History of the Poker

A look at pokers vibrant past. 

 Though there are different opinions on the origin of Poker game.  It could have been derived from many different games. The general opinion is that because of it's basic principal, its start is a very old one. 

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to Poker in 1834. At that time they were playing on the Mississippi riverboats, and he wrote certain rules about what he called the "cheating game." However, soon enough, he chose to rather call it Poker.

Now as he described this game was played with 20 cards, consisting of aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens.  2 or 4 people could play, each one with five cards.  By the time Green wrote about it, poker had become the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, which had even more action than Three-Card Monte.  Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought that the 20-card poker seemed to be a game that was more genuine, and returned from time to time.

There is also a great debate on the origin of the word Poker though most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque.  Nevertheless, there are other references such as pochspiel- a German game, and there are some who say that it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

As if not enough, there is yet another explanation for the origin of the word poker and it is that it came from a story of an underworld slang word, "poke," which was a term used by pickpockets.  Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to alleviate a sucker from his poke may have used this word among themselves.  The idea was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those who were astute to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

"Hocus-pocus" "poke" was also a term that was extensively used by magicians, and there is the possibility the word poker could have derived from this term. Soon after the game of Poker consisted of 32 cards and finally on the modern day deck of 52, not counting the two Jokers.  The history of the game of Poker is rich with its famous places and characters. During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a Poker table could be found in any town.  Today saloons have given way to casinos.

Gambling laws and card rooms carefully regulate Poker that has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world.  Poker is one of the fastest growing games but it is hardly recognized as a sporting event.  The apex of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top Poker players.

As there will always be players, so there will always be Poker!

Featured Online Casinos
Colosseum Casino, established in 1999, is one of the most trusted casinos on the internet today. It boasts a total of 151 games (don’t look anywhere else, this is the biggest casino on the web!) and the brand new Microgaming Viper software.
Microgaming	$15 Free, No Deposit	100% match up to $100