Television and Internet have made poker widely accessible today, but where did it all start and how did it come around?
The game as we know it has been around for about 200 years; however, there are many theories of where the original game of poker came from, many years previous to this. Some say an extremely loose variation of poker game evolved from China around 900 AD. Others say that it was the Egyptians that played a similar variation of poker in the 1300’s. However, it has the game of Nas from Persia, which started the concept of rounds of betting, with the general outcome being decided by a pre determined hand ranking.
Nas itself only consisted of 20 – 25 cards, and was miles off any poker variation we have today, but it was a starting block which developed and spread into Europe. From these 25 cards you would also see 4 unique suits; swords, cups, coins and batons. However, you would often find that suits varied from country to country. As you can see there are a lot of theories as to where poker came from, and it is quite possible that all of these theories were used to make poker the game it is today.
The game we realise today started to develop with the creation of Poque by the French. This was the first known card game that produced bluffing and betting stages. It was also the first game which used the suits we are accustomed to today. In 1834 the game of Poque changed its name to poker, due to Jonathan Green, who is widely recognised as the main inventor of poker as it is today.
The main difference between the game Poque and how it is today was the amount of cards dealt per hand. It was common to reduce / increase the amount of cards in play, depending on the amount of players. It was a minimum of 20 cards all the way up to the 52 which are used today.
Poker grew in the USA, along the Mississippi river, mostly on boats, if anybody has seen the Mel Gibson film Maverick; this is a rough guide of how poker was played on Mississippi boats.
One of the main developments of poker came in 1925. This is when the community card games (Hold’em and Omaha) came around. This is the main reason why the game has become hugely popular today, as the community card games added an extra touch of skill to them.
In the 1970 the development of major tournaments came around, including the now infamous WSOP. For the first 10 years, the best players in the world where invited to sit down and play for substantial stakes, even though the amount of players for the first 10 years never went above 50, the first serious tournaments had begun.
In the late 70’s following on from their success at the table the first well known strategy books where created, including the super system written by Doyle Brunson, and The theory of poker by David Sklansky, which are still two of the greatest strategy books about today.
In the 1990’s poker found its way into the casinos and in 1998 poker finally became available online.
The rise of poker across the globe came majorly in 2003, this is when coverage became widespread, and satellite qualifiers became widely available online. This boosted the popularity of all leading offline events, in fact, from 2003 – 2006 the WSOP field increased 10 fold, and now it is rare to see the main event of the WSOP with a field of under 8000. The multi-million dollar prize pools and the overnight celebrity status from as little as just $1, has made poker one of the most popular games around today.
The game of poker today is much different from any predecessors; however, there is a compelling case that poker has evolved from 4 or 5 games rather than just one. Without doubt poker is one of the most popular pastimes and is still progressing today, with the introduction of some new and exciting games.
Poker Timeline
1827: John Davis opens first legal casino in New Orleans.
1830: Poker starts evolving up and down the Mississippi river.
1840: The 20 card poker game was eliminated.
1850: The first known draw poker game was played.
1854: Operating a gambling house was made illegal in California
1864: First time a straight became a viable hand.
1875: The joker was introduced as a wild card.
1878: Jurisdictions jumped on the bandwagon of California, making any game of chance
illegal.
1900: Dealers choice games came into play.
1910: California made Draw poker legal, as they judged it to be a skill game. (This was a radical development.)
1930: Hi and Lowball where created.
1931: Las Vegas Nevada legalises gambling, after outlawing it in the late 1800’s.
1945: Poker swept around the world, with the armed forces distributing 30 million decks of cards to soldiers.
1960: Hold’em hits the Casinos for the first time.
1970: The first WSOP.
1997: The first hole card camera, which made poker watchable.
1998: Creation of Internet poker.
1998: Rounders (a legendary poker film starring Matt Damon was released)
2001: The rise of the low buy in satellite tournament.
2002: WPT (world poker tour) came to fruition.
2006: US congress bans online poker.
If you have any other events that you think deserve to be here, or you think any of our dates may be wrong, then any advice would be much appreciated. If you want to, you can even get mentioned.
