Poker Hand Nicknames

Poker hands are constantly dealt to every player, every minute of every day. Poker players always have a story to tell and prefer to sound good doing it. It is natural that they gave names to certain hands and some of them are very creative and very funny. Over time players have developed a list of common names for certain hands. Here is a list of some well-known poker hands and if you try them out in your hand discussions you will undoubtedly raise a laugh from your friends. Many of these hands have alternatives so you should just use what you feel is the funniest, or most suitable to you. Read below the list for more background on a few of them.

AA – Pocket Rockets / American Airlines / Bullets
KK – Cowboys
QQ – Ladies
JJ – Hooks
AK – Anna Kournikova (Looks good but never wins…) / Big Slick
AQ – Little Slick
AJ – Blackjack
KQ – Royal Couple
KJ – Kojak
K9 – Dog
QJ – OJ (It’s a Killer)
99 – Phil Hellmuth (He won the 1989 WSOP Main Event with this hand) / German Virgin
J5 – Jackson Five / Motown
T2 – Doyle Brunson (Doyle won two WSOP bracelets with this hand)
T4 – Over and Out
69 – Big Lick
55 – Speed Limit (USA)
66 – Route 66
33 – Treys
22 – Ducks / Deuces
Q3 – Gay Waiter (Queen with a Tray)
95 – Dolly Parton (Working nine till five…) / Full Time Job

I am sure you will agree that these hand names are creative and will make your bad beat stories far more entertaining. A few of these hand names have risqué meaning so ensure that you always use discretion when discussing the hand names!

Doyle Brunson won two of his 10 WSOP bracelets with 10 2. He has expressed displeasure that this hand is named after him and recommended to players to play the hand extremely rarely as it is not a good starting hand. He actually raised all-in with this hand during a heads up battle for his tenth bracelet but was not called by his opponent, it is plausible this hand could have won him three bracelets.

Joe Hachem had a similar hand named after him when the 7 3 he played against Steve Dannerman during the heads up battle for the 2005 WSOP Main Event title flopped him the nut straight. Dannerman went all-in and Hachem took the title and the $7.5 million first prize.

“Big Slick” AK is often referred to as Anna Kournikova. For those who do not follow Tennis, Anna is a very attractive lady who at 17 wowed the crowd with her good looks but never quite scaled to the top of tennis and quit the game at around aged 22. She now makes her fortune from personal appearances and photo shoots. She certainly looks good, but never won anything as a tennis player despite her early promise. This is true of AK in poker where players are reminded that whilst this is an attractive starting hand, you are only going into the hand with Ace high and can easily be out flopped.

So why do players use hand nicknames? Many players like to sound cool and use poker hand nicknames all of the time to sound good. You will rarely hear a poker forum poster refer to 22 as pocket two’s; they always say I had deuces, or treys with 33. Saying “I raised with Big Slick under the gun and was called with treys” sounds a lot more hip than the normal alternative description.

Having poker nicknames is a bit of fun, and you should always remember that what you do with these hands rather than what you call them is far more important.

By Malcolm Clarke