Poker is one of the most popular games in casinos. Maybe because it looks like a pure game of chance, but despite appearances, the players are not only in the hands of Fortuna, but a lot also depends on who thinks logically, who is a tactician and who is a good observer. This, among other things, makes this game so exciting, just like a good crime story, that it can keep you glued to the card table and your card partners for long hours.
Many people say different things about the origin of poker. Its name is also disputed: it comes from either the French poque (time) or the German pochen (drum). Of course, it is also possible that the game originated in Persia, because there was a game called as nas, which reached Europe via sailors from New Orleans. It is possible that here, on our good old continent, the poker we know today was mixed with other card games, such as the English bragg and the French primero.
Whatever the truth, poker is great fun not only live, but also in the online versions of casinos. In any case, new poker versions tend to appear nowadays, so the “mutation” of the game has not stopped yet, it is possible that it will remain so and will change continuously over time. Obviously, if we sat down at a poker table 200 years ago, we would have encountered a different version. In 1829, for example, according to the recollections of the English actor Joseph Crowell, the game was played with a deck of 20 cards in New Orleans. There were still 4 cards in the most valuable hand that could take the pot.
Many books have been written on the subject. There is, for example, “An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling”, written in 1843 and noted by Jonathan H Green. In the book, we can get an idea of how poker spread from the Mississippi to the entire West Coast in the United States, thanks to the sailors of that time, whose favorite pastime was probably this card game during long voyages. The spread of poker continued during the gold rush, and after a while it spread from America to Asia and Europe.
But the book on the subject was published not only in America, but also in Hungary: Péter Gál’s work entitled “Ejjeli pokerarcaim, 12 öv a pokeres nočetjaban”. By reading the book, you can get a glimpse behind the thrilling scenes of the organization of the poker game. The author entered the night world at the dawn of the domestic poker life, in 2006, and managed and helped poker rooms until 2018. It was an exciting 12 years, he wrote the stories of this time. The work is not professional, but a collection of exciting stories, so you will enjoy it even if you are not the greatest emperor of the poker game!
Speaking of Hungary, it’s worth noting that poker is quite popular in our country, so much so that György Korda, for example, in the middle of the 2000s, thanks to television, made us all addicted to poker in one fell swoop.
Of course, poker has appeared not only in books and on television, but also in many films. For example, in Maverick, Casino, Pokerfaces, …and we get angry again. in productions. But considering the special nature of the game, we are not surprised anymore… If you are interested in poker and casino movies, you can read more about it here.