Poker History

There are various theories which describe poker history in a different manner from each other. It makes it really difficult to pin down the origin of poker and playing cards. However, the largely believed theory about the history of poker is that it evolved over more than ten centuries back from various games, which were based on the common principals of ranked card and involved bluffing to deceive the opponents.

According to another popular belief, the poker history is related with a game similar in nature to that of poker originated in china during 969 A.D, when The Emperor Mu-tsung used to play domino cards with his wife on the occasion of New Year.

On the other hand, there is another theory related to poker history. According to this the Egyptian people in 12th & 13th centuries are known to have used a form of playing cards, and in 16th century Persia or Treasure Cards were used to plat various types of betting games. A deck of treasure cards comprises of ninety six elaborate cards made up of paper thin slices of ivory or precious wood. The Persian people used to play a game known as ‘As Nas’ with twenty five playing cards which had rounds of betting and hierarchical hand rankings.

There used to a poker like French game known as ‘Poque’ and another game in Germany which was named as Pochen. They were very popular during the 17th & 18th centuries, and origin these games was the 16th century Spanish game known as ‘Primero’, which involved three cards being dealt to each player. Placing bets on high stakes whilst holding poor cards to bluff deceive opponents was an integral part of the game. The origin of this game, Primero goes back to 1526 and this is the game which is considered as the mother of poker games because of the fact that it was the first ever established version of a game and is the basis of the modern day poker. Later on this version of the game was imported by the French colonials to the new world and it gradually reached different places all across the globe.