Category: Gambling and Casinos

Poker has a mysterious past and cannot be definitely traced to a certain point in the history of card playing. It resembles a Persian game, which went by the name of NAS and may have been brought to the states via sailing ships the anchored in New Orleans. French Canadians who came down to New Orleans and helped to settle the city may have also brought poker to New Orleans. From the city of New Orleans, the game traveled up river on the Mississippi as the gambling game of choice on paddle wheelers. The steamboat game that was played at the time was 5-card stud. This game grew in popularity and was taken to heart by the soldiers and frontiersmen that came into contact with it in the saloons that were located on the river. From there it moved west and east, as travelers liked the game as a game to gamble on among friends. The game really moved west during the outbreak of the gold rush and then grew in popularity during the Civil War. Between the soldiers playing the game and the fact that every saloon offered the game to its patrons, the country became hooked on poker.

After the Civil War, the game changed to 5-card draw as you could get more bets in on a single hand and it brought the art of bluffing to a new height since a player was not showing any of their cards. 7-card stud then replaced this game and then the game of Texas Holdem came into being and is now the most popular game of poker of all time.

Poker is played by all classes of people and is one of the most popular games played in Washington DC by the politicians and even the President in the time of Truman. With this acceptance by both high society and the common man, the game as we now see it on TV has a following that is hard to ignore

The birth of the Internet and the addition to this service of poker has led to the astronomical numbers of people playing online on any given day. This one thing opened the floodgates of players from all over the world. Now days you can play in the local poker room or online at a time of your choosing. Your choice of game can be varied online as most online poker rooms offer a selection of games as well as limits for those games. You can also choose between a ring game or playing in a tournament. The prize money offered and the entry fees differentiate the tournament choices. There is a tournament for any player.

The game has come along way from the early days on the Mississippi and no one could have predicted how this game would permeate the various classes of people the way it has in the last 25 years.

Poker is a card game with many theories about its history and many debates about its origins. Poker may have been around for more than ten centuries in the form of other card games. It is believed that the word ‘poker’ was derived from an underworld slang word ‘poke’ – this was a term used for pickpockets. When card-sharks cheated somebody out of their money they boasted about having ‘poked’ that person. An ‘r’ was added to the term ‘poke’ so that the sharks could refer to what they were doing in front of their victims, who would be none the wiser!

While there seems to be no clear ancestor to the game, for the United States at least, Poker has a definite history. Poker began in New Orleans when the French settlers introduced poque in the 18th century. This was a card game which involved betting and bluffing and there are many game historians who believe that this is where poker originates. There have been many modifications to the game, including ‘stud poker’, the ‘draw’ and the ‘straight’ which became popular during the Civil War. Slowly ‘poker’, as the game became known, spread to other states via steamboats, wagons and trains.

Poker initially began with a deck of 20 cards, and eventually evolved into a deck of 32 cards. During the 1830s a 52 card deck became the norm. In 1875 the joker was introduced as a wild card. At the end of the Civil War poker reached the towns of the Old West. It wasn’t long before they realized that easy money could be made from playing (or perhaps cheating at) poker. Legends were created involving the potent mixture of saloons, poker and guns. Brave gamblers in the old west towns of Dodge City and Deadwood could be found taking their chances with their backs to the walls and their guns at the ready.

By the end of the 19th century, gambling and poker had spread throughout both the United States and the world. American states and cities began to see an opportunity for raising money. They taxed the gambling dens to raise money for their communities.

Nowadays casinos have taken over from the saloons and the game is strictly regulated by gambling laws. It is played more than any other card game in the world and has even become a sporting event, offering very rich pickings for the serious player. Finally, there is no doubt that poker has a rich and interesting history.

Tracing its roots to ancient Chinese gaming, Pai Gow is literally translated as “make nine”. Pai Gow is a Chinese game, believed to be thousands of years old, and played with Chinese domino tile sets. The beauty of Pai Gow has attracted the curiosity of gaming audiences in cities such as Nevada and California.

