[1] It is closely related to the British and Irish game of Don and may have been derived from it during the First World War.

[2] Other accounts, however, suggest that Fat was played in England during the First World War by, for example, "London bus drivers and clippies".

[2] This early date is corroborated by Cassells in his 1918 book on the wartime record of the Black Watch, a Scottish regiment, where Phat is described as "a common card game among the Tommies".

[3] Its military connexion is reinforced by a passing mention in the 1938 edition of St. George's Gazette where "the usual game of Phat is getting popular again" among soldiers of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

[4] Phat was also once common in the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and, in 1990, it was played "on a highly organised league basis in and around Norwich".

Further points are pegged after the end of the play by the team that has collected more than half of the muck in their tricks.

It was probably named after the victor in the Portuguese civil war, Dom Pedro, who had been supported by British troops.

Nine-card Don is played in England in Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire, and also in South Wales.

[2] Four players sitting crosswise in partnerships receive 9 cards each from a standard 52-card pack.