When you love a game, you rarely think about the game at all. What you really like is “playing the game,” not knowing about its origins and other fun stuff. However, when you finally find time to take a look at the history of the game you have been playing for so many years, you realize that you are lucky to have it in your life.
There should be no doubt in your mind about the fact that a few centuries ago, people did not have poker in their lives. Imagine the lives they were living. Doesn’t it all feel sad, gloomy, and dull? Where was the fun? Well, fun was in the making, and at 247 Poker, we will tell you where it all began for you and everyone else.
The Many Origins
It is difficult to describe the history of poker like other things. When you talk about the history of other games or an event, you can just tell when it started, how it started, and what made it what is today. That’s not the case with poker. This game has been a debate among players and historians. Everyone seems to have their own version of the history of the game.
The farthest in the history is the example of a Chinese emperor who is said to play a game that was not exactly poker, but a game that became the mother of poker. However, that’s not the only version of the history of this card game. Some believes that it is not that old at all. They believe poker came from the Middle Eastern and Persian lands.
In the Persian regions, this game was known with the name of As-Nas. This particular game was played in the 1700s. How the game came from such distant lands on the American soil is not clear. Hence, most of the people like to go with the version that you are about to read.
So, most people believe that the game they play today is a modified form of the game played in France, with the name Poque. It said that bluffing was part of the game, which was the original game from which Poque was derived. How did this game end up in America? Well, the French settlers came to the country and brought the game with them.
As per history, the first place where this game was played in the US was New Orleans. As the game continued to become more and more popular in the US, its name went to Poker from Poque. The spreading of the game took place in the 17th century for the most part. After being introduced to the Americans, the game has changed in terms of the number of cards that are used to play it.
Some Recent History of Poker
At Poker 247, we like to keep you informed about everything that is related to poker, and you should not miss the many events that form the recent history of the game. If you don’t know, the first time a game of Poker appeared on television was in 1973. It then took the game 25 years to become an online game, when the first room was created for the players to play online i.e. on the internet.
You could say that 1998 marks the most important time in the recent history of Poker because that’s when the game was made available every single country in the world where people had the internet. Another huge milestone was hit in 2015, when companies started using AI bots to host and play the game. You should also know that the game of poker with the highest number of players was played 2013, on Poker Stars.
It is not but shocking that more than 250,000 players were playing this game at the same time. You could say that this is much easier to do today with bots and AI-based softwares.