Texas Holdem Poker has a colourful history. Billions of hands have been played and many a jovial situation has occurred at the poker table. Most of the hands in poker have acquired a nickname or two over the years, some are colourful and ugly, otherwise are humourous and witty.

The most powerful hand before the flop in Texas Holdem Poker is two Aces. Subsquently they generate the most excitement and colourful names. The most common names for two Aces are Rockets, Pocket Rockets, and Bullets (for obvious reasons). They are named after several famous people and organisations with initials starting with the letter “A” including Alan Alda, Albert Anastasia, and American Airlines. They are also known as numerous pointy and sharp objects including Rocky Mountains, Sticks, Teepees and Two Pips. A few obscure references include Squirrel (the nuts) and Batteries (Double A). Individual names for a single Ace include Bull, Bullet, Death Card (spades), Mastercard, One Spot, Puppy Foot (clubs), Seed, Sharp Top, Spike and Tax Card (spades).

Two kings are the second best hand preflop in holdem and are commonly known as Cowboys. Variations on this include Butchers of Baghdad (so named in reference to Saddam Hussein on the infamous Iraqi most wanted playing cards). Combinations of alliterations of KK include Krispy Kreme and King Kong (and by extension Gorillas, Gorillas in the Mist). They are referred to as Ace Magnets because an Ace always comes on the flop. A single King is also known as K-Boy, Monarch, Sergeant, Alexander (clubs), Charlemagne or Charles (hearts), David (spades), Julius Caesar or One eyed king (diamonds).

Queens are often beaten by Aces and Kings, and as a result get crude names. Polite terms include Ladies, Love Ladies, Calamity Jane (likely extensive of Cowboys for KK) and Snowshoes (owing to the original shape of snowshoes). Less pleasant nicknames include Four T*ts, Jail-house Rock and Siegfried and Roy

Smaller pairs such as Jacks to Twos all have a few nicknames. Jacks are known as Hooks or Fish-hooks. Less known names include Kid Dyne-o-mite (TV show reference), Brothers, Jay Birds, John Juanda (Poker Player) and finally Colostomy Bag (Jack is slang for toilet). Two Tens are Two Dimes, TNT, Dynamite and Binary (In Binary 1010 is the equivalent of 10). Nines are known as Barbara Feldon (Get Smart- Agent 99), Phil Helmuth, Popeye and Wayne Gretzky (Hockey Player). Eights are snowmen, Piano Keys, Little Oldsmobile, Racetracks, Two Fat Ladies, Lacey, Pretzels, and Wurlitzer. A couple of Sevens are known as axes, mullets, hockey sticks or walking sticks. Two sixes are known as Boots, Cherries, or Kicks (On Route 66). A pair of Fives are Presto, Snakes or Speed Limit, while a pair of Fours are Canadian Presto, Dark Force, Darth Vader, Magnum and Sail boats. A Pair of three is either known as crabs (claw shaped like the number 3) or treys and a pair of Twos is usually Deuces, Ducks, or Quack Quack (shaped like a duck).

Other hands with nicknames include the powerful Ace and King combination known as Big Slick. Other names include backronyms such as Korean Airlines and King Arthur, as well as the aptly named Anna Kournikova (looks good but seldom wins). Another common reference is Kalashnikov (who designed the AK47). Ace-Queen is known as Big Chick or Mrs Slick. Other notable hands include Jack-Four (Flat Tire) and J6 (Rail Road). A Ten and a Deuce is a famous hand known as the Doyle Brunson after he successful won two World Series of Poker bracelets.

There are thousands of hand nicknames and only a few of the commoner ones have been listed here. If you are interesting in other poker starting hand nicknames I recommend checking out Wikipedia for an extensive list of common names.

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Poker tells are one of the most important aspects of poker and they help to separate poker from other games of luck. When playing poker, it is crucial to observe your opponents in order to pick up on any clues they make inadvertently give away. Poker tells can include any piece of information gathered including voluntary and involuntary movements, verbal cues and behavioural patterns. The best part about tells is that every single poker player has them, and if you observe enough hands closely enough, you will eventually find them. Be careful though, some players try to give off reverse tells to trap you.

Eyes The eyes are an important part of reading a player. How an opponent sees the world can often give off small clues to their intentions. Length of staring at the holes cards can give you a clue. Some people can’t help but stare at monsters, others snap them back down immediately. A useful tell is when somebody immediately looks at their chips when the flop comes down, this means a big hand. The reverse is often also true, if someone stares at the flop for longer than normal then it is likely that they missed.

Hole Cards When someone rechecks their hole cards on a flop that is all of one suit, they normally do not have a flush. If a player squeezes out the second hole card after seeing the first one, it often means at least one ace. An opponent who looks at their hole cards and then looks uninterested has a monster hand.

Patterns of Betting The classic saying in poker is that weak means strong and strong means weak. Looking aggressive and forcefully shipping chips into the middle is usually weak. The opposite is also true, quietly putting chips into the pot is often strength. If an opponent looks at his hand and then bets instantly, it is seldom a bluff.

