Now that poker has exploded in popularity, it may be a good time to initiate the newbies into the poker hand nicknames tradition. Humans have a fondness of nicknaming someone or something. These nicknames are generally a fairly accurate description of the person, item or event. It shows familiarity with, as well as how well liked the person, item or event is.

Players only starting out may be confused about the poker hand nicknames – what do the nicknames refer to, and perhaps they may also wonder why we use nicknames at all.

Some of the nicknames may be easy to decipher but these fall into a small minority. The rest of the nicknames may need expounding. What makes it even harder is that there are probably more than 1000 nicknames.

Explanation of poker nicknames

AA has at least 4 different nicknames: American Airlines, Rockets, Bullets, and Snake Eyes. The first nickname is obvious but the rest may not be as obvious. The easiest explanation is that all these terms have two AAs in them somewhere.

KK has two nicknames: Cowboys and King Kong.

QQ has only one nickname – Ladies. Some also call it Hilton Sisters, in reference to the well-known socialites.

JJ can be called either Fishhooks or Hooks.

1010 has one nickname – Dimes. This is because a dime is worth 10 cents in the United States.

Some call 99 Phil Hellmuth because he won the 1989 Main Event with two black nines. Others call 99 Wayne Gretzky because it was his number.

The number 88 does indeed look like two Snowmen so the nickname is fitting. Its other nickname is Piano Keys,in reference to the 88 keys on a piano.

The number 77 has two nicknames: Sunset Strip and Walking Sticks. Sunset Strip is the name of a television show and walking sticks refers to the number’s look.

And finally, 66 has two nicknames: Route 66 and Boots. Route 66 is an obvious choice but Boots may not be as obvious – it relies on the player to notice the slight resemblance to boots.

Author bio:

All Africa Poker wrote this article with poker tips.