Antedating "four flush" 1883/1885

[Sam Clements]

You always knew it came from cards, but this just helps prove it and date it back a bit.


M-W and OED have 1887 for "four flush" to mean a draw poker hand in which a person has four cards of the same suit.

M-W, OED and HDAS have 1896 for "four flush" meaning both a "bluffer" and "to bluff", both cites coming from from good old George Ade.

23 March 1883 _Newark(OH) Daily Advocate_  1/3(newspaperarchive)

<<With the alternative of drawing to his four flush, Mr. Tucker remarked that it would cost $50 to play, and he put up the cash.>>

And, from 16 April, 1885  _Oshkosh(WI) Daily Northwestern  3/2

<<The alleged occupation of Penjdah by the Russians is the very thing England has been so nettled about, as a very strategic point on the frontier, and such a concession is looked upon as a virtual back-down by the British government.  The great bluff game, where both sides were drawing to a four flush, has been turned against the bluffer.>>

Sam Clements