Poker: Some weird Texas Hold'em hands

The joy of any game is to learn the tags and the phrases that are used in it. Sometimes you might find some statements that are moving from English to some other language. But yet, if you learn the terms and phrases of the game you would enjoy it a lot more.

Pocket cards, the first two cards of each Texas hold’em player have inspired much of the pokers dictionary. If you have played the game once then you would know that the Aces are called as “pocket rockets” and the kings are called as “cow boys” Now a days may be even Dalai Lama knows what a “Big Slick” is. However, there might be many hands that a player might miss out. The hands and their nick names have come from an inside study and this can be transmitted very quickly to thousands of the people via internet.

Presto: Pocket 5s had many names which are not inspired before it was gifted with the nickname presto. This name has started with the cards expert Abdul Jalib while he used to post many math problems in the forums. He used to often remove the steps that are unwanted in the calculations and another fellow poster called Steve Jacobs used to write in comments as “Presto” as if some magic has happened to the calculations. Jacob and Jalib went to Vegas on one weekend along with another newsgroup person called Frank Irwin. They eventually started to play back jack and whenever they had a black jack they used to should “Presto”. Later on they figured out that that Jacob was not a loud mouthed tourist.

When the story was published in the newsgroups everyone started using the name “Presto” whenever they had a blackjack. But when the news group has split off the poker branch, the poker players wanted to carry the name “Presto” with them. However, they were unsure about which hand should hold this name as all the hands are already having nicknames. They found out that Pocket 5 would be the best to be handed out with this nick name and hence the name “Presto” was reborn in the poker world.

The Arlo: The good way to remember a hand is when it makes it players rich. The history of Arlo is something similar. It is been named after its creator Arlo Payne another RGP poster. Arlo is also known as 6-4. Playing a hand such as 6-4 is a definite loss. But as usual with the poker it depends. Raising a hand at 6-4 indicates that you have something big and will make the other players to stop from future bets and raises. But you need to understand that the key for raising a hand at 6-4 is that these two modest cards can make you win big. If you hit the flop still you can place bet on your opponents. This was exactly the hand the Arlo has explained in the RGP post. He explained a situation that he played using 6-4. When he was holding 6-4 he flopped and had a straight flush, but still the two other players has ended up paying him who has made quads.

The Hammer: Do you think if there are any cards that are not be played? Yes, 2-7 will be in the top of this list. You would make worst if you start playing your hand with 2-7. It’s such a band hand that many players start typing “Hammer” in the chat windows. Internet makes anything possible. A handful of the blogs and articles on poker are turning out be much larger every day. This reflects the popularity of the poker website and its hands. These blogs provide much useful information about poker, links to various articles and forums to give great feedbacks on the game. Among all these blogger, the most esteemed was the playwright turned professional who uses the nickname Grubby. His blogs speak about his new life in Las Vegas, quiz and interesting topics for his readers. He made more interesting stuff and added more spice to the poker game.

The first challenge of Hammer was issues in January 2004. Grubby offered good prize money for anyone who had a win with 7-2. The basic rules to win the money were to play at least a 1 or 2 dollar ring game with at least 8 players. You cannot play Hammer from the blinds and you will have to show the cards if you were called down and then you need to type “Hammer” in the chat. Grubby has started the prize money with a $5 and increased it every day and waited patiently for someone to win the game. Bloggers started to crave for the 7-2 as they were once craved for aces. It is definitely hard to win with the pocket pair 2-7, but if it can turn over 7-2 and you can get a pot for yourself and then you can see the chat window exploding. That is the power of the “Hammer” because when it hits, it will tilt the player and also make everyone at the table think that you are an idiot. You need not be surprised to see chat messages saying that “Cool dude plays 7-2 and he thinks that he has excellent cards”. The players who play Hammer will know that they are not good cards. You will not see any bloggers playing 7-2 to show them tough in a ring game when there is no chance to win. But if you have clear strategy and right circumstance you can play any hand at poker and win the game.

Playing Hammer, Arlo or Presto is fun in poker. Because you know that you have a hand that is not logical and you will play it more skillful than in any other stronger hands. We never know if there is any reason for this madness.

Published on 01/07/2010