In the earliest known reference to Poker in a form close to the way it is played today, it was described as a 20-card game played with the Ace through 10 cards on board the great steamships that plied the Mississippi River in the 1830s. Some referred to it as “the cheating game,” for the obvious reasons not only that people of dubious reputation gravitated to it but that someone could bluff their way to a win.

Similar ancestors to the game, however, can be found in the histories of a Persian card game called As Nas, a German game involving bluffing called pochspiel (the passing game), and an old French game called poque. While some claim that the latter two games could be the source of the name Poker, others say it derives from the American pickpocket slang, “poke,” for the deeds they performed; or even from the traditional magician’s utterance when performing a trick: “Hocus-pocus!”

Wherever its name came from, Poker caught on big-time America’s Wild West years of the late-19th century, becoming a favorite in saloons and gambling parlors and eventually being played with the whole 52-card deck. In the 20th century, it became a favorite social event, over which friends met weekly in their homes to play usually low-stakes, good-natured games, often with idiosyncratic variations on the rules to make the games more fun (see The Game Variations).

Today, it has turned into a well-regulated, top-level sport even broadcast on television, widely appreciated for its suspenseful, high-stakes play; its strategy, psychology, and bluffing; and the simple fact that many regard it as the only card game at which a skilled player can actually make a living. In recent years, Poker has moved from real-world casinos to the online world as well, where players can enjoy not only Video Poker but also even multiplayer games.

Poker History  | How To Play Poker - The Rules  | Poker: The Basic Winning Hands  | Poker: The Game Variations  | Poker: Bluffing and Reading Tells