Poker Trivia: History of Poker Card Games, Fun and Facts

The Name "Poker"

Although uncertain, there are many theories which take credit for the birth of the name "Poker";

a)Card games have been popularly accounted to the French. As believed by some experts, Poker derives its name from the French game"Poque"that comprised of betting and bluffing and used a deck of cards with the four suits of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds.

b)Also a German game named"Pochen"or"Pochpiel"is known to have given the name of Poker.

c)As per some historians, the name Poker could have sourced from the Hindi word"pukka".

d)The word 'poke'is also believed by some to have come from a popular terms used by magicians, 'hocus pocus".

e)Another interesting theory is that "Poker" came from an underworld slang 'poke'used by pickpockets in Mississippi, back in the days , where they conned people over a 20-card game.

f)Another possibility states that "Poker" may have indirectly evolved from the Danish word 'pokker' referring to the devil.

g)TheTexas Hold "emvariant of Poker got its name so because its first game was played in Robstown, Texas around the year 1900.

Origin Theories of Poker

a)According to a well-known belief, somewhere around 969 A.D., the Chinese game of Dominos similar to Poker was immensely popular.

b)Traces of Poker can be tracked back to Egypt in the 12th or 13th century, where a particular type of playing cards were used to play the game.

c)The early 16th century saw the ancestors of Poker in a variety of betting games in Persia. 'Ganjifa' or 'Traditional Cards"' were used for these games.

d)The five player Persian game of'As Nas", using a 25-card deck and 5 suits was played in the 17th century. The game involved several rounds of betting and ordered ranking of cards and held most resemblance to the game of Poker.

e)A three card Spanish game known as "Primero"was played in the 16th century. Later it evolved into a German game, "Pochen" and a French game, "Poque"around the 17th and the 18th centuries.

f)The English actor Joseph Cromwell, as known in the Poker history, was the earliest to make references to a game called "Poker". In 1829, he described a card game being played in New Orleans.

Poker Variants

There are many variants of poker, although the hand ranking hierarchy and playing pattern is the same. Players can choose their favorite game as per their interest and play with their family and friends or professionally.

There are three variants of poker which are popular among poker enthusiasts all over the world:

Stud Poker :-How to Play: Here specified number of cards are dealt in combination of face-down (hole cards) and face-up (open cards) manner. There are multiple betting rounds following each round where players bet according to their hand strength. The most popular types of Stud poker are Seven-card stud and Five-card stud.

Draw Poker:-How to play: Players are dealt with a complete face-down hand and after betting, they are allowed to improve their hand by discarding unwanted cards and getting dealt with new cards. The most common draw poker variant is 5 card draw.

Community Card Poker :-How to play: Players are dealt with face-down cards and specific number of face-up cards (community cards) are dealt on the table. Player needs to complete his best hand with the mix of hole cards and community cards.

Texas Hold"emis the simplest and most popular community card variant across the globe.form of poker where each player gets 2 face-down hole cards. Then 5 face up cards are shared with all players on the table in three stages (flop, turn, and river). Players need to have the best ranked 5-card hand by combining hole cards and community cards at the showdown. Betting rounds start before flop and goes with turn and river. After river, the player who have the best combination of hand with the use of board and 2 of hole cards, wins the pot.

Texas Hold"em No Limit Poker

This isundoubtedly one of the widely played Texas Hold"em variant. No limit Texas Hold"em allows players to bet any amount as per the size of their stakes on the table. The minimum bet is the same as big blind but there is no maximum betting limit.The other variants of Texas Hold"em as as follows:

Texas holdem:

Pot Limit Omaha

The rules of Omaha is very similar to Texas Hold"em. The difference isinstead of 2, players are dealt with 4 cards. Total of 5 community cards are dealt on the table and the winning hand must have combination of two of hole cards and three community cards.

Omaha Hi/Lo

Omaha Hi/Lo

Omaha Hi/Lo is also known as Omaha 8. Players are dealt with 4 hole cards with 5 community cards. The difference is at the end of the game, pot is split between players holding the “High” best ranked hand and “Low” best ranked hand.

Crazy Pineapple

Adda52.com is the first gaming platform which launched crazy pineapple poker in India. Gameplay of crazy pineapple is similar to Texas Hold"em. Players need to form best 5-card combination from the hole cards and community cards. The twist is, players are dealt with 3 hole cards instead of 2 cards pre-flop.They need to discard 1 card from the 3 after the flop round. Players can evaluate their cards and discard 1 card which they find unnecessary to form a good hand.

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