Nestled in the heart of historic downtown Griffin Georgia is the Doc Holiday Museum. Doc was born John Henry Holliday in Griffin in 1851. After losing his mother at age 14 to tuberculosis, his father remarried and relocated the family to Valdosta, GA. Here the young man that would later be known as Doc Holliday attended Valdosta Institute, then in 1870 he traveled to Philadelphia to attend dental school.
Holliday reportedly practiced dentistry for about 5 years with one of his first offices being in Dallas, Texas. Shortly after opening this office he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. It seems that Dallas is also where he found that he could make more money as a gambler. It is hard to tell if Doc was the flamboyant and exciting character depicted in the movies, however it is pretty certain that he did stick with gambling and more specifically poker, from this point on. Obviously this new way of making a living would definitely put him in more frequent contact with a rougher crowd and in more sticky situations. These added factors mixed with his reported desire to die of something other than the Tuberculosis that was ever present, tend support the exciting life depicted in movies.
Many of the games played in Doc Holliday’s Wild West were very similar to today’s games. These games included many of the variations of poker we play today, such as 5 card draw and stud versions of poker. Poker chips were also often used is these Wild West poker games and Holliday was known as a prolific poker player. A particularly famous session of poker, in Prescott Arizona in the summer of 1880, led to Doc reportedly winning $40,000.
However, one game was quite different. Faro is a card game that is related to the card game basset. Faro was largely popular in Europe in the 18th century and in the US in the 19th century. One of Doc’s occupations in many of the towns he visited was dealing Faro at a local gambling house. This occupation also led to many of his violent encounters. Oddly enough, Doc died in bed from his Tuberculosis on November 8, 1887 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He had survived 15 years after his diagnosis.