Did you know # 4: The mysteries that still surround the birth of poker

In everyday life, many of us rely on the game to decompress after a stressful day mentally or to have fun in good company, whether with friends or family . In practice, a study conducted a few months ago by BVA Group revealed that more than 2 in 10 French people (22%) say they play board games every month, whether Monopoly , scrabble or another game

At the same time, the same proportion plays games of chance of the French games and 27% play card games. In this regard, if belote is currently the favorite card game of the French in front of the tarot, we note that poker is experiencing rapid and impressive growth for some years now . But do you really know where this fascinating card game comes from, to the point of being the main subject of several popular films? If the answer is no, do not panic, it's quite normal: the birth of poker still intrigues today, with various theories that sometimes coexist and oppose. Focus on the origins of poker.

The point that makes everyone agree
If there is one thing that all historians agree is the fact that the game of poker has always incorporated a large part of strategy and it has been democratized in its modern form in the United States , thanks to the World Series of Poker tournaments, which continue to thrill the entire planet throughout the year even today. These tournaments are widely covered by the media and are even broadcast live on television and on the Internet, allowing them to reach a much wider audience. Also, it's obvious that Hollywood movies like The Kid of Cincinnati , The Scam , Royal Casino or The Big Game, more recently, have also played a role in the impressive media coverage of poker. Finally, online poker is now giving a new dimension to this mental sport , allowing young and old to play Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hi-Lo anywhere and whenever. In short, we know how poker has become an ultra-popular activity. But we still do not know exactly how this activity was really born.

A poker story that takes us back to different times in history
The most common idea about the history of poker is that it would be born thanks to the Chinese, around 900 AD. According to some, it was Emperor Mu-Tsung who allowed the creation of poker inspired by a game based on Chinese dominoes. For others, poker is the evolution of an Indian game appeared 600 years later, the Ganijifa. Suffice to say that poker, apparently born from a mix of several other games, has potentially had time to evolve over the centuries!

For others, however, we can talk about the birth of poker from the seventeenth century. But again, the origins of the game do not agree . Some liken poker to As Nas , a game that appeared in Iran in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which in fact places a great deal on bluffing and chance, while others consider that poker is an evolution of the English game Bragg, which table on combinations of cards. Finally, some historians also consider that the Pochspiel , a German game, and, especially, that the era played in France in the eighteenth century (and from the fifteenth century according to some historians) helped to give birth to the famous poker. The proof, the two names are still very similar! Simply, at the time, the era, also very similar to the hot pot and brelan , was played with the 32 highest cards of a game consisting of 52 cards.

The official birth of poker
With these different theories, it's hard to understand how poker actually emerged. Many rely on the first appearance of the word "poker", simply. And in this regard, Jonathan H.Green was the first to mention this term in his book An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling , in 1830 . He then described the poker games that took place on board the steamboats that circulated at the time on the Mississippi in the United States and that allowed this game to become popular, including finding many fans in the Far. -West before spreading from east to west, at the time of the gold rush. What to confirm thatpoker was born in its modern form anyway on the other side of the Atlantic in the 1800s . Moreover, it is at this same time that the first American casino was opened in New Orleans.

But finally, it is the American soldiers who, during the Civil War, will invent modern poker, creating a game called 5-Card Stud , with private cards and open cards, and Draw, namely closed poker played at least eight players. The various variants of poker that exist today were, for the most part, thought of by American soldiers between 1861 and 1865. And it is only recently, during the twentieth century, that poker invited itself to Las Vegas and became the most fascinating card game of the world. Today, we have to say, we understand better: everything is amazing in the history of poker, which has, it seems, been played in one way or another around the world during of the last ten centuries.

Now remains to know what will hold the future of poker, at a time when it continues to evolve continuously with its many variants that spice up the practice of card enthusiasts!