In ancient Chinese, the translation of p’ai is a term designated both for cards and dominoes. The reason for the use on both objects is that there is no main difference between dominoes and cards in China. During the early Chinese dynasties, dominoes are precisely used as cards. Dominoes are packed and treated the same way as cards.

Prior to the birth of Pai Gow, there were already two old Chinese gambling games that may have been the reason for the development of Pai Gow. They are yu-p’u and yeh-tza. Some players consider the two games as card games. There are others, however, who consider that the game of yu-p’u to be similar to a modern poker dice or something similar to it. Only the game of yeh-tza might be considered as a card game since it literally means leaves. Many authors believe that the possibility of using leaves as cards is very apparent.

The movement of time and the availability of new materials paved the way for the formation Ku P’ai, which curiously resembles a game using dominoes. It is further believed that yu-p’u, the ancient form of gambling considered as poker dice game, is the root of Chinese domino games. A domino, after all, is nothing but a pair of dice placed side by side. Chinese dominoes, which could be traced from the writings during Song Dynasty (1120 AD), have developed since then. They are used in several tile-based games, namely, Pai Gow, Tien Gow, Gwat Pai, Che Deng, Tiu U, Kap Tai Shap.

Pai Gow today is played very similar to many existing card games. The only main difference is that domino tiles are used instead of cards. The similarities to card games such as poker could make Pai Gow something to be enjoyed as a recreational card game. There is no doubt about it; those who begin to learn Pai Gow often end up becoming more than enthusiastic about the game. After all, it only takes a very short time to realize the beauty and ease in playing this popular Chinese game.

The popularity of Pai Gow has ushered into the development of Pai Gow Poker, an American version of the popular Chinese Pai Gow. It is a game played using cards, instead of the traditional dominoes, and is growing in popularity in various casinos as a source of amusement and fun.

Poker’s inception dates back to the first or second decade of the 19th Century. It has been said that it was in the former French territory of New Orleans that the game of Poker first appeared. The gambling saloon and the notorious floating saloons on the banks of the Mississippi River have been referred to as its place of birth. The game of Poker began to attract people as early as 1811.

Many surmise that the game of Poker had been made famous in the Mississippi riverboats. The first Poker games involved a deck of 20 cards composed of aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. During that time, the players would bet on which hand was the most valuable. In 1829, it was Joseph Crowell who was the first to refer to this game, but it was Jonathan Green, in his book “An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling” (1843), that first called the game Poker.

The movement of time and the ingenuity of players have both paved way to variants in the field of card games. Poker has developed many variations, including Texas Hold’em, Ohama Poker, Pai Gow Poker and 5 Card Draw, among the many other Poker games. The variations in the different Poker games result from the continuous invention of the players to satisfy either their curiosity or desire to win.

Poker is considered a game of skill and talent. It is very unlikely for new players to join the roster of skilled players to compete in a Poker game. Similar to other card games, the basic tenet in winning is to do research in order to prepare for the tournament. Researching, browsing over and learning the Poker rules and strategies become a basic rule for survival in every Poker game.

Ohama Poker is one of the more popular versions of a Poker game played in many casinos and Poker tournaments. Though Texas Hold’em is considered the reigning master of Poker tournaments, Ohama plays the second best in attracting a large amount of people in card games. The reason for drawing a relatively large amount of card enthusiasts is that Ohama Poker is very similar to Texas Hold’em. The main difference, which many Poker players consider as a better deal, is that in Ohama Poker a player can choose out of nine cards.

Omaha is also frequently played as a high-low split game, which means that the best hand and the lowest hand split the pot among themselves. There are certain factions that call Omaha Poker ‘High-Low Split’ or ‘8-Or-Better’. This is one of the things that makes the game visibly attractive to many card players.

Ohama enjoys the prestige of being one of the most famous card games in Poker tournaments. The once humble beginnings of a Poker game in the Mississippi Rivers have been converted into a game of international fame. The good thing is, this is just the start. It will continuously attract people who are enthusiastic about learning different card games.