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Origins of the Game
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Where did it all start then? Well opinion is divided on that, but one of the earliest mentions in print appeared in 1834 when Jonathan H.Green in his book An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling refers to the rules of a game that he called “The Cheating Game” which had become popular on the Mississippi riverboats of the time.
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Why Mississippi? Well perhaps the game descended from the Persian game of As Nas, which is very similar, and could have been spread by the Persian sailors landing in New Orleans around this time, one thing is for certain, no-one knows for sure!
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In any case Green appears to have been the first to use the handle of “Poker” in any written piece.
The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green had written his piece, the “cheating” game had become the most popular card games on the riverboats of the Mississippi, overtaking the previous game of Three-Card-Monte (a variation of Brag). Its popularity seems attributable to the greater requirement of skill needed to play this new game, and that the origins are certainly attributable to the American deep south.
But where did Green find “Poker” in any case, he had the game, but not the name? Again historians are divided on this, but it seems logical that an area steeped in French influences and language, would use the existing French of “Poque” which was also a popular game at that time. In turn this itself seems descended from the German game of “Pochspiel” in which players could open the betting, pass or even bluff (never trust a German!).
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Of course the explanation could be simpler, with that well known magicians phrase “hocus-pocus” easily morphing into poker. Also in common use at this time was a term used for pick pockets which was “poke”.
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Combine this with the already widely used “cheating game” moniker, and the riverboat cardsharps propensity for relieving suckers of their money, and you can see where an alternative explanation could come from in their attempt to disguise the game they were playing. Would you play “the cheating game” with a bunch of strangers?
One thing is for sure, the game has come a long way from riverboats, and the obligatory Wild West saloon image, to the multi-million dollar business that you see today in card rooms and online poker rooms around the world, with 24hour TV exposure, and a game always available at the click of a mouse. Poker has gone from America’s favourite pastime, to the coolest game in town, or is it a sport?
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