History of Poker

I don't know about you, but I love old things. It's not that I don't like new things but rather that if something has a history I'm more interested in it, it seems to have more clout. You can only imagine my glee therefore when I discovered that poker dates back past Vegas, past the Wild West, past Renaissance Europe and sixteenth century Persia, past twelfth century Egypt, and actually originated in China towards the end of the first millennial - at least that's the earliest known use of a game similar to modern poker.

The Chinese game was called "Domino Cards" and it is documented that Mu-tsung the Chinese Emperor in around 950 AD played this numbers and card game on New Year's Eve with his wife. Some time later, in the sixteenth century it is believed that the Persians had quite a liking for a game called As Nas; this game had a 25 card deck with 5 suits and involved bluffing; not exactly the same as modern poker, but with striking similarities in concept it was very likely an ancestor of our modern game. Remains of playing cards have also been found in Egypt from the middle ages, and even India from the same period.

The game as we know it today is probably a direct descendant of the French and German game known as Poque and Pochem respectively. These were popular in the seventeenth century, and were most likely related to the Spanish Primero which was played as early as 1526. All these games involved 20 card decks and bluffs; it's also known that variations existed.

The modern age of poker however began with its introduction to America where its popularity spread like wildfire. The introduction was probably due to a high French immigration and influence in New Orleans. In the 1800s poker, also known as the Cheating Game, was a popular past time on the steamboats and owed a large chunk of its development to the gold rush and the move west. At some point, probably around the turn of the nineteenth century, the 52 card deck was adopted, and with the founding of Las Vegas poker became a more standardized game. 5 card draw was the most popular of poker games in the early part of the twentieth century, due to the gambling laws of America that deemed it legal on the basis that it was a game of skill and not luck. In 1931 however, when gambling was legalized, 7 card stud began to come into the limelight where it stayed until the 1970's and the introduction of Texas Hold'em which has remained the most popular of games in casinos until now.

With the internet revolution of the late twentieth century a new era has been entered into; but like I said; the future is only as interesting as the past, and what a past it has been.