Poker History User comments

• Walter

  I liked the info, especially the review on the current online poker games. Those are so popular nowadays. I myself watch the tournaments a lot on the television and practice some free online poker, cause I am not ready yet to put bets, though this time will come.

• Kraus21

  I've played poker for a long time, but wasn't familiar with some historical details which I found here. Good job! You're right that playing online is much more pleasant. I'm a non-smoker, and all those years playing in the casinos wasn't pleasant because of the cigarette smoke.

History

Here's a little bit about the history of the game. It's been traced back to a European game called 'Primero' in Spanish; there are records of this game from as far back as 1526. The rules for this game was that each player had three cards, instead of five, and the combinations were three of a kind, a pair and a flush, only they called it a flux. Later, they added something like wild cards to the game. The whole betting and bluffing side of poker had its roots in an English game called Brag, and a German game called 'Pochen', which means 'to bluff'. This German game was taken by the French, who developed from it a game called 'Poque'. It was this French variant which was played in New Orleans in 1803, by English-speaking settlers who gave the game many of its modern features, as well as anglicizing its name to Poker. There was this English actor by the name of Joe Cowell, who wrote about the game in his 1829 memoirs. In the game, he described how each player had a hand of five cards, and all of the cards were dealt, after which the betting began. In that form, poker is played pretty much like a Persian game known as Nas, which is played with a 20-card deck in which each player is dealt five cards. Thanks to this similarity, some have been led to the mistaken conclusion that Poker derives from Nas.

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  Steve Rosenbloom on Poker -- Sizing up a short-staccked foe - Reading Eagle

  Steve Rosenbloom on Poker -- Sizing up a short-staccked foe
  Reading Eagle, PA -
  Colorful pro Marcel Luske, known as the “Flying Dutchman,” read it right at the World Poker Tour’s $15000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker ...

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