Poker

In its more or less modern form, poker is said to have appeared in the first or the second decade of the 19^th century. Its place of origin is pinpointed in Louisiana, the former French territory purchased by the U.S. in 1803.

The first time ever the game of poker was mentioned in a contemporary publication was in 1836, when J. Hildreth made a reference to it in “Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains”. Jonathan H. Green and Joe Cowell also independently confirmed the existence of the game in around 1829.

The first version of poker was played with a 20-card deck. There were only 10-J-Q-K-As in the deck, the flush and the straight were unknown. The winning hands that players could make were: one pair, two pairs, trips, the full (called that because it was the only winning poker hand that made use of all 5 cards of the standard poker hand), and four-of a kind. The 4As were unbeatable and they couldn’t even be tied.

In about 1830, 20-card began to come under fire by a new, upgraded version: the 52-card poker we know and love today. Apparently, the 32 additional cards were added to accommodate more than four players. With the introduction of the 52-card deck, the flush and the straight appeared, as well as the draw, which transformed poker from a pure game of chance into one based on skill.

Despite the fact that 52-card poker was spreading rapidly, its 20-card ‘fossil’ survived till about 1860. We know for certain that in 1857 it was still played in New York as a contemporary guide-book pointed it out as one of the most dangerous traps that awaited visitors in the Big Apple.

52-card poker would reach maturity in the 1860s when the first references to “stud-horse” poker appeared in contemporary literature. In 1875, the American Hoyle mentions a host of different poker variants like: Stud, Draw, Jack Pots, Whiskey Poker and Mistigris.