Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 12 February 2010 / 3 Comments

It was dinner break at the Rio. I was helping cover the final table of one of the preliminary bracelet events at the World Series of Poker a couple of summers ago, and was spending the down time eating a sandwich by my laptop. While the players were taking a break from having to decide what actions to take, I was taking a break from deciding how to put those actions into words.

The crowd had been cleared from the bleachers, but there were a few staff milling about. And, as always, a dealer was stationed at the table, keeping an eye on the players' chip stacks while they were away.

Someone entered the little arena, leading a group of people and guiding them over near the table. I wasn't sure, but it appeared to be a member of the Rio staff piloting some visitors through a kind of impromptu guided tour. I watched as the gentleman pointed at the small hole card cameras located around the table's edges, and overheard him explaining how they worked. Then I heard him say something about the origin of the tiny "lipstick" camera that has done so much to increase poker's popularity.

"You know the cameras they use for colonoscopies?" he asked the group excitedly. "The same technology," he explained. His audience nodded. I guess I nodded as well. Soon I was repeating the story to others as a curious bit of trivia.

Those to whom I told the story usually nodded, too. Finally I met someone who seemed to know more about it than I did. This person told me that Henry Orenstein -- the poker player and entrepreneur credited with having invented the hole card camera -- had himself once discounted any connection between his invention and the long, flexible endoscope used for colonoscopies. (That's one pictured above, if you were wondering.)

I also recall something funny in there about where that story might have come from, which I believe included reference to where the endoscope goes.

I present that anecdote to you without knowing for certain one way or the other what the truth really is. The fact is, there are many, many stories in poker for which it is difficult to judge their veracity. Even the language we use to describe the game includes many terms and phrases with uncertain origins, the connotations or history of which often aren't at all known by those who use them.

Inspired somewhat by the hole card camera (and conflicting stories about its origin), I thought it might be fun to take a closer look at three such terms and some of the apocryphal, dubious, and/or surprising stories behind them.

THE NUTS

We know "the nuts" refers to the best possible hand. When you are holding ace-king and the flop comes Q-J-10, you have the nuts. But where did that term come from? In their excellent reference work The Poker Encyclopedia, Elkan Allan and Hannah Mackay share a story of how the phrase first appeared in the American Old West.

"The phrase evolved in the frontier states of the nineteenth century, when chips or cash were only some of a huge number of goods that could be wagered on the poker table," they explain. "If a player got so deeply embroiled in a hand that he'd run out of funds, he would often end up betting his horse and wagon, which were represented in the pot by the nuts and bolts of the wagon wheels themselves." Allan and Mackay go on to clarify how these games obviously were played for "table stakes" -- that is, players were not restricted to the chips on the table, but could supplement their holdings mid-hand.

Is the story true? Who knows? Further embellishment has come to explain the superfluous description of the hand being not just the nuts, but the "stone cold nuts." Why "stone cold"? Well, apparently it was night time and chilly out there when Billy retrieved the nuts and bolts from his wagon. Or so the story goes.

In fact that story, while often repeated, appears to be of doubtful origin. More likely explanations allude to much earlier uses of the term such as listed in The Oxford English Dictionary, where something being "nuts to" a person is said to have referred to "a source of pleasure or delight to one." As in, "the play last night was nuts to me."

THE WHEEL

So if the "nuts" doesn't necessarily refer to the nuts of a wagon wheel, where did the term "wheel" originate?

A "wheel" most commonly refers to a hand consisting of A-2-3-4-5 (which in games like ace-to-five lowball is, of course, the nuts). The term also refers to other best hands in lowball games, such as 7-5-4-3-2 in deuce-to-seven lowball. Meanwhile, in split pot or high games, a five-high straight (not necessarily the nuts) also gets called a wheel.

I have heard some fairly circuitous -- pun intended -- attempts at explaining this one, with reference to the A-2-3-4-5 being read both "up" and "down" in split pot games, rolling back and forth like a wheel.

A much more likely explanation, entertained by Michael Weisenberg in The Official Poker Dictionary of Poker (which you can peruse online), is that the term is an allusion to the popular deck design manufactured by the U.S. Playing Card Company since the late 19th century, a design that features a bicycle rider on the back and commonly referred to as "Bicycle cards." ("Bicycle" is now a trademark of the company.) Indeed, a "wheel" hand is sometimes also referred to as a "bicycle."

Less certain is the origin of the "steel wheel" -- that is, the A-2-3-4-5 hand all in the same suit -- although one would presume the adjective "steel," connoting toughness or impenetrability, is being employed to refer to the near invincibility of the hand in many games. Also, it rhymes!

THE HAMMER

Finally, from where comes that other much-used term from the poker player's verbal toolbox, "the hammer"? I'd bet most poker players today instantly think of a particular hold'em hand -- seven-deuce offsuit -- when hearing the term. I'd bet even more if the player in question picked up the game post-Moneymaker, which would make sense given that was right about the time that particular usage began to be popular.

Credit for having christened 7-2o -- the worst starting hand in hold'em -- as "the hammer" is most often given to the popular blogger known as Grubby. His blog, The Poker Grub, includes numerous anecdotes involving the hammer in action, including chronicles of "The Hammer Challenges" in which Grubby dared fellow poker players/bloggers to try to win hold'em hands with 7-2o in order to win a jackpot.

The origin of the usage is quite humble, having been named after a player in Grubby's home game who liked to play 7-2o and whose name happened to be Hammer. Another blogger, Scott Gallant (a.k.a. "DoubleAs") shares the story of Grubby having coined the term in his book Pressure Poker. One can read more about Hammer mythology over on Dr. Pauly's Tao of Poker in a post explaining how playing the Hammer has been elevated to a "philosophy" of sorts among certain devotees. (There the good Doctor also dubs February 7th "St. Grubby's Day," which we might as well acknowledge as having just passed.)

What some may not know is that Grubby has successfully managed to take over a poker term that had already existed with an entirely different meaning, appropriating it to describe the humble (or mighty) 7-2o. In fact, as Weisenberg tells us in his dictionary, the term had long been used to describe the "last position to bet in a particular hand; sometimes the person to put the last bet in; usually preceded by the."

In other words, say preflop betting had left just two players in a hand. After the flop, the player in early position might refer to his opponent as having "the hammer" -- meaning he intended to check and allow that opponent to make what will likely be a continuation bet. "Go ahead, you have the hammer," he'd say. (Of course, if his opponent were Grubby, that statement could mean something else, too!)

I suppose the lesson here is that while it is always good to know the meaning of poker terms, when people start telling you the stories behind those meanings, don't automatically assume they know their endoscope from a hole in the table.

Comments (3)

1. roy mastromauro | 15 February 2010

   "There the good Doctor also dubs February 7th "St. Grubby's Day," which we might as well acknowledge as having just passed."

   Whew. I just read that as "Grubby has just passed." Obviously, not the case, but, just, whew.

2. Anonymous | 17 February 2010

   The hammer is also a long-held curling term to denote who has the 'last rock' advantage; analogous to last position.

   Unsure if *its* origins.

3. Short-Stacked Shamus | 27 February 2010

   Haha, sorry Roy... could have maybe phrased that another way there.

   I'd noticed that use of the "hammer" watching the curling, too, anon., which does sound like the same idea (i.e., of getting to act last).

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