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Pachisi is an Indian game, somewhat resembling backgammon.
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In card games a packet refers to a collection of cards that is less than a full deck.
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Padder Tennis is a bat-and-ball game played in singles or pairs and is similar to lawn tennis, but developed to meet the need for a variation of tennis playable on a smaller area.
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Paddle Tennis is a bat-and-ball game played with a sponge-rubber ball and a laminated wooden bat on a court exactly half the size of a lawn tennis court. The rules are mainly those of lawn tennis.
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Pai Gow is a gambling game played with Chinese dominoes. The set consists of all pairs of numbers from 1-1 to 6-6, with the following eleven tiles duplicated: 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-1, 5-5, 5-1, 4-4, 3-3, 3-1, 2-2, 1-1. There are 32 tiles in all.
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Pai Gow Poker is a poker variation based on the Chinese Domino game Pai Gow. It can be played by up to seven players. A pack of 52 cards plus one joker is used. The joker is a wild card which can be used only as an ace, or to complete a straight, a flush or a straight flush. On each deal the dealer plays against the other players. Before the deal, each of the other players puts up a stake.
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In card games, a pair royal is three of a kind, such as three kings etc.
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Pale-mail, also known as pall-mall or pall mall, was an old game in which the object was to drive an iron ball called a pall, with a mallet or club called a mall, through a hoop elevated on a pole, the players standing at either end of an aley. He who succeeded in sending the ball through in the fewest strokes was the winner. The name was also applied to the alley or place where the game was played, hence Pall Mall in London.
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A pancratium is an athletic contest in wrestling and boxing.
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Pandoeren is a trick-taking card game for four players. It used to be popular in the Netherlands, but nowadays few people play it.
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A Paper-Chase is a variation of cross-country running which originated in the eighteenth century. One or two runners carrying a sack of paper pieces lay a trail for other competitors to follow who start off some 15 minutes later, and attempt to overtake the trail layers.
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In golf, par is the number of strokes a scratch player should need to complete a hole, or course. The number of strokes takes into consideration the length of the hole or course as well as any obstacles, with two strokes being allowed for the putting. A par 3 hole is then, one which allows one stroke to place the ball on the green and a further two putts.
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The Paris-Brussels Cycle Race was an international road race first run for amateurs in 1893, but after 1906 run for professionals until it was discontinued in 1966.
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The Paris-Roubaix Cycle Race is an annual French cycling classic race for professionals. It was first held in 1896, and covers 265 km.
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The Paris-Tours Cycle Race is a professional road race held since 1896 and held annually since 1906 covering 250 km of flattish roads.
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Paskahousu is a Finnish card game for three or more players, played with a standard 52-card deck.
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Pato is an Argentinean game for horsemen, a cross between polo and netball played between two teams of four men on a field 210 meters long by 82 meters wide with the object being to throw the ball into the opponents goal. Each goal is a net hanging from a 2.7 meter post. The ball is similar to a leather football, but has six leather handles. When carrying the ball it must be held in an outstretched arm, giving opponents the chance to snatch it away.
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Pedro (pronounced 'peedro') is a card game that was developed in the United States in the nineteenth century as a variation of Pitch. The Pedro is the trump 5, which is worth five points. Pedro was extremely widely played in the US at the end of the nineteenth century, but during the twentieth century it has gradually declined in popularity.
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Penarol is an Association Football club in Montevideo founded in 1891 by British employees of the Central Railways as the Central Uruguayan Railway Cricket Club. The club was a founder member of the Uruguayan league in 1900, and in 1913 changed to their present name.
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The pentathlon is a five sport standard event for women on the programme of all major athletics championships. It is an all-round test of sprinting, hurdling, jumping, and throwing.
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Pepper is a card game played in Iowa, USA, and also in Ohio. It is a essentially a version of Bid Euchre. A related game is found in several card- game books under the name Hasenpfeffer ('jugged hare'), and the name
Pepper probably derives from this. Pepper is an easy game to learn, but offers opportunities for strategy both in the bidding and the play.
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Pesade was a former movement in dressage in which the horse raised its forelegs high while balancing on deeply bent hind legs.
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Pesapallo is a Finnish variation of baseball.
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Petanque (boule) is a French ball-and-target game of the same type as lawn bowls and crown green bowls. Players take turns to bowl their bowls which are about 8 cm in diameter and made of steel, at a target ball (jack) which is a white painted wooden ball about 30 mm in diameter.
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The Philadelphia 76ers are an American professional basketball club. They were formed in 1963 when the Philadelphia Warriors moved to become the San Francisco Warriors.
