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Casinos> Gambling Articles > Origins of Poker
Origins of Poker
Poker is a game with many variations, and it is played
worldwide. It has recently grown so
popular that poker championships are being televised so that you can watch it
right from your living room.
Since
it has become so popular, many of you might begin wondering where poker came
from. There is no definitive ancestor of
poker, so the likelihood is that it evolved from several different card games. There are many historical viewpoints as to
where poker might have come from.
Some
historians believe that it was invented by the Chinese near the year 900
AD. These historians suggest that the
card game was derived from Chinese dominoes.
Other historians believe that the game is Persian in origin, and was
derived from the game “as nas”. “As nas”
requires five players, and a special deck of twenty-five cards with five
suits. This game dates back to the
seventeenth century.
A
French game called “poque” dates back at least as far as 1480, when the French
settled New Orleans. The game is similar to poker in that it
involves betting and bluffing, and it is also the first deck of cards known to
use the traditional hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades.
Remnants
of playing cards have been found dating back to the twelfth century AD in Egypt, and some historians claim that playing
cards were first used in India and their game, Ganjifa.
Fast
forward to modern day, and the oldest reference we have to poker is a man named
John Green, who wrote about the growing popularity of a card game on Mississippi river boats.
The bluffing game was played with tens through aces, and two to four
people could play. Green called the game
“poker”, and it soon became one of the most popular games on the river
boats.
The
origin of the name is equally debated among historians, with potential origins
in French, German, and Indian words as well as slang terms and more. What is not debated, though, is that poker
evolved from twenty-five cards to thirty-two, and eventually into the fifty-two
card game that we know and love today.
Who knows, one day the scholars might be debating the origins of
televised poker in the twenty-first century!
In the mean-time, enjoy the game!
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