People have been playing Poker for centuries. The Chinese were playing in as early as 969A.D. and the Egyptians in the 12th and 13th century. They are among the earliest known to have played variations of this popular card game. In the 15th Century a card game named” As Nas” originated in Persia. The Persian card game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. Europeans took up the game soon after and called it Poque, possibly descending from the Geman Pochen (its name meaning “to bluff”). Bluffing has always been an integral part of Poker throughout the centuries. In the Spanish game Primero, which involved 3 cards dealt to each player, deceiving opponents for high stakes was a common tactic. Primero was played around the 1520's in Spain. Even though the roots of Poker are in Europe and Persia the United States truly developed the game we know today as Poker.
In the 18th century, French-Canadian settlers brought the game to the New Land. Poker first surfaced in the United States in New Orleans around 1829. It quickly spread up the Mississippi River and then throughout the country. The game consisted of four players and a deck of just 20 cards with the players betting on whose hand was more valuable - similar to the game today, where players bet on who has the “best “ or highest hand.
In 1834 a man named Joseph H. Green made what is one of the first known written references to the game of poker when he made mentioned the “cheating game” that was being played up an down the Mississippi on the riverboats. Until the “cheating game” was introduced the riverboats used a 3 card game called Monte that was known to be notoriously rigged. The “cheating game” was considered more challenging and was definitely a lot harder to fix.
Not long after the game began to spread out from the Mississippi riverboats, poker players started using the full 52 card English deck and the flush was introduced to the game. The game was also very popular with the soldiers of both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. During this time period, several other additions were made to the game, including the straight, stud poker, and draw poker. Around 1875, the game evolved yet again with the introduction of the joker as a wild card and continued to gain momentum. Just before the turn of the century almost every saloon from coast to coast had a poker table in it. Sometime around 1900 two more developments came about when lowball and split poker appeared.
As the years passed, poker became even more popular in the United States, as well as the entire world. The most popular Poker card game for over a century was 5 card draw. With the arrival of the Las Vegas Casino’s, 7 Card Stud was introduced and played during the 1940's and beyond. Texas Hold’em debuted in the 1970's and it’s popularity drew rapidly due to the fact that it became the game of choice for The World Series of Poker. Texas Hold’em is by far the most frequently played Poker card game in the world today.
After the World Series of Poker began in 1970, modern tournament play became popular in American Casinos. Later in the 1970's, strategy books began to appear. Popularity continued to grow in the 1980's when community card poker games were introduced in California. Community Card poker games seemed more exciting to players than Draw Poker.
Casino gambling and poker became synonymous with one another in the mid 1990s. At the end of the 1990s, when British producers debuted late night poker on television, it introduced the modern version of Poker to many Europeans for the first time. In the 21sth century Poker then experienced another sharp spike in popularity with the addition of online poker. Now people did not even have to leave their homes to play others. Poker became more of a spectator sport after the invention of the hole card camera and began to appear on well known Sports Television Networks such as ESPN. Viewers were able to follow the games closely as they could see the actual cards that were placed face down on the table (know as hole cards to television viewers). Broadcasts of poker tournaments such as the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker brought in huge audiences for the cable and satellite providers. Because of the increasing television coverage, poker professionals became celebrities and poker players all over the world enter expensive tournaments to play against them.
Poker has become a worldwide universal language. People are playing it all over the globe. The history of poker is a lengthy and debatable topic but it is clear that variations of the game have been around for centuries. Poker has overcome a bad reputation in the game’s early years and is now acceptable for anyone to play. Poker is one game that has and will continue to stand the test of time.
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