Odd Names in Poker

Good evening, today we will spend a fun entry to some commonly used names to describe some interesting moves in Poker. Almost all possible combination have been baptized in one way or another, as known as 86 Hiroshima (the date of the first bombing of the city) or J10 Cloutier named because it featured famous poker player in the late 90's and early 2000 is these initials: James Thomas (JT - Joker Ten). Let's focus on the best of them:

AA - American Airlines
KK: King Kong
JJ: The hooks / hooks
99: Barbara Feldon (super 99 in a TV series)
88: The snowmen
22: Ducks
33: Larry Bird
K9: the dog
AK: Kournikova because it looks pretty but never wins.
KJ: Kojak

On this point we draw attention to a curious hand story: Dead Man's hand. Sometimes film, this expression comes from the deepest of the origins of poker, it seems that history dates back to 1876 in the Far West.

Wild Bill Hickok, the protagonist of our story, sheriff, gunslinger and it seems that driver caution proceedings was known for playing their games forever with the wall behind him to avoid bandits who could end his life. The fact that one fateful night, Jack "Crooked Nose" McCall in Deadwood, South Dakota, Hickok surprised while playing a game, giving him a shot that ended his life.

The funny thing is that history to fall, Wild Bill was holding one of his hands on two aces and two eights (Some people went further saying that was completed with the queen of hearts and the other four letters were black) that is play from that point is known as Dead Man's Hand.

Interesting Stories About Poker

Stephen ‘Stevie444′ Chidwick is an online poker player that decided to try and win a WSOP Main Event package in the 2008 series. He did a little better than that, winning exactly 101 main event packages. What was interesting about the fact he won all of these packages was that he was under 21 and could therefore not play in the World Series! 

Former American President “Tricky Dicky” Richard Nixon reportedly financed his first political campaign with money he won playing poker in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The winnings helped pay for his successful U.S. Congress run in 1946. He decided poker was not good for Public Relations and gave up playing poker in 1952. 

Poker is responsible for one of the most common foods in the world, the sandwich. In the 1700’s the Earl of Sandwich, John Montague, was so keen not to leave a card game to eat he ordered a servant to bring him a piece of meat in between two slices of bread so he could eat one handed, and play cards with the other hand.

Three times WSOP Main Event champion Stu Ungar was an amazing card player, but had a long history of drugs and sports betting addictions. He is said to have been broke, become a millionaire, and gone broke again around 20 times during his poker career, before his passing in 1998. Ungar was regarded as the best Gin Rummy player of all time, beating out the best player of the time when he was only 11 years old. ( I already post an article about this great poker player )

A poker player at the World Series was involved in a hand early in the main event a few years ago and was talking to his friend about a hand he had played in a local game, excitedly going through the action. He shouted to his friend, “I decided to just shove and said, All In!” Unfortunately for him it was his turn to act and he had not looked at his cards. As verbal bets are binding, he immediately looked terrified and fell silent to see if anyone called his bet. Fortunately for him everyone folded the hand. He mucked his hand without ever seeing what he held during this unwitting shove, which could have seen him eliminated and his $10,000 buy-in wasted.

Poker pro Howard Lederer started out as a semi professional chess player, moving to New York to focus on his chess game. At the infamous Mayfair club he started to learn poker after taking an interest in the game. He did not immediately crush the games. On his own website he comments that 9 out of 10 nights he used to go home completely broke and only kept a poker bankroll by running errands for more successful poker players. His hard work paid off later and he is now one of the most respected poker players in the world.

TexasLimitlKing is a well-known online poker name from around two to three years ago. The player crushed the online games causing many players to accuse him of cheating. What is unique about TLK is that when he was up by around 2 million dollars he simply walked away from the game and stopped playing. This fuelled the rumours about him. He has been recently seen playing $10 tournaments but never revisited the high stakes games where he had so much success. It is rumoured he is a young Swedish player who invested in a factory after giving up poker; his name still conjuring mass debate on the poker forums.