The Home of Texas Hold ‘Em

Welcome to Robstown: Home of Texas Hold ‘Em.

It’s official – Robstown is to the home of Texas Hold ‘Em. Thanks to HCR 109 by Herrero, D-Nueces.

The game’s invention dates back to the early 1900s when it is traditionally held that the first hand of the popular card game was dealt in the city of Robstown, and from there it traveled northward in the hands of “rounders” and up the sleeves of cardsharps who quickly recognized the game’s potential for mass appeal.

This is confirmed by many of the sites I’ve visited about the history of Texas hold’em. From Wild Jack Casino:

According to some historians, the first game of Texas Hold ‘Em was played in a small town called Robstown, Texas at the turn of the century (late 1890s early 1900s). 

We also made the bola tie the official tie of Texas and the boot the official state shoe. What a day.

Moonshine Exhibit

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, there is a new exhibit at the Blueridge Institute highlighting the history of moonshine.

Blue Ridge Institute’s ‘White Liquor’ exhibit

Moonshining, it turns out, is a subject of endless fascination for people not only from the state’s uplands, but from flatland cities such as Richmond and Norfolk and from around the nation. The moonshining exhibit’s popularity — admission is free, so there are no attendance figures — has prompted Moore to extend it through February, though it was supposed to close this spring.

“We’ve never had as many visitors who come in and look around and say they’ve never been in here before,” Moore says.

The exhibit, composed of various whiskey stills, jars, jugs, copper material, moonshining paraphernalia and plenty of photographs of local moonshiners at work, has been 30 years in the making. Moore has been collecting pieces and interviewing bootleggers that long, hoping to one day highlight the area’s rich history of distilling, both legal and illegal.

There is also an excellent slideshow.