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The Philadelphia Athletics are an American professional baseball team. They were a founding member of the American League in 1901.
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The Philadelphia Eagles are an American professional football team. They joined the NFL in 1933 winning the league in 1960.
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The Philadelphia Flyers are an American ice hockey club of Philadelphia. They were formed in 1967 as one of six teams of the new West Division of the expanded National Hockey League of North America.
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The Philadelphia Gold Cup is a trophy presented for the world amateur sculling championship.
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The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team. They joined the National League in 1883 and won the league title in 1915 and again in 1950.
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Philadelphia SC, formed in 1849, was the first ice skating club to be formed in America.
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The Pietermaritzburg to Durban Marathon is a canoeing event held annually in South Africa. The race covers a distance of 145 km through rugged country and was first run in 1951 when only one of the eight starters finished the race.
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A pig hunt was a former village sport held in parts of Britain. The participants were blindfolded and hunted a small pig confined by hurdles within a limited space. The winner, having caught the pig and tucked it under his arm, got to keep it as a prize. It would appear that pig hunts of this nature were still practised at the end of the 19th century.
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Ping Ball is a form of table tennis akin to lawn tennis. It is played on the ground over a net 70 cm high with a racket similar in shape to a table tennis bat but with a net hitting surface, and sized about 30 cm by 15 cm. The ball is 4 cm in diameter.
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Piquet is one of the oldest card games. It is a game for two players, certainly invented prior to 1647, using a shortened pack of 32 cards which omits 2 to 6 in each suit. In ascending order, the cards rank 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A (high).
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Pisti (pronounced 'pishti') is a popular Turkish card game, using a standard 52-card deck. It is normally played by four people in partnerships, partners sitting opposite. The direction of play is anticlockwise. Cards are played to a central pile, which can be captured by matching the previous card played or playing a jack. Points are scored for certain captured cards. The word 'pisti', which means 'cooked', describes a capture of a pile containing only one card, for which extra points are scored.
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Pitch also known as Setback or High-Low-Jack is a North American card game, derived from the old English game of All Fours (which was also known in America as Seven Up or Old Sledge). Pitch is basically All Fours with bidding added. Some of the newer versions of Pitch include other features such as extra points and an opportunity to improve one's hand by taking extra cards and discarding. There are essentially two types of Pitch game: Partnership Pitch (played with partners, obviously) and Cutthroat Pitch (in which everyone plays for themselves).
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The Pittsburgh Penguins are an American ice hockey club. They were formed in 1967 as one of six teams in the new West Division of the expanded National Hockey League of North America.
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The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team. They joined the National League in 1887 and first won league titles between 1901 and 1903.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are an American professional football team. They entered the NFL in 1933 and in 1970 switched to the American Conference within the same league.
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In card games a plain card is a card not of the suit that is trumps.
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The standard English deck of cards consists of four suits of cards: diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades; each suit containing pip cards ranging in value from one (ace) to ten, plus three court cards: knave (jack), queen, and king.
The Spanish deck of playing cards comprised four suits: pinks (diamonds); rabbits (clubs); roses (hearts) and columbines (spades) which later evolved into dineros (diamonds); bastos (clubs); copas (hearts) and espados (spades).
The French deck comprised four suits: carreaux (artisans, equivalent to diamonds); trefle (clover, equivalent to clubs); choeur (ecclesiastics, equivalent to hearts) and pique (pikemen, equivalent to spades).
From the French and Spanish playing card decks evolved the British form, with spades being represented by the French form of a pike with an evolution of the Spanish name (swords); clubs being the French trefoil clover and hearts being a corruption of the French choeur into coeur.
The court cards are so named on account of their heraldic dress. The king of clubs originally represented the arms of the pope; the king of spades the King of France; the king of diamonds the King of Spain and the king of hearts the King of England. In the French deck the king of spades is called David; the king of clubs Alexander; the king of diamonds Caesar and the king of hearts is called Charles - representing the Jewish, Greek, Roman and Frankish empires.
The queens or dames are Argine - the queen of hearts is Juno, the queen of clubs Judith, the queen of diamonds Rachel and the queen of spades is Pallas representing royalty, fortitude, piety and wisdom. The four queens were originally depicted in likeness of Marie d'Anjou, the queen of Charles VII; Isabeau, the queen mother; Agnes Sorel, the king's mistress; and Joan of Arc, the dame of war.
Playing cards are typically manufactured from pasteboard, but sometimes from plastic which is much more har wearing, and are produced in a number of shapes and sizes. The standard deck or bridge deck consists of rectangular cards 3.5 inches by 2.25 inches with rounded corners. The poker deck is slightly larger, 3.5 inches by 2.375 inches. Patience decks are roughly half the size of a standard deck and are designed for sole play.
