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I'd like to hear how people understand the word "jackpot". I know two meanings for it, although until I moved to Northern Ontario, I knew only one, and I learned the second here. It took me by surprise.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I know it only as the prize in a sweepstakes or lottery. I don't know its derivation, though. Where's it come from, y'all?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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jackpot <> rabbit stew ?? (just a schwag)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> (just a schwag)
lemme see now, this is a Yiddisher scientist's WAG...?!
Wot AsP said.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought the "original" meaning was from poker (long before Texas). The pot remains small, containing nothing but a bunch of antes, but grows gradually until someone finally has a hand a good enough to open the betting...a pair of Jacks, or higher. THAT pot is much bigger, needless to say.
Can anyone beat that?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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grows gradually until someone finally has a hand a good enough to open the betting...a pair of Jacks, or higher
Boy howdy! There's you a question of combinatorial probability. How few players would you need to have for a significant number of hands to be dealt before you get a pair of jacks or better in someone's hand?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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jackpot
"big prize," 1944, from obsolete poker sense (1881) of progressive antes that begin when no player has a pair of jacks or better. Earlier, in criminal slang, it meant "trouble," especially "an arrest" (1902). http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=jWas 'trouble' the one you learned, Elizabeth? I didn't know that one.
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Carpal Tunnel
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<slaps hand to forehead> of course, the poker use!
for what it's worth, Faldage, my anecdotal-type experience leads me to say that Jacks-or-better draw poker (nee Jackpots) will be opened on the first deal about 50% of the time with six players.
rigorous proof is left as an exercise for the student.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In Nevada English, jackpot means that combination of symbols on a slot machine/one-armed bandit which wins the player the highest prize.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jacks-or-better draw poker (nee Jackpots) will be opened on the first deal about 50% of the time with six players.
Hence the obsolete poker sense sense. It lasted about one hand.
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Yes, Jackie, "trouble" was indeed the other use I heard for it, and first heard when I moved here in '92. I remember my employer at the time saying "We don't want to get into a jackpot here." It took me a minute to puzzle out exactly what he meant. Since then I've often heard it used that way - as "trouble" or "a mess".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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HEY...then it's like cleave and cleave: two opposite meanings!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Hence the obsolete poker sense sense. It lasted about one hand.
hence also, jacks-or-better, progressive, trips-to-win. now that's got pot-building potential.
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