List of slang names for poker hands

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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. The terms range from whimsical to bawdy, with some being of a racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise controversial nature.

Contents 1 Five-card Hands 2 Texas Hold 'Em Slang 3 Omaha Slang 4 Names of Flops

Five-card 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 (referring 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 referred 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 in Texas hold 'em:

• A-A: Pocket Rockets, American Airlines, Bullets, Two Pips
• A-K: Big Slick, Machine Gun (AK-47), Walking Back to Houston
  • “I can see you learned to play in Houston. Those Houston players would come to Dallas and play that Ace-King, but they'd always end up against a pair of Aces. That's why we call that hand ‘Walking back to Houston.'” - T.J. Cloutier, quoted by Barry Greenstein
  • The tendency of weaker players to overplay this hand earned the Anna Kournikova nickname, after the well-known female tennis player who is known for her good looks but whose record as a professional was mediocre. Or, as some commentators put it, "It looks good but rarely wins."
• A-Q: Little Slick, Big Chick, Mrs. Slick, Catch of the Day, Doyle Brunson, El Pollo Loco, The Phil Ivey
  • A-Q is sometimes called the Doyle Brunson because Brunson rarely plays this hand. 10-2 is also called by the same name because Brunson won the World Series of Poker with it twice in a row (1976 and 1977).
• A-J: Blackjack, Ajax, Apple Jacks, Jack Ass, Apple Juice, Pheonomanal
  • A♦J♦: Jared Diamond
• A-10: Johnny Moss, Corners
• A-8: Dead Man's Hand (by analogy with Wild Bill's aces and eights)
• A-4: Reflex (Reflex A4 paper size)
• A-3: Baskin-Robbins (plays off the number 31: 31 Flavors), Friday The 13th (An Ace played low would be considered equivalent to 1), Newspaper (Size of a newspaper's page (A3) and when off colour suits it's black and white and red all over)
• A-2: Hunting Season (bullet and duck), Michael Jackson (Big hand touching little hand), Acey-Deucey,Drinking Age,The Kids Game
• K-K: Cowboys, Penn and Teller, Elvis Presley, King Kong, Kenta Kobashi, Brokeback Mountain, Ace Magnets
• 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, Peewee Herman
• K-9: The Animal, Canine, Sawmill, Dog, Fido
• K-8: The NY Heart Attack (a NYC player died holding this hand, April, 2005), Kokomo
• K-7: Columbia River
• K-4: Country Ruler (whats a king for?)
• K-3: Seafood hand (King Crab), The Krablar
• K-2: Steep Climb, Dr. Shakeoff
• Q-Q: Cowgirls, Ladies, Siegfried & Roy, Snowshoes, The Hilton Sisters, The Olsen Twins, The Williams Sisters, Dykes, Girls with curls, Pocket Bitches, Angels
• Q-J: Oedipus, Maverick
  • Q♠J♦: Hearts Hand (the game Hearts uses these)
• 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, The Tonic
• Q-7: Computer Hand (according to a computer simulation, the median hand between generally profitable versus generally unprofitable Hold'em starting hands)
• Q-3: Waitress, Gay Waiter, San Francisco Waiter|Busboy ("Queen with a trey|tray")
  • Q-3 suited: Posh Gay Waiter
  • Q♥3♥: Flaming Gay Waiter
• J-J: Fishhooks, Hooks, Jokers, Kid Dynomite (after J. J. Walker), Jay Birds, Pocket Pirates.
• J-10: Cloutier (play on name: T. J. Cloutier)
• J-8: Dahmer (Jeffery Dahmer ate Jack)
• J-7: Jack Daniel's
• J-6: Railroad hand
• J-5: Jackson Five, Motown, Unbeatable, Fullhouse hand, Bob Saget
• J-4: Flat tire (play on words: "What's a jack for?"), Blacksmith (Four-J, Forge), Geordi La Forge
• J-2: Jenna Jameson (She is what you "jack to".)
• 10-10: Rin Tin Tin, Dimes, Boxcars, Tension, Tendrils, TNT, Binary
• 10-8: Rosary (an Indian rosary, known as a mala has 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, Roger That (play on radio code 10-4), Broderick Crawford, Lazy mans work day or Bankers work day
• 10-2: Doyle Brunson, Texas Dolly, El Pollo Loco, 'Arnie' (Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the movie T2)
  • 10-2 is called the Doyle Brunson because Brunson won the World Series of Poker with it twice in a row (1976 and 1977). Doyle Brunson is the only hand name used to describe two hands.
• 9-9: Barbara Feldon, Get Smart, 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♥6♥: Valentine's Day
• 9-5: Dolly Parton (she sang Workin' 9 to 5), Full-time job
• 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)
• 9-2: Poco, Montana Banana
• 8-8: Little Oldsmobile, Snowmen, Infinities , Double Infinity, Dogs Balls, Octopuses
• 8-6: Maxwell Smart (Agent 86 in Get Smart)
• 8-3: Raquel Welch, T n A
• 7-7: Walking Sticks, Sunset Strip, Hockey Sticks, Candy Canes
• 7-6: Philadelphia, Union Oil, Trombones (76 Trombones in the Big Parade)
• 7-5: Pickle Man, Heinz, ketchup (play on number 57 found on bottles)
• 7-4: Double Down, Blackjack hand, Speakman (Jeff Speakman - B grade actor)
• 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 (The worst starting hand in hold 'em. 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), The Barry Violent
  • 7-2 offsuit: The Hammer!, Teddy Lee, Jamaican Air, The Spanish Inquisition,
  • 7-2 suited: Prom Night Teddy Lee
• 6-6: The Lamkin, Route 66, Pocket Buddies, England (Football World Cup winners in 1966), Clickety Click (bingo reference)
• 6-5: Retirement, Jägermeister
• 6-4: Arlo, Commodore (after the Commodore 64 computer)
• 5-5: Presto, Speed Limit, Nickels
  • It is traditional to exclaim "Presto!" while revealing the pocket fives if the hand wins.
  • According to book "The Professional, Banker, and the Suicide King" the name "Presto" comes from a casino that used to have the street address of 55 something.
• 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)
• 5-3: Kansas Turnpike (for I-35), Herbie the Love Bug
• 5-2: James and the Giant Peach, Bomber
• 4-4: Sailboats, Midlife Crisis, Magnum, Luke Skywalker ("May the fours be with you")
  • 4♠4♣: Darth Vader ("Dark Fours")
• 4-3: George W. Bush (the 43rd President of the United States), MT or the Empty Hand (Birth date of professional player who calles himself "MT" or "Empty" from his initials)
• 4-2: Lumberman's hand, Bill Clinton (the 42nd President of the United States), Garcia, Jr. (supposedly favored by General Garcia) The Monday Club
• 3-3: Crabs, Crab legs, Larry Bird, Hooters
• 3-2: Michael Jordan (he wore number 23), Can of Corn, Hooter Hand, Mississippi Slick
• 2-2: Ducks, Swans, Sleepers, Quack Quack

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.)

Omaha Slang

Omaha slang is not as well developed as Texas Hold'em. The game is not as widely played, and there is a much greater variety of hands, since the pocket is four cards. In the hole in Omaha hold'em:

• A-K-4-7: Assault Rifle

Including the board, in Omaha hold 'em:

• four pairs: Noah's Ark

Names of Flops

The following terms refer to the flop in Omaha and Texas hold 'em:

• Three different suits: Rainbow
• All face cards: Paint
  • This term can also be used to refer to a type of card on the turn or river. "I need to hit paint" indicates somebody who is looking for a J,Q,K to make a Full House or Straight.

See also: Poker jargon