Where Poker Came From

Poker's exact origins are debated, but the documented evidence points to an early 19th-century American game with older, disputed ancestors. According to card historian David Parlett, poker evidently began in New Orleans sometime between 1810 and 1825 and spread with the riverboat culture of the Mississippi valley.

The Disputed Ancestors

Encyclopaedia Britannica describes poker as a North American game that evolved from earlier European games such as primero, brag and poque. Poque, the closest European relative, caught on in France in the 17th century, and the similarity of its name to "poker" is hard to miss. The German game pochen, whose name means "to knock," belongs to the same family of betting and bluffing games, as does the English game of brag.

Some writers go further back and trace poker to the Persian card game as nas. HISTORY dates as nas to the 16th century, but this theory is disputed, and many card historians, Parlett among them, do not accept it as a direct ancestor. The safest reading is that poker grew out of a European family of bluffing games and became a distinct game in its own right once it reached America.

New Orleans and the Mississippi Valley

Parlett calls poker "of French-American origin" and places its cradle in the Mississippi steamers that began plying their trade from about 1811. French-speaking New Orleans, where poque would have been familiar, fits that picture. The river trade then carried the game upstream and across the country.

Early poker was a much simpler game than the modern one. Parlett says it used a 20-card pack, with four players each receiving five cards and betting on who held the best hand. There was no draw and no exchange of cards. The 20-card game later gave way to the full 52-card pack, which allowed more players at the table.

One of the earliest written descriptions of poker comes from Jonathan H. Green, a reformed gambler, in his 1843 book An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling. Accounts like his, written by people who had seen the game on the river, are the documentary foundation of poker's early history.

From Draw and Stud to Texas Hold'em

Britannica notes that poker developed into many forms, including draw poker and stud poker, in which some cards are dealt face up. These variants gave the game more rounds of betting and more room for skill and bluff.

Texas hold'em came later. The Texas Legislature has officially recognized Robstown, Texas, as the game's birthplace in the early 20th century, although that recognition is a modern tribute rather than an origin document. According to the usual account, Corky McCorquodale introduced hold'em to Las Vegas in 1963 at the California Club. From there it spread through the city's card rooms and, later in the 20th century, became the best-known form of poker in the world.

Poker's deep ancestry is arguable. Persian, French, German and English games have all been proposed, and only some of those links are supported by evidence. What the record can support is the American part of the story: a small 20-card betting game in and around New Orleans in the 1810s and 1820s, carried by riverboats, described in print by the 1840s, and reshaped again and again into the forms played today.