The history of poker is considered to start its evolution approximately ten centuries ago, it have evolved from variety of games, based on principals of ranked cards according to proper combination along with the use of bluffing to delude opponents.
There is a belief that first game similar to poker was first created in 951-969 A.D, during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Mu-tsung , who used to play “domino cards” with his wife.
Egyptians are also known to use a form of playing cards in 12th & 13th centuries, and Persians had their own kind of cards called “Ganjifa” or “Treasure Cards” dated to 16th century, they were used for playing variety of betting games. The deck consisted of 96 cards in hierarchical order, made of ivory or precious wood.
Speaking about Europe in the 17th & 18th centuries a French game called “Poque” and a German game called “Pochen” were rather popular , they developed from the Spanish game named “Primero”, first use of which corresponds to the 16th century, every player in this game disposed of three cards. One of the main features of the game was bluffing and betting high stakes while having poor cards on hand. Primero is supposed to be “poker’s mother” as it is the first corroborated version of the game straightly related to modern card poker, to be more precise three card poker.
The game was later brought to Canada by the French colonials. Their favourite national card game of France, called Poque started its spreading from Louisiana and gradually throughout the whole country in the 18th century, when a group of French-Canadian settlers established New Orleans,.
First early references to poker belongs to Jonathan H. Green, he describes it as a “cheating game” played on Mississippi riverboats. Soon it became the most widespread game among gambling community and replaced other card games. Gamers accepted it with glee because to their mind it was more honest than 3-card monte which they used to play before. Later Green showed interest to this kind of game and described it more thoroughly in his book ‘An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’, after that poker was born.
During the Wild West period of United States history, saloons with poker tables could be found almost in every town. It was also extremely popular during the Civil War. It is still very popular nowadays.
Poker has been changed during its history, new variations appeared, but the popularity never decreased and it still keeps millions of gamblers admired.
Now let us see which main variations of poker are popular nowadays:
Straight. Each player starts with a complete hand, and players bet in one round, with raising and re-raising allowed. Stud poker. The main peculiarity of stud poker is that each player has a certain number of cards face-down and a certain number face-up. Face-down cards are cards which every player can see in his own and face-up cards are shown for everyone. Draw poker. Each player starts with a complete hand face-down, after the blind betting they can change their hand by discarding unwanted cards and get new ones. Community card poker (also known as flop poker).
It is a variation of stud poker, players start with incomplete hand of face-down cards after which a number of face-up cards are dealt on the table, they can be used by every player to make a five card hand. The most popular variants of this family are Texas hold ‘em and Omaha. Video poker. It is based on five-card draw poker and played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine. There are also lots of free video poker sites, where you can get a poker practice for free. Strip poker. It is a party game and a variation of the traditional poker where players remove clothing when they lose a round. Living in digital era it is possible now to play this type of poker online as there are plenty of strip poker online free sites.
In addition, surfing in internet, you can find resources which can help to become a professional player of the most popular card game. Such sites often include main poker terms, different poker tips, variety of poker books, poker lessons, different strategies, concerning not only card poker but video poker strategy as well. Earlier, these games were limited to casinos and hence were not very accessible. But today, that is not the case with the introduction of online gambling. This new introduction has made the world of gambling accessible to all. Today you can experience fun just like the real one with arbitrage betting online.