[The posts for this month are reposts from the site www.honotogroabemo.org, on which a host of hirsute individuals including yours truly would grow beards to raise money for breast cancer research. The site is defunct, but I thought I’d resurrect the game-related posts. This was originally posted on 2011-11-23.]

(Where’s that confounded… er, what’s that word again?)

First a big thank you to Daniel and Megan, who have contributed greatly to the cause. Perhaps that’s enough to carry me through to the end, but perhaps I could use a little more financial encouragement, if you know what I mean.

Saw The Muppets today, and it was most excellent. A highly recommended movie for those who wish to entertain either kids or the nostalgic. The “Lithium” reference was also inspiration enough for me to pick up the guitar again (of which, only part is related to today’s game).

The earliest reported instance of Poker (yesterday’s game) is from 1829. It was most likely invented in the saloons around New Orleans in the early 19th Century, based on similar games and possibly considered a variant of a French game called Poque. In this early version, the deck had 20 cards (face cards plus the ace and 10), flushes and straights were not used, and it was limited to four players. By 1835, 52-card decks were being used, most likely to allow more players, and the flush was introduced. Later came the straight — although there was some contention with allowing the straight flush to beat four-of-a-kind, with traditionalists desiring to keep the top hand of four aces plus king.

The original poker dealt out 5 cards facedown with no wildcards or draw. The draw was introduced somewhere in the 1830s, with 5- and 7-card stud appearing sometime during the Civil War, and the wild card in the 1870s. Community cards showed up sometime in the early 20th Century, but of course reached their greatest popularity with Texas Hold-em.

Personally, I prefer 7-card Stud, but perhaps that’s because I don’t like to share.