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The History of Poker
By admin | September 1, 2009
Poker as the game today has evolved through the centuries from various games, all of which involve the basic principles of domino combinations, ranked cards and the use of bluffing as a technique. With its history spread over various locations, it has developed into a global phenomenon as it is today
China
A popular belief that the game originated from china dates back from 969 A.D. when it was reported that The Emperor Mu-tsung was playing domino cards with his wife on the news years eve.
Persia
Playing cards had already been invented for various betting games. The cards were known as Ganjifa or Treasure cards and contained around 96 cards made of paper thin slices of precious wood or ivory. The game which poker is thought of being derived directly from is the person game As Nas which used 25 cards and included rounds of betting and card rankings.
France, Germany, Ireland and Spain
Different variations of the game which required rounds of betting, card rankings and bluffing includes the French Poque and Germany’s Pochen, both of whom became very popular during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These games evolved from an earlier sixteenth century Spanish game called Primero which involves three cards being dealt to each player and bluffing as the main technique to play the game.
Since Poque was national game in France, French-Canadian settlers who found New Orleans spread the game to that side of the world. In 1834, author Jonathan H. Green makes references to poker in his writing by talking about a cheating game played on Mississippi boats. This game quickly turned into the 3 card-monte which became popular in the gambling circuit. After green wrote a document on this mysterious cheating game in his book ‘An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’, poker became an entity of it’s own.
By 1875 the European influence over the game finished after the introduction of the joker as a wild card and during the Wild West period in the United States, poker became the most popular pastime with poker tables available in every saloon in every town.
Variations
The different variations in poker are Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha, 5 card draw, 7 card stud, manila, razz and draw poker. Of them the most popular is the Texas Hold ‘em. It is also the title variation in the World Series of Poker. The other two variations which have dominated the scene of poker is the 5 card draw, which rose in popularity after the American Civil War, and the 7 card stud, which grew widespread shortly before the Second World War.
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Topics: 5 card draw, 7 card stud, manila poker, omaha poker, poker history, razz poker, texas holdem, world series of poker | No Comments »