Distinctive Names for Poker Hands

Poker is a game of many variables and climatic situations.  Players have developed a group of distinctive names for many starting hands in Holdem that are obvious or in some cases need a certain explanation.

A pair of Aces has for a long time been known as Pocket Rockets or Bullets.  But the hand 10-2 is not as well known unless you are a follower of the great poker player, Doyle Brunson.  Doyle won two WSOP tournaments in a row holding the same starting hand.  His two hands are now known as a Brunson, the 10-2.

Some starting hands have taken a name from the movies, TV shows or real people.  A pair of Kings is known as King Kong or Cowboys.  A pair of eights is known as Snowmen.  King Queen is known as a Marriage.  A pair of sixes is known as Route 66 after the TV show.  A pair of sevens is known as Sunset Strip.  A pair of Jacks is known as Fishhooks or Hooks.  Two tens are known as Dimes.  A pair of fives is known as Speed Limit.  A pair of twos is known as Ducks.

Ace King is Big Slick, Ace Queen is Big Chick, Ace Jack is Ajax and Ace Eight is Dead Mans Hand.

All of these Nicknames are short hand that players have come to in order to tell their poker tales with some degree of pizzazz   Telling poker stories a an art form and some players are more adept than others in story telling.  The starting hand names paint a visual picture of the hand, which gives the listener a vivid picture of the hand in the story.

In a recent High Stakes Poker show, a hand that was played by Barry Greenstein and Sam Farha illustrates the idea.  Barry was dealt Bullets and Farha was dealt Cowboys.  The defining moment in this hand was when Barry went all in with a bet of $180,000 and Farha thought for a moment, stated that Barry must have Aces and then called the bet with pocket Kings.  The Bad Beat then completed the hand when Farha got a third King on the flop.  The story is more visual with the poker names for the hands and the Bad Beat illustrates two elements of poker, which happen all the time, one happy winner and one unlucky loser.

So shuffle up and deal.   The next Bullets could be your hand.

TagsBarry, Farha, hands nicknames, name for hands, poker hands, poker online, poker players

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