If you’ve ever watched poker on television, then you know about the bevy of nicknames given to each starting hand. It’s the lingo of the live and online poker worlds and being in the know as to what each hand’s slang is can help you understand the game of poker when you watch it on television or hear others discuss it. With that in mind, we’ll look at some of the most popular poker hand nicknames.

1. Pocket Aces – The mother of all starting hands in Texas Hold’em. You’ll often hear aces referred to as American Airlines because of the company’s acronym. You’ll also hear it referred to as Bullets because of its shape. Bullets became a household term after Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth uttered the now famous line, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”
2. Pocket Kings – Cowboys is the most popular term to describe pocket kings. King Kong is another term you’ll hear tossed around to describe pocket kings.
3. Pocket Queens – The phrase Siegfried and Roy is sometimes used as a way to refer to pocket queens in jest. Ladies is another popular term.
4. Pocket Jacks – Fishhooks, nicknamed so because of the letter J’s resemblance to a fishhook.
5. Pocket Nines – Wayne Gretzky, which is named so because of his number throughout much of his illustrious hockey career.
6. Pocket Eights – Octopus Hand due to the fact that octopus have eight “arms.”
7. Pocket Sevens – These are often referred to as walking sticks. Canes and other tools that help people walk share the same shape as the number 7.
8. Pocket Sixes – Route 66, named for the storied highway across the United States.
9. Pocket Fives – Often called the speed limit due to 55 being the maximum legal speed in many jurisdictions. It’s also called Presto due to the magical connotations associated with the hand in general. In addition, there is a well-known and popular online poker forum called PocketFives. You can visit the PocketFives Poker Forum here.
10. Pocket Fours – Sailboats, as the shape of a sailboat is similar to that of the number 4. Another popular nickname for pocket fours, which World Poker Tour host Vince Van Patten enjoys using, is Mid-Life Crisis. This nickname comes from the age around which many adults may have one, 44.
11. Pocket Threes – Crabs, as the shape of a crab is similar to that of the number 3. For the same reason, K-3 is sometimes referred to as King Crab.
12. Pocket Twos – If you’ve ever been to a lake, then you know that a duck floating on the water resembles the number 2. Therefore, this hand is sometimes referred to as Ducks. It’s also referred to as Deuces.
13. Ace-King – Most commonly referred to as Big Slick. Anna Kournikova is another term that I’ve heard tossed around, based on her initials.
14. King-Jack – Kojak, as the hole cards are virtually a homonym to it.
15. Jack-Five – Motown, which is a reference to the Jackson 5 band, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.
16. Ten-Four – The Trucker’s Hand, nicknamed because of the words (Ten-Four) said after a truck driver signs off from his onboard radio.
17. Ten-Two – The Doyle Brunson, as Texas Dolly won back to back World Series of Poker Main Event titles holding the hand in the late 1970s.
18. Nine-Five – The Dolly Parton, named so because of her famous song Nine to Five.
19. Seven-Two – The worst starting hand in Texas Hold’em, 7-2 is often called the Beer Hand. It provides an opportunity to run and get a beer instead of play the hand.
20. Any Four of a Kind – Quads
21. Any Full House – A Full Boat
22. Any Three of a Kind – Trips, Set
23. A-2-3-4-5 – Wheel, or a Wheel Straight
24. 10-J-Q-K-A – Broadway, or a Broadway Straight

So the next time that you hear a nickname on television, you can say that you heard about what it means right here on PokerBonuses.com.