Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Elusive History of Poker
Poker is called the American national game. But in reality, poker come ups as stopping point to being international as any card game possibly could. It probably originated in Persia; it developed in Europe; it did achieve its present word form in the United States -- probably in the 1830s -- but today it is played in every state in which playing cards are known. Nevertheless, since poker reached those states from the United States and since it is internationally known as our national game, every American as a point of loyal pridefulness should cognize how to play an acceptable game of poker.
No 1 cognizes surely where poker originated, when it originated, or how it got its name. The basic rule of poker is that the most unusual combination of cards is the winning hand. This is such as an obvious footing for a game that there may have got been ascendants of poker stretching back to the twelvemonth 894 a.d., when playing cards were invented. (They were invented by the Chinese.)
At least four hundred old age ago the Persians had a game called As Nas in which there was a twenty-card deck, four players, five cards dealt to each, and betting on which player had the best hand. Since no cards were left over, there could be no draw; and the thought of he-man poker had not yet been thought of. As early as the late 1600s, the Germans had a game that they called pochen, their word significance to "bluff," or "to brag," and from this game developed the early English game boast and the Gallic game poque. It cannot be proved, but it is irresistibly plausible that our name poker derived from this Gallic name poque.
Until the Louisiana Purchase, in the twelvemonth 1803, New Orleans and the full Mississippi River River and its vale were Gallic territory. The people spoke Gallic and if they played card games they played Gallic card games. After the Louisiana Purchase thousands of English-speaking citizens of the new United States poured into the district and took over the metropolis of New Orleans and the Mississippi River Valley, but they could not assist being influenced by the Gallic customs duty and footing that they establish there. So they adopted the Gallic game poque but changed its name to the familiar English word poker. That, at least, is the logical assumption; and while no 1 can turn out it, all poker historiographers have got accepted it.
We are all familiar with the paradigm (and stereotype) of the Mississippi River River steamboat game that arose sometime in the 1830s and prevailed at least until the Civil War. The rules were very simple. Each player was dealt five cards face down, and after the trade was finished everyone stake on whether or not he had the best hand. There was no bounds and either of two customs duty governed the betting (it is hard, here, to distinguish between fact and legend): A adult male could wager anything he wanted to. His opponent, according to some stories, could always name ("have a sight") for as much money as he had with him; or, according to other stories, his opposition was always given twenty-four hours to raise the money required to call.
The full history of poker since that time is the history of perennial attempts to peppiness up the game, to promote players to remain in and to bet. Mathematically, a adult male playing straight poker (no draw) in a two-handed game should wager against his 1 opposition if he have some such as manus as a brace of fives. Psychologically it doesn't work out that way. The manus just doesn't look good enough. So first the component of the draw was added, giving a hazardous player hope of improving when he wasn't dealt a good manus originally; then a few other winning hands, such as as the straight, were added; then the ante was added, so that there would always be something in the pot for a player to hit for; then came wild cards, and then stud poker, and then freak games of all kinds, and now it have reached a point at which there are probably thousands of different games called poker.
All of these fluctuations are all related to yet no two are exactly alike. Therefore you can do few full full general statements that use to all games; in fact, you can do few general statements that use to even two or three games.