Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Cool Playing Card Nicknames to Use
by Stacy Conradt - March 25, 2010 - 6:37 PM

q10

Honestly, my knowledge of card games is pretty limited to the ones I played in college that required vast amounts of crappy beer to play. I wouldn’t last long in a poker tournament, that’s for sure. But now that I know some of these card nicknames, I might be able to bluff well enough to make someone think I was a worthy opponent. Maybe they’ll help you, too. If anything, it’ll be fun to announce something along the lines of, “My hand sucks – I got a Stenographer (a queen), a Eunuch ( a jack), two Mullets (7s) and a Duck (a two).”

1. AK – an ace and a king. There’s no shortage of names for this combination, but my favorite is “Anna Kournikova,” because those two cards sure look nice together, but they never win. Ouch.
2. A8 – an ace and an eight – is known as “Dead Man’s Hand,” because the story goes that Wild Bill Hickok had a handful of black eights and black aces when he was murdered in 1876. The fifth card is generally said to be the jack or queen of diamonds.

3. If you’ve got two nines, you’re looking at a Barbara Feldon – she’s the actress who played Agent 99 on the original Get Smart series. You could also mention that you have a Wayne Gretzky (his jersey number) or Popeyes, because 9s somewhat resemble arm muscles.

4. Here’s one for the Star Wars geeks and wordplay nerds. If you’ve got both black fours in your hand, you’d better use the Force, Luke, because together, the ebony-colored cards are known as the “dark force” – get it? Dark fours? Non-black fours (or a mix of red and black) can be referred to as Luke Skywalker – “may the fours be with you.”

5. Who knew there was such overlap in cards and Star Wars? A hand containing two aces, a two and a three is called a Princess Leia. Why? Because AA23 is the cell Miss Organa was confined to in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

6. The nine of diamonds is called the Scourge of Scotland, but there are as many reasons why as there are diamonds on the card. Here are a couple of them: when nine diamonds were stolen from the crown of Scotland, the king decided to tax citizens heavily to make up for the value. Also, legend has it that the Earl of Stair used that particular card as a code. The card meant that he was giving his OK for the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, which resulted in the death of 78 people.

7. A 10 is a Bo Derek, of course, for the movie that made cornrows and nude-colored swimsuits all the rage.

8. Two red aces means you have Visine. You have to correlate this one with dice, though – imagine the aces as the one-spot on a die, and you’ll see that you have two red eyes.

9. Antony and Cleopatra probably had no idea they would serve as the nickname for a pair of cards – an ace and a queen, to be exact. A is for Antony, obviously, and Cleo was his queen.

10. Any Maverick fans reading today? If so, you might remember that the theme song goes, “livin’ on jacks and queens, Maverick is a legend of the west.” Therefore, a queen and a jack is a Maverick.

There are about a million other names for cards and card pairings out there – do you know of a particularly clever one?

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Comments (25)

  1. My understanding was always that the Dead Man’s hand was a full house of Aces and Eights because Wild Bill was actually dealt two-pair and then drew a card to make the full house. A card that he may or may not have ever actually seen.

    posted by BorgQueen on 3-25-2010 at 6:49 pm

  2. A pair of 8′s are snowmen, King 9 is called “dogs”… Q3 is a gay waiter (queen with a tray)… jacks and fives are motown… 10-4 is a trucker’s hand…

    10-2 is a Doyle Brunson (he won the world series of poker 2 years in a row with the same hand.) He won another tournament with a 10-3 because he thought it was a 10-2.

