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.)
• 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)
  • A-K suited: Anna Kournikova ("looks great, never wins": players tend to overplay this hand; initials are also a play on AK)
• 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
• 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
• K-Q: Marriage, Royalty
  • K-Q suited: Royal Marriage
  • K-Q offsuit: Mixed Marriage
• 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, Dr. Love

• Q-Q: Ladies, Siegfried & Roy, Snowshoes, four tits, Wal-Mart Shoppers, The Hilton Sisters, Dykes
• Q-J: Oedipus, Maverick
  • Q♠ J♦: Pincochle
• 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 (supposedly, according to computer simulation, the median hand between generally profitable versus generally unprofitable Hold'em starting hands)
• Q♠-5♠: Granny Mae
• 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: 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 (becoming deprecated)
• 10-4: Broderick Crawford, Good Buddy, Over and Out and Roger That (radio code: 10-4 means "Over and Out")
• 10-2: Doyle Brunson (see note at bottom)
• 9-9: Barbara Feldon, Wayne Gretzky, Pocket Poco (along with 2-2), German Virgin ("nein, nein" (say nine, nine) means "no, no" in German)
• 9-8: Oldsmobile
• 9-5: Dolly Parton (she sang Workin' 9 to 5)
• 9-4: Gold Rush, San Francisco (both play off the number 49)
• 9-3: Jack Benny (deprecated: Jack Benny always claimed to be 39 years old)
• 9-2: Montana Banana, Twiggy, Poco
• 8-8: Snowmen, Infinities
• 8-6: The Daily Dangler
• 8-3: Bloody Cheese
• 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
• 7-3: Hachem (offsuit only) (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!, Deadly Teddy Lee, Jamaican Air
  • 7-2 suited: Prom Night Teddy Lee
• 6-9: Big Lick, Porno, Dinner for Two, Good Position, Sit On My Face
  • 6-9 suited: Prom Night ("Sixty-nine suited")
• 6♥-7♥: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• 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)
• 3-3: Crabs, Larry Bird
• 3-2: Michael Jordan (he wore number 23), Can of Corn, Hooter Hand, Mississippi Slick
• 2-2: Ducks, Swans, Pocket Poco (along with 9-9)

Sleepers

A-Q is called the "Doyle Brunson" because Brunson rarely played 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 ideal for doubling down.)

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

See also: Poker jargon

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