Hand Nicknames

On top of knowing how to play poker, it's useful (and impressive) to know the poker lingo. Poker players have nicknames for a lot of hands, and it's good to know them. It's not a disaster to hear someone say “I have spare tire” and not know what it means, but you look cooler if you do.

Since we all know the purpose of poker is to look cool, here are some hand nicknames: - AA: probably has the most nicknames. “Bullets” and “pocket rockets” don't require a lot of explanation, and I've thought American Airlines intentionally planted their name as another AA nickname. - KK: the uncreative nickname is “cowboys.” Those in the know prefer “ace magnets” (as in, “Whenever I have KK, there's an A on the flop.”) - JJ: “Hooks.” - 99: “Phil Hellmuth.” Ordinarily, I wouldn't like to nickname a hand after someone who's so freakin' obnoxious, but 99 is the hand that Hellmuth had to win the 1989 World Series of Poker Main Event. We'll discuss more poker hand names in future tips. Learning poker strategy is nice and all, but what's it worth if you don't know that a spare tire is J4 (as in, “What's a jack for?”)