The Vocabulary of Poker

Abstract

faro bank.' The game of poker, as we know it today, is of relatively recent origin. The name is traced in historical lexicography to the year 1834.2 In 1785 Captain Francis Grose glossed fore-pokers as 'aces and kings at cards,'3 but this term is probably not the forerunner of poker as it was later used. Sylva Clapin in 19o0 had a definition that is more amusing than satisfying: 'The American equivalent, for popularity, of the game of whist of England, although it must be conceded that this last one is now making great strides in trying to supplant its rival.'4 To the best of my knowledge there has never been published a collection of the expressions of poker players. Several writers have mentioned a few of the more common terms, but their lists are anything but comprehensive. Now and then they mention a phrase that one wishes he might have heard, such as 'Hart, Schaffner, and Marx,' meaning three jacks. There are many expressions in common use today that probably came from the gaming table. A few of them are played out, pass the buck, follow suit, good deal, straight face, strong suit, force his hand, chip in, the chips are down, a showdown, the sky's the limit. The terms in the following glossary are those used by poker players in the Western part of the United States, where gambling is condoned rather than condemned. Some of them were also used by American sailors, from every corner of America, who served with the author in the recent war. I have purposely omitted some locutions because they were more applicable to other forms of gambling and I have not glossed such words as could be found in standard dictionaries. I have limited the following glossary to the three games of poker that are usually played when the stakes run high, namely, stud, draw or straight, and lowball.