Poker is a classic American game of cards, a popular pastime whether it is played by a group on Friday nights or taken more seriously at a casino table. Unlike most games of chance, poker was created in the United States, in the rowdy seaport of New Orleans some time around the start of the 19^th century. Poker most likely has roots to both a French card game called Poque (although the game itself is quite different from poker) and a British card game Brag. Brag is the most similar to poker of other card games that predate poker in the United States, but the final game, the poker we know today, has elements not found in either of the earlier games.

By the mid to late 1840’s, the game of Brag vanished, apparently assimilated into the new game of poker. Poker became common almost everywhere within the United States by the time of the Civil War, and soldiers on both sides who played during that conflict spread it further.

The original game was draw poker but stud poker, said to be a cowboy version, showed up around the mid 1860’s. Another version originally called Jackpot poker appeared in Hoyle, the official manual for card players everywhere, by 1875. Today, many games still use the Jackpot theory which is that players must have “Jacks or better”, meaning at least a pair of Jacks, to play in the game.

Official poker rules first appeared in a New York newspaper in 1904, and the following year the first book about the game of poker debuted, “Practical Poker” by author RF Foster.

Poker remains one of the most popular games, and the newest version is Texas Hold ‘em.