April 19 - National Poker Day

Posted on April 19, 2019

Poker is associated in my mind with two things:

(1) First and foremost, it is associated in my mind with family vacations, trips to our family's mountain cabin (a humble place built by my dad, uncle, and grandfather), and long evenings of playing with cards and poker chips and my dad's fun gameside prattle. 

As an adult, my husband and I had a few evenings like this with our kids, too - loads of different poker games, unsteady stacks of poker chips, and trying to look past each others' bluff faces.

(2) The second thing I think of when I hear the word "poker" is Las Vegas, smoky casino rooms, the sad-to-me view of people spending money trying to win more money while drinking too much alcohol.

It's like the opposite of "family fun"!

Of course there are all sorts of poker experiences, many which fall between these two poles! I totally get that my own dislike of Las Vegas and gambling doesn't mean that everyone gambling in Vegas is bad or sad!!! And there are people playing poker in all sorts of places, from tents set up in national parks to dorm rooms, from churches to nightclubs, from homes to arcades.

The fact of the matter is that poker CAN be fun and a great brain exercise. There are so many different kinds of poker, and all of them deal with probability!

Here is a primer on basic poker rules.

Here and here are some rules on a variety of poker games.

Here is an article on the probability of poker.

 

Also on this date:

National Hanging Out Day 

Republic Day in Sierra Leone

Landing of the 33 Patriots Day in Uruguay

Day of the Indian in Brazil

Beginning of the Independence Movement Day in Venezuela

Birthday of motorboat-inventor Ole Evinrude

Anniversary of the first Boston marathon

Anniversary of the first free-fall parachute descent using a rip cord

National Health Day in Kiribati

John Parker Day

National Garlic Day

First Day of Summer in Iceland

World Marbles Day

(On Good Friday)

Passover

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• April holidays
• April birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in April
  

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• May holidays
• May birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in May
  
  
  
  
  
  

August 29, 2012 - According to Hoyle Day

Back in the day, when people wanted to assure others that they were quoting from an expert, they would say the phrase, “According to Hoyle...”

And this phrase was used whether people were discussing a new law or art history, the rules of a card game or mathematical theories.

Who was this guy Hoyle? And how did he know so much about all sorts of things?

Well, Edmond Hoyle, who was born in the 1600s and died on this date in 1769, was probably not an expert in so many different things; his name just became part of a phrase used to quote from experts of any name.

But he was a bit of an expert on the rules of card games. He was paid to tutor members of high society on the game of whist, and he began to publish his rule book for Whist. Eventually his publisher also printed Hoyle's rule books for piquet, chess, quadrille, backgammon and brag. At first each set of game rules was sold separately, in thin phamphlet-like printings, eventually all the rules were combined into one games rule book. Even today, many games rule books have Hoyle's name on the cover (even though he did not write them).

Hoyle's name was so linked to games, especially card games, that he became a charter member of the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979—even though poker hadn't yet been invented during his life!

Celebrate Hoyle by playing card games!

Here is a huge index of card games rule! 

This resource for card games rules is much smaller, but the games have been chosen as favorites with kids. 

And here is a free site where kids can play card games online. 

Also on this date:

Nut Spas in Russia 

Anniversary of a phone call from space to ocean depths