Poker History!
Origins of
Poker
One night in 1832, four men
played poker aboard a Mississippi steamboat. Three of the
men were professionals and the other was a helpless sucker
from Natchez. The game was rigged so that the young man from
Natchez would lose all of his money and he in fact did. Distraught, the young man attempted to escape his miseries
by jumping into the river. An observer prevented this
suicide attempt and led the young man back to a cabin. The
mysterious observer then returned to the game with the three
sharks. In the midst of a high stakes pot, the observer
caught one of the professionals cheating. He wrestled the
cheat and pulled a knife on him.
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The observer yelled, 'Show
your hand! If it contains more than five cards I shall kill
you!' As he twisted the cheater's wrist, six cards fell to
the table. The observer then took the $70,000 pot,. He
returned $50,000 of it to the man of Natchez and kept
$20,000 for his trouble. Download the
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'Who the devil are you,
anyway?' cried the cheat.
'I am James Bowie.'
In less than two centuries
time, poker has changed drastically. Once a game mainly
played by cheats, outlaws, and knife-makers aboard
riverboats, it has developed into a celebrated 'sport'
played worldwide. The cheat and hustler has been replaced by
the professional poker player, whose celebrity status is
much more akin to a professional athlete or movie star than
an infamous outlaw. Poker hands are no longer dealt by
professional cheats who manipulate the deck; instead, they
are often dealt by software programs connecting players from
around the globe. Download the Casino
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The exact origins of poker
are unclear. It seems to have originated from a 16th century
Persian card game known as As Nas. This game was played with
25 cards with 5 different suits. The game played in a
similar fashion to modern 5 card stud and possessed similar
poker hands rankings, such as three-of-a-kind. When
Europeans began to play the game, they called it 'poque' or
'pochen.' While poker's origins may lie in Europe and
Persia, it truly developed in the United States. Poker was
first widely played in New Orleans in the early 1800's.
Prior to the American Civil War, poker spread quickly from
New Orleans to towns throughout the Western frontier.
Poker's spread was the result of a general spread of
gambling during the era. The West was comprised largely of
speculators and travelers, both groups that enjoyed
gambling. Gambling suited the speculator's individualistic
and risk-taking traits. Unburdened by family needs and the
social stigmas of Southern and Northern culture, travelers
were allowed to indulge in this vice for their own
entertainment. Download the Casino Now!
Those responsible for
poker's initial boom were professional gamblers, trying to
expand their craft. The professional gambler viewed his
occupation as quintessentially American. They considered
themselves entrepreneurial businessmen who took advantage of
America's growing obsession of gambling. However, the public
did not have such a rosy view of professional gamblers.
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Gambling was viewed to be
comprised of two distinct groups. There was the player, who
was considered to be a gentlemen who merely enjoyed this
form of entertainment in moderation. In contrast, there was
the professional, who aimed to simply make money without any
regard to moderation or propriety. Professional gamblers
were considered to contribute nothing to society. The public
viewed their practice as nothing more than one man trying to
con another out of his hard-earned money.This was especially
the case because professional gamblers often cheated in
order to win money from their victims.
Another practice of
professional gamblers that was particularly troublesome was
their disregard for the social status of their victim. "To
[professional gamblers], as to prostitutes, it seemed
unprofessional to differentiate between paying customers.
They consequently played indiscriminately with all potential
victims, from the most upright planet to the meanest
flatboatsman or, even worse, the black slave ." This
practice slowly led to the "democratization" of gambling in
America. No long was gambling, poker in particular, thought
to be a practice of only the wealthy. Rather, it became a
practice to which people of all social ranks were
accustomed. Download the Casino Now!
Professional gamblers were
involved in both banking and percentage games, such as
roulette and faro, as well as card games. Of all games, faro
was a particular favorite for both professional and casual
gamblers. Faro is a game where players would bet on which
cards would be dealt next. Both banking games, like faro,
and card games guaranteed the pro a steady income over the
long run. Banking and percentage games had a built-in house
edge that guaranteed the professional to be a statistical
winner. These types of gamblers are similar to the modern
casino, which primarily rely on these types of games for
revenue. When professionals dealt card games, such as three
card monte or poker, they guaranteed themselves a steady
income from cheating. Download the
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Poker initially was played
with one round of betting. Players were dealt five cards
face down and there was no draw of cards. Professional
gamblers later modified the rules in order to enhance the
profitability of the game for them. After 1850, wild cards
and bluffing became common practices in the game. The draw
was also added. The addition of the draw helped
professionals because it introduced another round of betting
(meaning another opportunity to cheat their opponents) as
well as introducing more skill to the game.
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Poker playing became
increasingly popular as American gambling shifted from the
frontier towns to the riverboats. While gambling was
tolerated on the Southwestern frontier during the early
1800's, it came out of favor by the 1830's. The Western,
frontier culture of these towns was steadily replaced by
Southern culture, which was more averse to gambling. Western
towns passed ordinances against gambling and many towns
kicked out known gamblers. Some gamblers were tarred and
feathered and there were even instances where vigilante
groups lynched gamblers. Since their trade was no longer
tolerated on land, professional gamblers took their trade to
the many steamboats navigating the Mississippi River.
However, carrying heavy equipment like a roulette wheel
proved more difficult aboard the steamboats, so card games
like poker became an increasingly popular game of choice for
gamblers. Download the Casino Now!
The California gold rush
introduced a new venue for poker playing. The gold rush
resulted in a large influx of men traveling to a new area,
seeking to strike it rich. Unsurprisingly, gambling houses
sprouted in Northern California, offering an array of
gambling and entertainment opportunities for young men.
Casinos employed musicians and pretty women (not necessarily
prostitutes) to entertain gamblers as they played games such
as roulette, faro, and blackjack.
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During the early gold rush
period, poker was not popular at all in California. This is
because gamblers preferred games with more fast paced
action. Poker, especially the traditional five card stud or
draw, is fairly slow. Gamblers cannot constantly double or
lose all of their money in a single bet like they can in
roulette. However, poker would eventually become a
California pastime. As people became more settled in
California and the gold rush ended, their desire for fast
action games like faro diminished, and they had a renewed
interest in slower games like poker.
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Poker's growth during the
1800's was largely the result of the increase in gambling
along the American frontier. Nevertheless, it managed to
establish itself as a unique gambling game, with
characteristics notably different from the other frontier
gambling games.
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