    There are so many

    posted by Troy H. on 3-25-2010 at 6:55 pm

  3. No.

    posted by Rick on 3-25-2010 at 7:15 pm

  4. My friend called a 9-5 a “Dolly Parton” in our most recent game.

    posted by Alex on 3-25-2010 at 7:30 pm

  5. 10-4 is a Roger Wilco.

    posted by Max on 3-25-2010 at 9:02 pm

  6. My family has always called the queen of spades “The Old Bitch” because it is a bad card in some games, like Hearts.

    posted by Nancy on 3-25-2010 at 10:21 pm

  7. Ace King is called Big Slick.
    A pair of nines is called the Phil Hellmuth because that is the hand he won the WSOP with. There are names for every kind of hand. My favorite is deuce 3 also called a Mississippi Slick.

    posted by Aces for Kings on 3-25-2010 at 10:57 pm

  8. Ace King is also known as “walking back to Houston” because it’s easily overplayed and just as easily beaten by a pair of 2s.

    posted by el duderino on 3-25-2010 at 11:33 pm

  9. Jack five is the Motown. “Jackson Five”

    posted by Dallas on 3-26-2010 at 12:35 am

  10. You should do a Quick 10 of names for heists (Think-Italian Job, Oceans 11, etc.)

    posted by Queen of Thieves on 3-26-2010 at 12:51 am

  11. “Oh man, last week I got dealt Family Ties it lost to Justin Timberlake.”

    “What the hell does that mean?”

    “Oh, you know, Alex Keaton, Michael J. Fox’s character on Family Ties….

    “…Who cares dude, it’s your turn.”

    “But Justin Timberlake…”

    “Check or bet.”

    posted by Eric on 3-26-2010 at 1:07 am

  12. My grandfather (who was about the least sexist guy you’d ever meet) called Queens “Mop Squeezers.” My mother was just thrilled to hear that coming out of my 4-year-old mouth.

    posted by Ben on 3-26-2010 at 2:33 am

  13. Texas hold’em has a lot of names for pairs. Here are some that I remember from back when I was quite the cardshark:

    A pair of Aces is american airlines or pocket rockets,
    A pair of twos is ducks,
    A pair of fours are flags,
    A pair of eights are snowmen,
    A pair of nines is Wayne Gretzski,
    A pair of nines with a queen high is a Jay-Z hand,
    and
    A pair of Jacks is hooks.

    Also, 7-2 is statistically the worst pocket in TH’M

    posted by Dave on 3-26-2010 at 2:34 am

  14. Here are a bunch more…

    http://casinogambling.about.com/od/poker/a/pokernamens.htm

    posted by Raj on 3-26-2010 at 6:06 am

  15. a hand including a 10, and 2, and a 4 is called a Dr. Pepper, after their old slogan reminded one to drink Dr. Pepper at 10:00, 2:00 and 4:00.

    posted by fanniefarkle on 3-26-2010 at 9:01 am

  16. back in college we called a full house an Uncle Jesse.

    posted by mike on 3-26-2010 at 9:09 am

  17. I can’t beleive I’m actually going to do this but…

    Princess Leia was not in cell AA23. She was in cell 2187 which was in cell block AA23.

    Sometimes the geek in me just has to get out.

    posted by Colin on 3-26-2010 at 12:25 pm

  18. @Ben, that was funny!

    recaptcha: short caterer (wonder if he knows the gay waiter?)

    posted by Hyacinth on 3-26-2010 at 12:59 pm

  19. My buddy taught me that jack-four is called a flat tire. As in, What’s a jack for?

    That same friend is Philipino, so when we play cards, we call him “The Manila Folder.”

    posted by Mike Hyde on 3-26-2010 at 1:29 pm

  20. I’ve heard a pair of Jacks called “Dy-no-MITE!” in reference to J.J. Walker from “Good Times.”

    posted by Josh on 3-26-2010 at 2:25 pm

  21. I was told a Q3 was a gay waiter…a Queen with a tray

    posted by BenD on 3-26-2010 at 3:10 pm

  22. A pair of Queens is the Seigfried and Roy

    posted by MarkB on 3-27-2010 at 12:11 am

  23. no one has mentioned “The Transvestite”; a Ace and a Four because at first glance it looks like a pair of aces, but when you look closer, you’re badly disappointed.

    posted by Dr. Black on 3-28-2010 at 5:59 pm

  24. I’ve always called pocket 4s sailboats

    posted by K on 3-30-2010 at 3:14 pm

  25. AA – american airlines

    posted by omg on 5-9-2010 at 3:43 pm

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