In ancient times, the best playing cards were known as Mogul cards, because the wrapper they were contained within carried a picture of the Great Mogul. Playing cards with a speck, mark or imperfection were knoiwn as Harrys.
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A point-to-point is a cross-country horse race run between a start and an end point, with the actual route taken left to the individual riders' discretion. A famous point-to-point race takes place every Boxing day in the New Forest, Hampshire, with the end points revealed to the riders only when they have assembled and been escorted to the start point and the race is about to start.
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Poker is a card game in which the participants bet on the value of the cards dealt to them, the winner taking the pool of money being either the player whith the highest scoring hand of cards, or the only one left at the end of play having persuaded the other players to concede without showing their hands - this aspect often being accomplished with bluff.
There are numerous variations of poker in which players receive varying numbers of cards and have various numbers of cards hidden and displayed. The highest scoring hand is a 'royal straight flush' consisting of the ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit of cards. The lowest scoring hand is generally a pair of twos or deuces - though it is possible to win with a non-scoring hand, simply by having the highest ranked cards.
Originally poker was played with a reduced deck of twenty-cards, all the cards below the ten being removed from the deck. The origins of the game of poker are uncertain, but some people believe it evolved from the similar French card game of poque.
At the start of the 21st century, No limits Texas Hold 'Em poker became very popular. In this variation of poker, played by between two and a maximum of ten players at each table, though multiple tables are common, each player is dealt two face down cards. The two players to the left of the dealer pay an ante into the pot before receiving their cards, the ante next to the dealer being known as the small blind and the next ante, which is twice the amount of the small blind being known as the big blind.
After the deal, the players commence a round of betting starting with the player to the left of the 'big blind'. This player may call the big blind ante, raise the bet, or fold his cards. Each player may do the same in turn, and the betting continues until all the players except one have folded, or each remaining player has matched the last highest bet. A player who has already bet, may re-raise the bet, call the bet, or fold. This betting round can continue to a maximum of three re-raises by an individual player.
After the initial betting round, the dealer deals the top card face down into a waste head, and deals three communal cards face up into the centre of the table. These three cards are known as the flop. There then proceeds another round of betting, commencing with the player to the left of the dealer - the small blind.
Next the dealer again discards, face down, the top card from the deck and deals the next card face up next to the flop. This card is known as the turn.
After another round of betting, the dealer for a last time discards the top card of the deck, face down, and deals a fifth and final communal card face up into the centre of the table. This card is known as the river.
A final round of betting proceeds, at the end of which any remaining players reveal their private cards, and the highest hand of five cards made from the five communal cards a player's two hole cards, wins the pot. In the case of a draw, each player receives an equal share of the pot.
Often in a round of betting, a player will bet all his remaining chips, in a move known as 'all in'. This bet may result in a side pot if there are other players with chips still to bet. A player moved 'all in' may only win the pot or pots he has bet into. Subsequent bets are placed into another pot to be distributed between the winner or winners of the subsequent bets.
After an agreed time period, perhaps fifteen minutes, the antes known as blinds are doubled. In this way the game is time limited, with the antes becoming so large that players forced to bet by the rules of the game simply run out of chips.
Texas hold em is usually played in a knockout tournament, with each player having a fixed number of chips to begin with, and the winner being the last player left with any chips. It may be allowed for a player to buy more chips, thereby replenishing his supply, during the game - usually only the once during a game. This being known as a 'buy in'.
At the world poker championships, a tournament of Texas Jold Em poker typically involves some 800 or more players across 80 or more tables. As players are lost from a table, other players are moved from their seats to fill up the empty seats, reducing the tables in play until a final table is reached with the last ten players who then continue playing until a final winner is declared.
See Also: How To Win At Poker
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Poker Menteur (Liar Poker in English) is the card game equivalent of a dice game known in Britain as Liar Dice.
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The Pole Vault is a standard field event for men in the programme of all major athletics championships. Pole vaulting is a jumping contest for height, competitors using a pole to lever their bodies over a bar which is raised according to a fixed progression. Vaulters failing to clear each height within three attempts are eliminated and the winner is the athlete who clears the greatest height.
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Polo is a four-a-side game with players mounted on horses who use wooden mallets to strike a wooden ball in an attempt to score goals. The ball is struck with the side of the mallet, and horses of any size may be used. The full sized ground is 300 yards long and 200 yards wide if unboarded and 160 yards wide if boarded. The boards on the side are nine inches high and designed to keep the ball in play.
