Is There a Story Regarding the Origin of Poker Tournament "Flights"?

Is there a story regarding the origin of poker tournament "flights"? I can't think of a logical reason to refer to them that way (except maybe a nod to all the turbulence constantly happening).

A "flight" of birds means a grouping thereof, whether they're airborne or not. It's a synonym for a flock (as are swarm, gaggle, covey, and others).

Somewhere along the line, the term "flight" was adopted by the wine industry to denote a group of similar wines, generally brought together for tasting and comparison purposes. Try as we might, we couldn't come up with the etymology of the term "flight" in relation to wine, though one source posited that the term was selected for its connotation of travel, suggesting perhaps the travel of wine around the world or of wine aficionados and connoisseurs traveling to wine regions for tasting and purchase. We suspect not, but either way, a wine flight is definitely a "grouping of" wines.

If we could come up with one awkward origination for wine flight, we couldn't find a single source that identified who applied the term to poker tournaments, or when, or where; a poker flight connoting turbulence is as good an explanation as any.

To our knowledge, it's been used only for a few years and it appeared to us, as if out of nowhere, to denote the different starting days for the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, which is now called a "multi-flight" tournament, meaning a tournament with multiple phased days of entry.

This year, the WSOP had four flights over four days, in which each flight was played up to the same point; at the end of the four days, all the remaining players, i.e., those who hadn't busted out during their entry flights, were combined for the final phase.

So as far as we can tell, just like wine, "flight" in terms of poker simply means a group of starting days. If anyone has additional information on this, we'd love to hear it.

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Kevin Lewis Jul-20-2022

The term has been in use...

...for decades, but in bridge and chess tournaments, not poker tournaments. Both bridge and chess have player ranking systems. Some tournaments are "open," meaning all players compete as one group; others are "flighted," meaning the players compete only within their own ranked group--A, B, C, etc. in bridge; master, expert, etc. in chess. The groups are called "flights."

So the WSOP starts as a "flighted" tournament, though the flights aren't grouped by skill level--and then the survivors from the flights all compete in the "open" phase.

So I surmise that the "flight" term was borrowed from bridge and/or chess tournament terminology.

Dave_Miller_DJTB Jul-20-2022

Wow.

A serious and possibly correct response from Kevin??? I’m shocked!

His and the possibilities offered sound equally plausible. 

Note that the term is also used in bars serving samplers of different beers. 

But back to poker, I’d like to know where their other terms come from:
Flush?
Full house? Boat?
If you know poker history, you know where the wheel comes from. But steel wheel?

OMB13 Jul-20-2022

also....in golf

For as long as I care to remember, decades for sure, golf has used the term flights in the same way as Kevin describes. Club championships, many club tourneys, and also in member/guest outings, all the participants are divided into flights based on their handicaps/skill level. The open division has the best players, then on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc flights. Winners of each flight might/might not play each other in some agreed to format to declare a winner.

jay Jul-20-2022

Kudos

Kudos - Kevin for a brilliant answer.

I would vote that Kevin should occasionally be fed questions from LVA. With all of the bursaries and honorifics that accompany a member of the press.

Trainwreck Jul-20-2022

Flight

Flight = Level   as in "flight of stairs"

Edso Jul-20-2022

Flight=Groupings

Kevin and OMB hit this one out of the park!  Flights in regards to various tournaments, refers to groupings.  Most groupings are made based on skill levels in the various games, but as we know for the WSOP, it's used to separate the thousands of players into manageable groups.  Well done, Gents.

O2bnVegas Jul-20-2022

remote possibility

Were there ever "charter" or "junket" flights to bring poker players to Vegas (or elsewhere) for poker tournaments?

Candy

Llew Jul-20-2022

Steel Wheel

Not an “official” explanation, but a Steel Wheel is an A2345 straight flush. In a high-low game, like Omaha 8 or Stud 8, this hand is the nuts (unbeatable) for low and can be beaten for high only by a higher straight flush, which would be very unusual. Thus, this hand is as strong as steel. 🙂

[email protected] Jul-20-2022

Re: Flights

In golf, tennis, and other "round robin" (another curious expression) tournament play I've always accepted the convention of Flights as groupings of each level of the competition. Good luck with the discussion.

Roy Furukawa Jul-20-2022

Golf

The term "flight" is used in golf and that is one old game, so I would suspect it came from there and spread to other uses.

Question of the Day - 20 July 2022

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