Yasborough

   Charles Anderson Worsley (1809-1897), second Earl of Yarborough, was a knowledgeable card player and was quite successful at the game, especially at bridge. He would wager a bet with his card-playing companions of 1,000 to 1 against receiving a hand in which no card was higher than nine. He did very well with the wagers because the actual mathematical odds are 1,827 to 1 against, giving him a healthy percentage in his favor. In 1900, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word yarborough was admitted into respectable dictionaries. The opposite of a yarborough is a hand in which all the cards are pictures. This hand is called a fairbanks, the name coming from the prominent actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., whose greatest pleasure was to associate with members of the royalty, even if they were only faces on playing cards.