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Polo Crosse is a team game played on horseback, created by combining some elements of Polo with some of lacrosse. It was first played at the National School of Equitation in England in 1939, with a weapon formed by splicing a tennis racket on to the end of a polo mallet and replacing the tight strings of the racket with loose ones, subsequently special equipment was made with the operative end resembling a lacrosse net. The game died out in Britain soon after the Second World War, but spread to Australia and New Zealand, and later to the USA, Canada and South Africa.
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The Pommel-Horse is an article of gymnastic apparatus. It is an almost trapezoidal, leather covered body on legs which only men compete on due to the perceived requirement for great strength in the arms and shoulders. The body has two handle, known as pommels, centred along the upper surface of the horse about 40 cm apart.
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Pontoon is the British version of the internationally popular banking card game Twenty-one, perhaps now best known in the form of the American Casino version Blackjack. The game Pontoon and its name are derived from the French Vingt-et-un (21). The variation Shoot Pontoon makes the betting more interesting, by incorporating the betting mechanism of Shoot. Pontoon can be played by any number of players from two upwards - it works well with five to eight players - using a standard 52-card deck. For a large number of players, say eight or more, two 52-card decks can be mixed together. The players also need a supply of money or chips for betting. The cards have values: ace is worth 1 or 11 at the holder's choice, kings, queens, jacks and tens are worth ten, and the remaining cards are worth their pip value. Each player's basic aim is to form a hand whose total value is as near as possible to 21, without going above 21.
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In cricket the popping crease is a line drawn in front of the wicket, four feet distant from it, parallel to the bowling crease and at least as long as the latter.
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Poque is a French card game of skill and bluffing, similar to but pre-dating the American card game of poker.
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Portsmouth FC (Pompey) are an Association Football club of Portsmouth, England. They were founded in 1898 as a professional club and entered the first division of the Southern League the following year, joining the Football League in 1920. Portsmouth FC play home games at Fratton Park.
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The Preakness Stakes is a horse race founded in 1873. It is the second leg of the American triple crown and is run over a distance of 1900 meters at Pimlico in May.
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The Preis Der Diana is a horse race, the German Oaks for three year old fillies run over 2000 meters at Mulheim early in June.
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The Premio Roma is an Italian horse race, the last leg of the Italian triple crown for older horses. It is run at Rome in early November over 2800 meters.
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Preston North End FC is an Association Football club formed in 1880 by members of the North End Cricket Club in Preston, Lancashire, seeking a winter sport. In 1888 the club were among the founder members of the Football League and were the first league champions.
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Primero is an old Italian card game which became popular throughout Europe in the 16th century and perhaps earlier. It is a showdown game in which players are dealt four cards. The combination which gives its name to the game is the prime, which consists of one card of each suit.
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The Prince of Wales Trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded annually to the team finishing in first place in the National Hockey League of North America.
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The Princeton Tigers are an American college football team of Princeton University. They played their first game in 1869.
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Prisoners' Base (aux bares) was a French street game played during the Middle Ages.
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The Prix De Diane is a French horse race, the French oaks. It is run at Chantilly in mid-June over 2100 meters.
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The Prix Du Cadran is a French horse race, the equivalent of the Ascot Gold Cup, but run in May over 4000 meters.
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Prize-fighting is the now outlawed sport of bare-knuckle fist fighting. Boxing evolved from prize-fighting, and differs in the adornment of the participants' hands by gloves.
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Push is a partnership card game related to contract rummy.
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Push-Ball is an outdoor team game invented by Crane of Massachusetts in 1894. It was introduced into Great Britain and played at the Crystal Palace, London in 902, but never became popular. The games is played by two teams each of eleven players divided into forwards, right wings, left wings and goalkeeper. The goalposts are 18 feet (5.5 meters) high and 20 feet (six meters) apart with a crossbar at the height of seven feet from the ground. The ball used is six feet (180 cm) in diameter and weighs 50 lb (about 23 kg). The playing area measures 140 yards by 50 yards (about 128 meters by 46 meters). Pushing the ball under the bar scores five points, eight points are scored for throwing the ball over the crossbar. A variety of push-ball was played at military tournaments in London during the early 20th century, and there were national teams, England and the USA for example competed at Headingley in August 1902.
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In billiards, pyramids is a game played with 15 red balls and 1 white ball. The red balls are placed together in the shape of a triangle, or pyramid at the spot. The object of the game being to pot the most balls. This game was popular around 1900, and may perhaps have developed into the modern game of Pool.
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The Pythian Games were a Greek athletic contest originally limited to musical competitions, and instituted in 527 BC in honour of Pythian Apollo and held every 4 years at Delphi. The prize was a wreath of laurel.
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