This question and comment came up on the American Dialect Soc'y mailing list. Knowing that the man of the list is a serious student of the sport, I thought it at least marginal to our topic: QUESTION (JL): "Seven-Toed Pete" is an American and Canadian synonym for seven-card stud poker. Can anyone dig up any early cites* or lore concerning this name? [* cite = citation = mention in print or otherwise on record] COMMENT (LH): Funny, I've never heard that, but there's a poker variant involving three cards that's known as three-toed Pete. The rules are, in fact, roughly stud-like. I've never heard of any other versions of n-toed Pete (or n-toed anyone else, for that matter) where n=/=3. -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel, by hand __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Dress up your holiday email, Hollywood style. Learn more. http://celebrity.mail.yahoo.com