Chip Stacks If you ever notice a player winning a large pot and stacking their chips from the last hand, they will not play the hand unless they have good cards. Tight conservative players keep neat stacks and loose aggressive players usually have unkempt stacks.

Speaking at the table If an opponent is having a conversation during a poker hand and his talk is all of the place, as if his mind is on something else, it usually means he is not too confident in his hand. This correlates to a weak poker hand. Conversely, if a player is talking smoothly while in a hand, it means he is not overly concerned about the hand he is playing. This is because he feels comfortable and usually means a big hand.

Every player gives off tells, try to remain patient and always watch the table even when you aren’t in a hand.

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Poker is a family of various card games played by two or more player who bet on the value of their hands. Numerous versions exist with each version differing based on the number of cards dealt, specific nuances and rules, betting limitations and hand rankings.

The history of poker is the subject of debate. Around 969 AD, the Chinese emperor Mu-Tsung is reported to have played ‘domino cards’ with his wife. Egyptians in the 12th and 13th centuries had a version of playing cards. The Persians in the 16th century had a 96-card game “Ganjifa” and a 25-card version “As Nas”. An early known card game incorporating betting, hand rankings and bluffing was a German game entitled ‘Pochspiel’ popular in the 15th century. The French played a game called ‘Poque’. Both games derived from the German ‘pochen’ (‘to brag as a bluff’, ‘to knock’). Other early versions include the Renaissance game of ‘Primero’, the French game ‘Brelan’ and the English game ‘Brag’.

Irrespective of the early origins of poker, the modern day game differs significantly with focus upon unique features such as betting that do not appear in any older version. The modern origin of Poker is believe to have occurred in the mid 1700s spreading through the paddle steamers of the Mississippi River by 1800. Most likely introduced by French colonials arriving in Canada.

Early versions of the game involved 20 cards (AKQJT) and four players. There was no draw and bets were made on a narrower range of combinations including one pair, two pair, triplets, full and four of a kind. There was no straight, flush or royal flush at this point. In the mid 1830s, the 52-card version was gradually adopted partly to accommodate more player and to give more scope to the recently introduced flush. Poker now reached the pages of American Hoyle. Around 1845, Poker began introducing the ‘draw’. The improved the game by allowing a second round of betting and providing initially poor hands the ability to dramatically improve. From the middle of the 19th century, poker changed rapidly and became more widespread with modern day variations all starting to take form.

The modern day poker boom can be attributed to four events. The first is the 1998 film ‘Rounders’ starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich in which a law student is tangled up in the world of poker and eventually quits his job and heads to Las Vegas to follow his dream. The second is the improvements in modernising televised poker tournaments including the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour. The third occurred when an unknown amateur Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003. The fourth and final important advancement is the technology to allow internet poker into mainstream society. Since those events, poker has exploded and has never looked back.

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We have all rued the day when we overstayed our welcome at those losing rounds of poker. In hindsight, it is easy to see that we should have walked away hours earlier. The problem is, if we did that, we would always be tormented by that jackpot that was just around the corner, awaiting a few more hands. But no, we stay and lose right down to that last grim deal. To make matters worse, since we have no idea why we put up with this torture in the first place, we go back and do it again and again.

One absolutely must use their powers of reasoning to logically analyze the situation to determine if they should hold or fold. You know when to go to the airport so you won’t miss the plane for that important business meeting. If you are hanging on in desperation waiting for that winning hand and miss your chance to get to the airport on time, you are going to get totally stressed. You won’t play well, you missed the plane and that important meeting. You are also harming yourself and your career.

If poker is supposed to be entertainment but you are not enjoying it – this is a good reason to leave early, before the game becomes a tangle nightmare of bad moves and worse moods. You often see player who take up poker as recreation, but when a game gets too much for them, they cannot leave, and yet they cannot play. They stay out of some sort of perverse compulsion to prolong their torment, not willing to walk out losers. They stay and become greater losers with every losing new hand, instead of accepting good-naturedly accepting the situation – which is merely pastime anyway – and leaving the table, remaining in a good mood, and perhaps trying another game later at another table.

To overcome such pitfalls, the source of the problem must be discovered, and that can be done by the realization that the problem has nothing to do with the game intrinsically. If you insist on performing a pointless activity of self-torture that you cannot possibly enjoy but neither can you get up and walk away from, you have a problem. If you are not staying at the table for the poker, then you are deluding yourself and avoiding what is really troubling you.

If this is you, I’m sure you will find that this psychology affects other parts of your life and activities as well. Try training your concentration on other aspects of your life when you find yourself pondering the stupidity of remaining in a losing situation at poker hand after hand. Envision yourself in other functions instead of half-assed playing in a doomed game. You may be able to identify the source of your idiotic obstinance and change your game and your life for the better.

