Commonly Held Hold'em Hand Nicknames

Commonly Held Hold'em Hand Nicknames

Commonly Held Hold'em Hand Nicknames

Some argue that once you look at your hole cards in Texas Hold'em you should never look back at them again. Others, myself included, don't mind looking back from time to time. Looking back is not a sign of weakness or strength, it is a symptom of faulty memory in a game where a failed memory is the road to disaster. Not long ago I was in a hand at the Monte Carlo poker room in Las Vegas. The player to my immediate left had a made club straight flush (I know this because when he looked at his cards he didn't cover them well and I saw what he was holding). He mucked this hand on the turn which actually was the card that made his hand because he saw three clubs on the board. When I asked him why he mucked these cards he told me he was worried because he only had spades in his hand and was afraid of the bet in front of him. He should have looked before he mucked.

Hand Nicknames

In order to help players remember the hand they hold players have named many hands over time. These hand nicknames act as a mneonomic, a way of remembering something over a short term by replacing the known with a memorable word or phrase. The chart below represents many of the more important pre-flop hand names that will help you remember what you hold in your hand.

Hold'em Hand Nicknames

Smart Play

Making use of the hand nicknames for commonly held hold'em hands, especially those hands you are likely to be involved in, helps you disguise the strength of your hand. If you hold KhJh, or Kojak suited, and the flop comes 9h8s3h, for example, and you take another look at your hand before you act your opponent may simply infer that you have at least one, if not two cards to a flush. This is far too much information to provide your opponent, especially if they hold a set or two pair in this situation. It is entirely within the realm of possibilities that your opponent played a suited 98 pre-flop or he speculated with mid or bottom pairs and floped a set. He may also have a flush draw. If you can't remember what you are holding, by all means, look. But the smarter play is to use the mnemonic to remember what you hold, in this case the second nut flush.

When you are at the poker table there is a lot that is going on. Online you are given much information such as pot size including bets made during a particular round of betting. You may even subscribe to a poker tracking service and have a heads-up display (HUD) helping you keep track of important player trends and betting patterns. In a live game you do not have such an advantage, you must look, observe, make mental notes which requires chunking a great deal of information like current pot size (needed to caluclate pot odds), player tendencies, the strength of your hand relative to the flop, turn and river and so on. By memorizing some hand nicknames you will arm yourself with a tool to remember and, therefore, play smarter.

The list I provided is far from being an full and exhaustive list. Its intent is to introduce you to the idea of hand nicknames. Look around, listen to poker chatter around the tables, be observent and make use of Google searches and you'll surely fine more.

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