Texas Hold ’em has a number of slang terms for beginning hands. Axes (77) and rockets (AA) are two examples. In 2018, the phrase “claws of an eagle” was first printed in connection with poker. Many instances of playing “junk” beginning hands, such as 7-4 in a variety of suits, are provided in this text.
Where the Name Came From
Video game lingo is almost entirely English. One of the first examples of the Russian slang word “Eagle’s Claws” appearing in poker dictionaries is in “Eagle’s Claws.”
This is the common term for a 7-4 starting hand in Texas Hold ’em. While some people think the seven and four should be the same suit, others disagree.
What’s with the off-putting moniker?
Ability to “catch the flip”
superficial similarity to bird claws.
Russian offline provided the phrase.
A number of well-known poker players have referenced the 7-4 hand in their films and social media postings over the course of a year:
Shuller A1t, whose real name is Alexey Altshuller, is a popular streamer and a top-tier Omaha cash game player.
Peter Kotelnikov, as Kot Spartac, is an expert at playing in tournaments with many tables.
Poker pro and streamer 1nvoker’s real name is Vyacheslav Ozhigov.
Ilya Gorodetsky, a famous poker broadcaster, also started using the slang phrase. Since 2019, people have begun using the term “hands” while talking about anything online, including forums, blogs, and broadcasts.
POKER COMBOS USING THE EAGLE’S CLAW
New players should not risk their money or time attempting to figure out how to acquire a good starting hand with just a few little cards, as shown in the table. Take, for instance, the hand of 74 suited.
| Situation | Probability |
| No meld and no draw | ~52% |
| Pair (one match) | 26.94% |
| Open Ended Straight Draw | 5.2% |
| Flush draw | 10.9% |
| Two pair with two hits on the flop | 2.02% |
| Thrips | 1.35% |
| Straight, Flush or Straight Flush | 1.48% |
| Full house or four of a kind | 0.17% |
If a player consistently puts money into the pot preflop with 74 suited, we may estimate that he is playing about 60% of his starting hand range. Frequent payouts attract casual poker players (fish) who are not good enough to make money from a distance.
An acceptable play with 74 in the same suit is shown in the example. The poker player on the button called the preflop raise because he expected a multipot to form. Those that often strike the flop are lagging behind him.
How to Draw Help
Playing a 7-4 beginning with a mix of suits is quite uncommon. As a result, the term “eagle’s claws” more appropriately describes the same-suited hand.
There are three primary instances in which players should take action before the flop:
Taking the blinds (or money) from a tight opponent.
All-in situation in a short-stack tournament.
Raise or three-bet pre-flop to become the chip leader in a tight event. The goal of the game is to amass a large chip stack at the cost of weaker opponents.
If none of the aforementioned circumstances apply, the large blind should check 90% of the time to see the flip.
Rarer acts taken when the starter is struggling, with the help of statistics and opponent observation:
Positional calling of a preflop raise against an opponent who can be bluffed.
The poker move of calling a preflop raise with two players already in the pot (multipot).
Calling a reraise from the button against a tight player in the cutoff.
The final step is referred to as a “light 3-bet” (Lite 3-bet). In a cash game, the typical range for stealing blinds from the button is between 45 and 55 percent, and from the cut-off, 25 to 30 percent. When this range is passed, opponents will start actively resisting theft.
In a 70%+ cash game, stealing blinds is common practice during the first two or three rounds before players start to catch on to the abuse of the tactic.
You may go all in from late position with 7 large blinds if you have a hand like 7-4 of the same suit in a tournament, as long as one of the chip leaders is not in the blinds. Bad yet powerful hands, such as J6 or 85 with a short stack, are likely to be called. You may safely post from early position with 5-6 bb in your stack if the blinds come every 1 or 2 rounds. If you have 7-4 in a tournament and can expand your stack size by two times or more, you should definitely play the call. To clarify, this means that there are three big blinds in the stack or multipot.
It’s important to tailor your pre-flop all-in strategies and weak-hand calling decisions to your opponents, the table dynamics, and your reputation. Popular tables called preflop charts are mined for their basic action range on the flop. Those are two separate things. Preflop all-in and calling ranges might vary greatly from one source to the next.
