Whether you play poker to get better or just for fun, there are a few basic things and facts that will help you become familiar with the game as a newbie and skip the long learning curve that comes with getting used to any new type of entertainment.
Poker isn’t too hard to understand, and you can do it on your own, but of course, there is information that can help you understand it faster, so we will cover everything you need to know to navigate the world of poker.
But to understand poker, it is important to know where this game came from, so let’s look into it first.
History of Poker
Game cards were created in China around a thousand years ago to serve as entertainment for numerous groups back then. But it wasn’t until almost 350 years later that this type of entertainment reached the European Union and spread among the general population.
To this day, there are thousands of card games in the market, but poker remains one of the most popular card games in the world. To the point wherein modern times it is also one of the most popular online games, worthy of online communities and webs like the ultimate casino and slots blog.
But where exactly did poker come from? It started in New Orleans around 1829, as French newcomers brought it in; it was initially called Poques, and held a close relationship with the game we now know as poker.
Although the French weren’t the only ones with a poker-like game, Germans played pochen, based on the 16th-century Spanish game Primero. In the same century, the Persians had the card game As Nas.
Poker in America
In 1837, Americans’ poker in the United States was a 20-card deck divided by five cards per player. But it didn’t take long for it to start evolving into the fifty-two card game that everyone knows and has played at least once in their lifetime.
The popularity of poker continued to grow in America as the years went by to the point where, during the Civil War, soldiers on both sides instinctively played poker in the saloons. In the 1870s and 1880s, it became an immensely popular and common activity to do when hanging out in their time off.
Poker in the UK & Europe
It wasn’t until the beginning of the 1870s that poker hit the same popularity in the United Kingdom as well, primarily after Queen Victoria got interested in the game after hearing the American minister of Great Britain talking about the game with members of the court.
During World War I, the American soldiers helped the game spread to Europe, which wasn’t that common before. While there are several varieties of poker, like five-card or seven-card, and while all of them have been very popular in their moment, the most popular game at this moment is Texas Hold’em, and it’s been that way for years already.
In the 1970s, Texas Hold’em became the ruling game when the global authorities raised it to the World Series of Poker, which has remained the leading poker style in the professional gaming market.
