Poker History

Origins

It should be noted that card playing probably originated in China or Hindustan about 800 A.D. It appeared in Italy by the late 1200's and then spread to France, Germany, and Spain. The four suits originated in France in the 1500's.

The origin of Poker is widely disputed. There are as many possible birthplaces as there are variations of the game. The most popular belief is that it was invented by the Chinese around 900 A.D., possibly derived from the Chinese dominoes. On New Year's Eve, 969, the Emperor Mu-tsung is reported to have played domino cards with his wife. Others state that this card game originates from the Persian game "as nas". This is a 5-player Persian game, which requires a special deck of 25 cards with 5 suits.

However, this is only recorded back to the 17th century. Another theory calls on the French "poque". The French who settled New Orleans played Poque, a card game involving bluffing and betting. This was stated to be the first use of a deck consisting of spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts.

Fragments of cards have been tentatively dated to 12th or 13th century in Egypt. Some propose that modern cards originated from the Indian card game of Ganjifa. We can see that narrowing down the exact origin becomes as difficult as pulling a royal straight flush.

Poker in the USA

The history of poker in the United States has a bit more consistency. Poker traveled from New Orleans by steamboat up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The game then spread via wagon and train. Modifications such as stud poker, the draw, and the straight became popular, during the Civil War. European influence of poker ended when the joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.

In 1910, Nevada made it a felony to run a betting game. The Attorney General of California declared that draw poker was based upon skill and therefore the antigambling laws could not stop it. But stud poker was illegal, as it was based solely on chance. With this decision, draw poker games developed and grew. This caused Nevada to reverse itself in 1931 and legalize casino gambling.

Initially, draw, seven-card stud, and hold'em were the three most popular poker games in the United States. Around the late 1970s or early 1980s, hold'em overtook seven-card stud in popularity, helped on it's way to the top by the huge leap in status it gained through being used as the world championship game from the early 1970s, and also by a surge in player numbers as US gambling laws were loosened up. Unlike seven-card stud and five-card stud, hold'em plays equally well with any form of betting from limit to no-limit. It quickly made five-card stud more or less obsolete, and steadily reduced seven-card stud's share of the market from about 70% in 1971, to less than 20% today.

Modern Poker

Today, Poker is carefully regulated by gambling laws, and saloons have given way to casinos and card rooms. Poker is played more than any other card game in the world. It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

Poker can be played not only in Las Vegas and Atlantic City Casinos, but in Native American Casinos across the USA, and in legalized card rooms in major cities throughout the United States and the world.

In the mid-1990s, playing Poker on the Internet started gaining popularity. Software advances made it possible for live poker games where players from around the world could pull up a chair at home to an Internet poker table and bet against players in Europe, Australia, Asia, the United States or any point on the globe where there was a computer hooked up to the World Wide Web. Online casinos started giving away free software so that a player could play on his computer or join other players at a live Internet gambling table. The online phenomenon provides players with tournaments, progressives, video poker, Pai Gow, Omaha, Red Dog, live/multi-player poker and other poker varieties all from the comfort of one's home computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Through all the varied theories on the origin of Poker, one thing comes shining through. This is a game which has stood the test of time and becomes more established with each generation.

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