shoot the moon

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:15 PM -0500 6/24/00, Al Futrell wrote:
>My experience with "shoot the moon" and "shoot the works" is that
>'shoot the moon' refers to a poker wager in which
>the gambler bets to win both high and low in a single hand.
>'Shoot the works' refers to betting all of one's stake on one bet or hand.
>
>I am not sure I understand what is 'blending' here.
>
In my poker circles, where a lot of high-low games are regularly played, no
one refers to attempting to win both halves of the pot (indicated by
placing two coins in one's hand during the "declaration" phase) as
'shooting the moon'.  It's officially 'going hi-lo' and more usually 'going
both ways' or 'swinging'. For me, 'shooting the moon' in cards only has the
association with attempting to take all the tricks at Hearts mentioned
earlier.

larry