The problem may lie in not facing the fact that you hate your job, or owning up to a real feeling of grief that you have suppressed for a long time. If you are able to make a connection, you may be able to stop kicking yourself and enjoy the reality of life and of poker.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Doyles Room Rakeback and Carbon Poker Rakeback.

In deciding upon the perfect poker game for you, you should begin with one that has copious literature available, whether online or book format. Omaha, for example, is an interesting and profitable game but very difficult to get information on because there is very little written on the subject. Hold’em is where you should go. It is the most popular form of the game out there today in both actual and virtual casinos and so has much written about it.

Having decided that, there are still several more personal questions to ask yourself before deciding which Hold’em variant to try. It is of utmost importance for any poker player to know whether they are risk oriented or not, or, to be more exact, to what extant they like to risk.

To some, the thrill and adrenaline rush of risk-taking is a motivating force. To others, it is a source of pure nausea. Poker is not a game for the latter. If you are the risk-taking type but cannot control your impulses, the game is not for you either. But for those who have a high degree of self-understanding, tests can be taken that disclose your risk inclinations. If the test reveals that you are the risky type of personality, you should opt for no-limit cash and tournament games.

Decide for yourself if you are a mathematician or a psychologist. Human calculators will be comfortable with limit games. The body language deciphering psychologist will be most at home with no-limit and multi table tournament (MTT) play.

No-limit and MTT games are both very good poker forms for you to develop your game if you are willing to put in the time to learn them well. Due to the rarity of the high-level limit games, you won’t find as much chance to develop your skills as you would in no-limit and MTT. The best place for future world poker champions to grow their game is in tournament play.

For those whose aims are to grow as players, limit offers the least potential. High-level limit games are much rarer than no-limit or tournament games. Tournaments make the most sense for aspiring champions.

Limit poker is more accessible online than in casinos and clubs, where it is becoming rarely played. Your attention should be turned to public establishments and tournament poker as it is the only form of the game officially recognized as a sport.

Those considering poker as a profitable career should focus on those games with a high percentage of weak players. Hold’em poker involves the fewest of the weaker players due to the widely available literature devoted to the game. No-limit and tournament poker should be your target, as long as you have made the decision to educate yourself on it and continue to do so. The beginning player should play limit poker in games with limits below 1$/2$. If in a SnG game, the novice should stay below $20+$2 and in a no-limit game, below $100. If you want to play in games below these levels, just a basic knowledge of the rules of poker is probably sufficient. More intense study is required of higher limits and even the most apt student of the game is incurring risk.

These considerations are a good preliminary to your first games, but the answers to the questions will become clearer as you accumulate experience.

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To help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of particular poker games, I offer the following brief analysis. Those who have ever played poker online are aware that limit poker was once the most avidly played game on the net. The internet still offers quite a few low and medium limit games, and a few in the $100 to $200 range. The limit game is still easily found online and will continue to be in the future, particularly since only a few players are of the $20 to $40 level of expertise.

There is a plethora of literature available devoted entirely to the game of Limit Hold’em poker. This is a major advantage as even the novice player can avail himself of these books while experiencing actual play and if he is a good student will gain much knowledge of the game. This abounding literature allows decisions to be made more easily and most of those decisions can be explained with basic mathematics and become a tool for instantaneous in-game mental calculations.

Moreover, dispersion is less of a threat in limit games. That coldly calculating deity determines the chances of every player involved at a given moment and even the worst and unluckiest rookie may luck out (if you don’t want to go into actual statistics, just read any of Terry Pratchett’s hapless-Rincewind novels for a dramatization of this point of games and life).

Generally speaking, all poker is necessarily subject to statistical dispersion: big losses inevitably happen even to the best of players (even when they play ideally with what they have in their hands) and are what turns many off the game in the first place. No-limit and tournaments have higher dispersion than limit games, which means that limit poker is not as psychologically intense. Relatively low bank rolls suffice for limit holdem and there are many specially designed computer programs for limit poker: Poker Tracker and Poker Office offer help which is not to be sneezed at, particularly so for low limit players. These programs are useful both during the game and after, when you want to make an analysis of any part of it or calculate general statistics.

About the only minus of limit holdem is the constantly growing number of well-trained, well-informed opponents. But that is the direct result of the pluses just listed and makes the game, though accessible, not as easily profitable as one might hope it to be. The chief source of income for poker rooms is the seemingly small rake deducted from the pot during each hand. Rooms therefore rely heavily not on the number of players in their rooms. But at the conclusion of a series of long games, the percentage of all hands played may reach surprisingly high sums and limit games against good players may result in near-zero or even negative gain.

Finally, limit holdem is not widespread offline, offers little exposure to the nonvirtual outside world, and lacks the aspects which make casino and club games so rich in important and memorable experience. Certainly, those who love the game find most memorable that which is the essence of poker – the combinations of cards; but just like talking face to face to a company of people is more memorable than chanting to a hundred “friends” in ICQ, so playing poker at an actual table of wood (rather than of 1024768 pixels) you can actually knock on (makes a nice bluff) makes for a more intense and exciting experience.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at Betfair. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.