Poker history

A short time journey...

Poker, the great American play, resulted from a mixture of different packs of cards from Asia and Europe. The first settlers and sea-men brought these plays into the still young America. New Orleans became finally the birth place of the American Poker around 1805.

The play, how we know it today, can be retraced into the days of the riverboats. First Poker in America was played with a 20-card-package. By the mixture with European packs of cards, the play develops itself further up to the well-known Poker today.

Three old plays from Asia and Europe had particularly much influence on the development of the Poker and earn therefore a special view.

AS Nas:

This play from persia, also today still very popular, is called the great-grandmother of Poker. It is played by 4 players with 20 cards and by 5 players with 25 cards. The cards values correspond to our ace-king-lady-knave(jack)-ten in four colours. For a fifth player a 5. Colour is taken up to the package. Each player gets 5 covered cards. Subsequently, each player could set in the clockwise direction, raise or step out. The recognized hands are the quadruplet, Full House, triplet, 2 pairs and 1 pair. Straight and Flash are not valued. Bluff was na d is a desired and important constituent of the play.

Poque:

A French play, played with 3 covered given cards for each player. Afterwards it was set and the cards uncovered. Poque was at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century very popular.

Pochen:

A German play for 3-6 players. Each player got 5 cards. It was played according to poker- similar rules. The highest hand was 4 cards of one sort or a trumpcard, supported by most cards of a colour.

American Poker:

After the purchase of New Orleans in the year 1803, the Americans discovered a play, which was played by the Frenchmen. It was called "As Nas" and was brought in the country by Persian sea-men or French soldiers. The Frenchmen added the wording of their play "Poque". By the hard discussion of the American newcomers it became finally "Poker".

1840 the complete 52-card-package was assumed in America

1850-1855 the possibility of card exchange was added to the play to bring more activity and money in the play

1865 5-Card-Stud was played by civil war soldiers. By uncovering the cards, the play became still more interesting

1870-1875 For the first time the Joker went into action. The Joker held chute as "wild card" and brought the effect, that Poker with Joker became very popular

1930-1945 7-Card-Stud achieved its high point and is one of the most popular plays up to today

1945 a descendant of 7-Card-Stud became more popular. The play is called Texas Holdem and is played with 5 open community cards, which apply to all player directly. These community cards support the two covered cards of each player.

Also today, in our organized world, Poker is something like the original under the competition plays. It is the only important play, that has no entered rules or regulations. The guidelines of the ethics in the play – accepted by the poker playing public – were established to bring an order into the chaos of the play, which is sensitive to many types of fraud. But each serious poker player observes to the poker etiquette, which is given in all Card Casinos worldwide today.

Poker is the only casino play, where the player does not play against the in anyway with gain advantages overstocked casino. Poker is a play of the personalities. Man against man. Woman against woman. Individual ability is the gain factor of Poker.

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