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The card game ofpoker was developed in theUnited States at some point during the early 19th century, drawing its name and basic concept from much earlier European games. Since its early beginnings, poker has grown to become an extremely popular pastime throughout the world.
In the 1937 edition ofFoster's CompleteHoyle,R. F. Foster wrote: "the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game ofAs-Nas." There is evidence that a game calledpoque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. Thus the name of the game descended theFrenchpoque, which descended from theGermanpochen ('to brag as a bluff', lit. 'to knock').[1] It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with theRenaissance game ofprimero and the Frenchbrelan. TheEnglish gamebrag (earlier bragg) clearly descended frombrelan and incorporated bluffing (though the concept was known in other games by that time). It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now.
Poker itself originated in the late 18th century, and had probably spread throughout theMississippi River region by 1800. It was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players (it is a common English practice to reduce the deck in card games when there are fewer players).[2] The development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling.[3][4]
English actorJoseph Cowell[5] reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which player's hand was the most valuable.Jonathan H. Green's book,An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843), described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country byMississippiriverboats, on whichgambling was a commonpastime. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, it is thought to have become a part of the frontier pioneerethos.
Soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and theflush was introduced. Thedraw was added prior to 1850 (when it was first mentioned in print in a handbook of games).[6] During theAmerican Civil War, many additions were made includingstud poker (the five-card variant), and thestraight. Further American developments followed, such as thewild card (around 1875),lowball andsplit-pot poker (around 1900), andcommunity card poker games (around 1925).
Developments in the 1970s led to poker becoming far more popular than it was before. Moderntournament play became popular in American casinos after theWorld Series of Poker began, in 1970.[7] Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments includeJohnny Moss,Amarillo Slim,Bobby Baldwin,Doyle Brunson, andPuggy Pearson. Later in the 1970s, the first seriouspoker strategy books appeared, notablySuper/System byDoyle Brunson (ISBN 1-58042-081-8) andCaro's Book of Poker Tells byMike Caro (ISBN 0-89746-100-2), followed later byThe Theory of Poker byDavid Sklansky (ISBN 1-880685-00-0).
By the 1980s, poker was being depicted in popular culture as a commonplace recreational activity. For example, it was featured in at least 10 episodes ofStar Trek: The Next Generation as a weekly event of the senior staff of the fictional ship's crew.[8]
Two significant events in the late 1980s led to the first poker "boom". In 1987, California legalized the flop games of hold'em and Omaha, as well as stud. Previously only draw games were allowed. While there were more poker games in California than anywhere else before this, the number of games and the action hold'em brought both increased dramatically. Cavernous poker rooms like theCommerce Casino and theBicycle Club began operating in the LA area.[9] In 1988 Congress passed theIndian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA),[10] which legalized casino games on Indian lands. Poker rooms began rapidly opening within a few short years. Limit Texas hold'em was the most widely played game by far in the west, and seven card stud was the most widely played game in the east from the late 1980s until 2003.[11]
In the 1990s, poker and casino gambling spread across the United States, most notably toAtlantic City, New Jersey.[12] In 1998,Planet Poker dealt the first real moneyonline poker game. In 1999,Late Night Poker debuted on British television.[13]
Poker's popularity experiencedan unprecedented spike at the beginning of the 21st century, largely because of the introduction ofonline poker andhole-card cameras, which turned the game into aspectator sport. Not only could viewers now follow the action and drama of the game on television, they could also play the game in the comfort of their own home. Broadcasts ofpoker tournaments such as theWorld Series of Poker andWorld Poker Tour brought in huge audiences for cable andsatellite TV distributors. Because of the increased coverage of poker events, poker pros became celebrities, with poker fans all over the world entering into tournaments for the chance to compete with them. Television coverage also added an important new dimension to the poker professional's game, as any given hand could now be aired later, revealing information not only to the other players at the table, but to anyone who cared to view the broadcast.
Following the surge in popularity, new poker tours soon emerged, including theWorld Poker Tour andEuropean Poker Tour, both televised, and the latter sponsored byonline poker companyPokerStars. Subsequent tours have since been created by PokerStars, such asLatin American Poker Tour andAsia Pacific Poker Tour, as well as other national tours. Beginning in 2003, major poker tournament fields grew dramatically, in part because of the growing popularity of onlinesatellite-qualifier tournaments where the prize is an entry into a major tournament. The 2003 and 2004 World Series of Poker champions,Chris Moneymaker andGreg Raymer, respectively, won their seats to the main event by winning online satellites.[14] In 2009 theInternational Federation of Poker was founded inLausanne, Switzerland, becoming the official governing body for poker and promoting the game as amind sport. In 2011 it announced plans for two new events: The Nations Cup, aduplicate poker team event, to be staged on theLondon Eye on the banks of theRiver Thames and "The Table", the invitation-only IFP World Championship, featuring roughly 130 of the world's best poker players, in an event to find the 2011 official "World Champion".
After the passage of theUIGEA in October 2006, attendance at live tournaments as well as participation in live and onlinecash games initially slowed; however, they are still growing and far more popular today than they were before 2003. The growth and popularity of poker can be seen in theWSOP which had a record 7,319 entrants to the 2010 main event.[15] The only nations in Europe that prohibit live poker areNorway, Poland andAlbania, according toDagbladet in 2011.[16]
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