highball

[Barnhart]

laurence.horn at YALE.EDU,Net writes:
>Curiously, there are no canonical poker games called "highball" that
>I know of, but low poker (in which essentially* the "worst"
>conventional hand wins) is often called "lo-ball" (i.e. straight low,
>as distinct from hi-lo split).   I think I've usually seen it with
>the "lo-ball" spelling, but it's not listed with either spelling in
>the OED, AHD4, or HDAS.  Sometimes "lo-ball" poker refers
>specifically to low 5-card draw as opposed to low stud variants.
>While I've never of "highball" poker (for high-hand-wins), I can
>imagine it as a sort of nonce retronym.

See Tom Clark's _Dictionary of Gambling & Gaming_ (c. 1987):

highball, n.  A poker game in which the player holding the highest
ranking hand wins.  Compare lowball.  [1881 DAE, 1894 OED]

lowball, n.  A variation in poker in which the lowest hand wins rather
than the highest hand.  Compare highball.  [ca. 1961 Hotel Coll]

This would lead me to believe lowball is the "retronym".

David

barnhart at highlands.com