Mixed Marriage,Fork and Spoon
K-J: Kojak, King John
K-J offsuit: Bachelor's Hand (play on words: "Jack-King, off"), Bill Fillmaff
K-9: The Animal, Canine, Sawmill
K-8: The NY Heart Attack (a NYC player died holding this hand, April, 2005), Kokomo
K-7: Columbia River
K-3: [[Seafood] hand (King Crab)
K-2: Steep Climb, Dr. Shakeoff
Q-Q: Ladies, Siegfried & Roy, Snowshoes, The Hilton Sisters, Dykes
Q-J: Oedipus, Maverick
Q♠ J♦: Pinochle
Q-10: Q-Tip,Varkonyi (named after Robert Varkonyi, 2002 World Series of Poker main event champion, who rather liked this hand)
Q-9: Quinine
Q-7: Computer Hand (according to a computer simulation, the median hand between generally profitable versus generally unprofitable Hold'em starting hands)
Q-3: Gay Waiter, San Francisco Busboy ("Queen with a trey|tray")
Q-3 suited: Posh Gay Waiter
J-J: Fishhooks, Hooks, Jokers, Kid Dynomite (after J. J. Evans), Jay Birds
J-T: Cloutier (play on name: T. J. Cloutier)
J-7: Jack Daniel's
J-6: Railroad hand
J-5: Jackson Five, Motown, Redmond Special
J-4: Flat tire (play on words: "What's a jack for?")
10-10: Rin Tin Tin
10-8: Rosary (a Buddhist and Catholic rosary have 108 beads), Hail Mary
10-7 offsuit: Negreanu (offsuit only) (Negreanu has said that this hand is his favourite hand as "it can make two flushes")
10-5: Five and Dime, Woolworth (deprecated)
10-4: Good Buddy, Over and Out and Roger That (play on radio code 10-4)
10-2: Doyle Brunson (see note at bottom)
9-9: Barbara Feldon, Wayne Gretzky, German Virgin ("nein, nein" means "no, no" in German)
9-8: Oldsmobile
9-6: Big Lick, Porno, Dinner for Two, Good Position, Sit On My Face (play on number 69)
9-6 suited: Prom Night ("Sixty-nine suited")
9-5: Dolly Parton (she sang Workin' 9 to 5)
9-4: Gold Rush, San Francisco (play off the number 49)
9-3: Jack Benny (deprecated: Jack Benny always claimed to be 39 years old)
8-8: Little Oldsmobile, Snowmen, Infinities , Dogs Balls
7-7: Walking Sticks, Sunset Strip, Hockey Sticks
7-6: Philadelphia, Union Oil
7-5: Pickle Man, Heinz, ketchup (play on number 57 found on bottles)
7-4: Double Down, Blackjack hand
7-3: Hachem (named for Joseph Hachem, winner of World Series of Poker, 2005 who won the $7.5 million prize with this hand when he flopped a straight)
7-2: Beer Hand
7-2 offsuit: The Hammer!, Teddy Lee, Jamaican Air, The Spanish Inquisition
7-2 suited: Prom Night Teddy Lee
6-6: Route 66, Pocket Buddies, England (Football World Cup winners in 1966)
6-5: Retirement, Jägermeister
5-5: Presto, Speed Limit
It is traditional to exclaim "Presto!" while revealing the pocket fives if the hand wins.
5-4: Jesse James, Colt 45 (both play off the number 45), Moneymaker (winning hand of Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion)
4-4: Sailboats, Midlife Crisis
4-3: George W. Bush (the 43rd President of the United States)
4-2: Lumberman's hand, Bill Clinton (the 42nd President of the United States), Garcia, Jr. (supposedly favored by General Garcia)
3-3: Crabs, Larry Bird
3-2: Michael Jordan (he wore number 23), Can of Corn, Hooter Hand, Mississippi Slick
2-2: Ducks, Swans, Sleepers
A-Q is called the "Doyle Brunson" because Brunson rarely plays this hand. 10-2 is also called the Doyle Brunson because he won the World Series of Poker with it twice in a row (1976 and 1977).
In addition, two types of hands are called "blackjack hands":
Hands which are naturals in blackjack: any ace with any face or ten.
Hands whose numeric total is 11: 9-2, 8-3, 7-4, 6-5. (In blackjack, such hands are very good for players.)
