Poker History

Poker, one of the most popular card game invented has a history which evolve from time memoriam. It was known that the game poker has developed from different games and different persona who was believed to first started the game. These evolving principles on the history of poker has the same basic principles, the use of bluffing in order to deceive opponents and the use of some domino combinations or ranked cards while playing. It is not clear whether the name poker descended from the playing cards or from French game pogue or from a German game pochen meaning to knock.

One belief of some is that a certain Chinese emperor first played the game similar to poker by using domino cards with his wife. Emperor Mu-Tsung was believed to be the first individual who played a similar game in New Year’s Eve. As early as 12th and 13th century, Egyptians were known to also play a game using cards and the Persians used a Treasure cards which were mostly played for a betting game. The Persians used these treasure cards composed of 96 different cards with elaborate designs made from thin wood slices to bet on a certain game.

As mentioned, the French game pogue could highly be attributed as a game similar to poker which was first introduced in the 17th and 18th century. The German game pochen was also introduced the same time as the pogue. Both came from the Spanish game primero which was believed to be the mother of poker for it was played similar to poker. The game primero consists of three cards distributed to the players, and one method of this game involves bluffing where players bluff opponents to deceive them to contain high cards. Also, considered as the mother poker, primero allows deceiving other players and betting on a huge bet. This principle of playing the game was the reason why it was called the poker’s mother.

The game primero was the first confirmed game which is highly attributed as the game closest and is directly related to poker. As the game evolved from generations to generations, different accounts of poker game was listed and is regarded as evidence that poker started as an early game in the early times with different nations playing it. In 1834, a written reference was made in relation to poker when a group of individuals was playing as to what they call a cheating game in the Mississippi riverboats. This game involves a 3-card game where players put their bets and again use bluffing to deceive their opponents in the type of cards they are holding.

During the American civil war, it was said that soldiers use the cheating game to pass off time. It was in this scenario that a game was played by soldiers to make themselves alert and at ease as the war broke. Different poker format was formulated but same principle exists, bluffing and betting. It was only in 1834, when the term poker was given to this game by J.H. Green, a known gambler.