The history of poker is subject to plenty of speculation and
debate, writes Roy ‘The Boy’ Brindley. It’s undoubtedly the most popular card
game in the world and poker playing is often described as America’s national
pastime.
Now we all know that modern America is a ragtag collection of races and
cultures blended together during the past two hundred years or so and,
remarkably, this simplistic summary of a nation could also apply to
poker, a growing craze almost two centuries in the making.
If poker has an American passport then it also has a French accent, as most
historians believe the game is a descendant of ‘As Nas’, which was probably
taught to French settlers in New Orleans by Persian sailors.
Poker is also commonly considered as sharing it’s ancestry
with the Renaissance game of ‘Primero’ and the French ‘Brelan’. The popular
English game of ‘Brag’ is clearly descended from ‘Brelan’ which incorporated
bluffing and it is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the
development of poker as we now know it.
As for the name, ‘Poker’ is likely to have derived from the French phrase
‘Poque’, which itself descends from the German ‘Pochen’ meaning to knock.
It was 1829 in the heavily French influenced New Orleans that an English
actor, Joseph Crowell, reported a game was played using a deck of 20 cards with
four players betting on which player’s hand was the most valuable.
Fourteen years on the book an ‘Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’
described the spread of poker from the Louisiana capital to the rest of the
country by Mississippi riverboats and their passengers, on which gambling was a
widespread pastime.
Could the common poker expression the ‘river card’ have originated from
poker playing on these riverboats? There is every chance.
During the next fifty years a full 52-card English/French deck was used, the
flush and straight was introduced and variations such as ‘Draw’ and ‘Stud’ poker
appeared.
The Americanisation of poker and its integration into the
country’s culture means many of the game’s phrases have become commonplace
within its language.
Few would be aware that everyday terms such as ‘ace in the hole’, ‘beats me’,
‘blue chip’, ‘call the bluff’, ‘cash-in’, ‘pass the buck’, ‘up the ante’, ‘when
the chips are down’, ‘wild card’ and others all derive from poker jargon.
Few would be aware that everyday terms such as ‘ace in the hole’, ‘beats me’,
‘blue chip’, ‘call the bluff’, ‘cash-in’, ‘pass the buck’, ‘up the ante’, ‘when
the chips are down’, ‘wild card’ and others all derive from poker jargon.
In recent years poker has enjoyed a re-birth with modern tournament play
becoming hugely popular following the introduction of the World Series of Poker in
1970.
The World Series of Poker, or World Championship, has enjoyed television
coverage for a considerable time but it was not until Channel 4’s groundbreaking
Late Night Poker, with its under-table cameras appeared in the
late 90’s, that a revolution was spawned.
These days a flick through the television channels will invariably unveil a
plethora of televised poker events and some, such as The Poker Million, boast viewing figures rivalling premiership football matches.
To contest the Ladbrokespoker.com Poker Million, where fame and fortune
beckons, players will have to win their seats at our on-line poker site. It’s
one of the reasons, Internet Poker is
booming and card playing is more popular than ever.
This really is the stuff of dreams as 2005 Poker Million winner Tony Jones
will testify. From a free-to-enter on-line tournament this warehouseman from
Romford took home a cool $1 million first prize.
Throw in some stunning documentaries and films, such as the Matt Damon and Ed
Norton classic ‘Rounders’ — not forgetting the fun and glamorous poker offers — and you
have all the ingredients for a game which is more infectious than bacteria and
growing just as quickly.
