How did an ace high-straight get nicknamed "Broadway"

[Colin Michael]

I was playing some low-limit seven card stud the other day and the conversation turned to how the ace high straight got nicknamed "Broadway". Nobody in the cardroom knew the answer and I haven't had any success using Google. If anybody knows please post it here. Thanks.

[grapabo]

I found this characterization (http://www.friday-night-poker.co.uk/150404/150466.html?*session*id*key*=*session*id*val*) of the term:

"Broadway - A Broadway straight is an Ace-high straight (i.e. from Ace to Ten) and is the best possible straight you can get. A more common term in the good old US of A."

Perhaps the analogy of the best possible straight is to the quality of a theatre show (i.e., "Broadway", "off-Broadway"). *shrug*

[suzzer99]

Maybe because plays have lots of Kings and Queens and such? /images/graemlins/smile.gif /images/graemlins/frown.gif /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[gabbahh]

U got all the (Broadway)stars of the poker game: A K Q J T

[Chipp Leider]

I dunno what the hell a "straight play" is, but I'd guess it has something to do w/ it.

[winky51]

that makes sense since the straight is made up of the best 5 high cards.

[x vikram]

Bro'd = TJ brother of JQ
Way = AQ leads all to AK all in.
Straight = Ace. The end of a straight line.

[CORed]

Before I played poker regularly, I thought the ace high straight would be a "royal straight", just like an ace high straight flush is a "royal flush", but for some reason, it's called "Broadway". I have no idea why. I also have never seen a reasonable explanation of why the last card in holdem, omaha or stud is called the "river".

[soko]

[ QUOTE ]
I also have never seen a reasonable explanation of why the last card in holdem, omaha or stud is called the "river".

[/ QUOTE ]

The turn may "turn" your hand around but the river can "send you down a creek" (you're dead) you can also "drown" in the river. use your imagination.

[suzzer99]

[ QUOTE ]
The frequent play on Riverboats of Mississippi seems to have played a fundamental factor in building the language of Poker. Speculation is that the River card, as we know it was named after these very rivers. The reference came about because cheats would deal the last card of the community set that advanced their hand. Thus increasing the chance of winning. If they were unfortunate enough to be caught they were duly thrown in the river as a punishment. Hence, the last card was named the River card.

[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.ladbrokespoker.com/history/?subsection=History


Another fun one:

[ QUOTE ]
One night in 1832, four men played poker aboard a Mississippi steamboat. Three of the men were professionals and the other was a helpless sucker from Natchez. The game was rigged so that the young man from Natchez would lose all of his money and he in fact did.

Distraught, the young man attempted to escape his miseries by jumping into the river. An observer prevented this suicide attempt and led the young man back to a cabin. The mysterious observer then returned to the game with the three sharks. In the midst of a high stakes pot, the observer caught one of the professionals cheating. He wrestled the cheat and pulled a knife on him.

The observer yelled, 'Show your hand! If it contains more than five cards I shall kill you!' As he twisted the cheater's wrist, six cards fell to the table. The observer then took the $70,000 pot,. He returned $50,000 of it to the man of Natchez and kept $20,000 for his trouble.

'Who the devil are you, anyway?' cried the cheat.

'I am James Bowie.' 1


[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.pokertips.org/history/origins.php

[TomBrooks]

Because Broadway in Manhatten in the Times Square theater district is wide and full of people, lights and round the clock activity and action unparalled by any other place. It is filled and surrounded by the largest quantity of the most lavish theater productions featuring the biggest celebrities. It is associated with the biggest and the best. So the best cards came to be called Broadway cards, the best straight - a Broadway Straight.

[AaronBrown]

I always assumed it came from the Broadway subway line in New York, which has stops at First Street, Tenth Street, Prince Street and King Street, and goes to Queens.

[rmgustaf]

That's pretty awesome.

[Xenia]

It made me think of the cast at the end of a succesful Broadway play, nicely lined up on the stage receiving the audience's ovation.

But that is just my imagination, of course. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[gabbahh]

[ QUOTE ]
It made me think of the cast at the end of a succesful Broadway play, nicely lined up on the stage receiving the audience's ovation.

But that is just my imagination, of course. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks!!!!
Now it also my imagination.

[Borgland]

What about the term "nuts"?

[tundog]

I saw this on the World Poker Tour tonight (Season 2 Ultimate Bet Aruba Tournament). They said that back in the old west, when a guy would bet his horse and wagon, he'd put the 'nuts' from his wagon wheels on the table. Sounds bizarre enough to be true.

[TomBrooks]

I think nuts came about because having nuts meant you had something to eat which was a good thing back when always having food was not taken for granted like it is in modern day America.

And nuts are non perishable so someone who had nuts would have something to eat when they were traveling around. Nuts are also nutritious and easy to carry so gamblers who typically traveled a lot looking for games would often carry nuts so they had something to eat on the road. To a gambler, having nuts was a good thing. Eventually, it came to mean the best thing or the best hand in a poker game.

[Unabridged]

[ QUOTE ]

Another fun one:

[ QUOTE ]
One night in 1832, four men played poker aboard a Mississippi steamboat. Three of the men were professionals and the other was a helpless sucker from Natchez. The game was rigged so that the young man from Natchez would lose all of his money and he in fact did.

Distraught, the young man attempted to escape his miseries by jumping into the river. An observer prevented this suicide attempt and led the young man back to a cabin. The mysterious observer then returned to the game with the three sharks. In the midst of a high stakes pot, the observer caught one of the professionals cheating. He wrestled the cheat and pulled a knife on him.

The observer yelled, 'Show your hand! If it contains more than five cards I shall kill you!' As he twisted the cheater's wrist, six cards fell to the table. The observer then took the $70,000 pot,. He returned $50,000 of it to the man of Natchez and kept $20,000 for his trouble.

'Who the devil are you, anyway?' cried the cheat.

'I am James Bowie.' 1


[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.pokertips.org/history/origins.php

[/ QUOTE ]

$70K pot in 1832? thats like the equivalent of $100 million