The craziest Poker variant you probably never heard of

“The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say

I don’t share your greed, the only card I need is the Ace of Spades”

Motorhead – Ace of Spades

When I visited my grandparents when I was a child, they would occasionally allow me access to the apartment complex’s library. One of the books I “borrowed” was a book titled “Poker Is the Name of the Game” by Walter Gibson. It was a quick 143 page paperback that was originally published in 1974. It is almost as old as me, and like me, it has not aged well. Most of the book covers the stud variety of poker, and specifically I mean the seven card stud version. There is only one mainly dismissive paragraph that mentions (Texas) Hold ‘Em. By way of comparison, this book dedicates an entire chapter on one of the most craziest variant of seven card stud poker that is so ridiculous, I would bet that you never even heard of it.

The I, Omnibus Top Ten Favorite Pinball Machines

“He’s a pinball wizard
There has to be a twist
A pinball wizard’s got such a supple wrist”

– The Who, “Pinball Wizard”

As far as arcade games go, nothing is older than pinball. It’s roots go all the way back to the early 18th Century, in where it share the same common ancestor as the Japanese pachinko machine. Video games may have been everywhere in the 1980s – the pizza parlor; the bowling alley; the movie theatre; the candy store; the deli, but the pinball machine was in the arcades before the advent of the video game, and outlasted them when home consoles began to match and supersede the graphics quality and economic value of their arcade machine counterparts. The few remaining arcades today still feature many games of skill – the crane; skee ball; mini basketball; the dance and DJ simulators; racing games; and shoot ’em ups – but there are little to no variety. The IPs may change, but the game mechanics hardly ever change. Sadly, the pinball is not an exception; it too peaked creatively in the early 2000s.
Hey, I promised and teased this for a very long time now. Let’s put this baby to rest.

The Education of I, Omnibus: Baseball Edition

You can’t tell from this b&w photo, but the jersey is orange, the lettering and the cap is blue.

“Well, a-beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field
A-roundin’ third and headed for home
It’s a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel”

John Fogerty, “Centerfield”

They say you never forget your first love. My first love is, was, and forever will be baseball. How much do I love baseball? So much that I have been struck in the mouth with hardballs three times, and still I come back for more. It has been undocumented…until now. Some are annual front row regular season ticket holders. Some call the all-sports radio stations daily. Some debate 24/7 over social media. I have neither the money, time, nor patience to out-fandom, or out-purity these people. Sure, I play and have played multiple sports over time. I am a fan of many other sports that I have not partaken in yet. And I have a number of anecdotes for these sports as well. But I don’t believe those compare to those I have regarding the American national pastime.

20th Century Fox will remake Hasbro’s board game, “Clue”

20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to remake “Clue”, the classic Hasbro board game, after it had been dropped Universal Studios.

Josh Feldman, the head of Hasbro’s TV and film division, is producing for Hasbro Studios. Daria Cercek is overseeing for Fox.