So, you love your online poker. All that bluffing, trying to figure out who’s got what, winning a bit here, losing a bit there, and maybe - just maybe - hitting a big win occasionally to make it all worthwhile.
Poker has a long history. Would you believe one thousand years? Well, it’s about that - more even. This is a slots online game that has its roots way back in the mists of time. I mean the basic game of poker, of course. The online bit is recent. But of course, you knew that.
Emperor Mu-tsung, yes, he was Chinese, played a game not too dissimilar to poker in its basic strategy prior to the year 969 AD. He and his wife played “domino cards” on New Year’s Eve at least once, apparantly.
The Egyptians in the 1100’s and 1200’s had a form of playing cards, which they used for gambling. And in Persia they had cards known as Ganjifa, also used for betting with highest value cards winning.
But it was in the 17th and 18th centuries that something more closely resembling poker emerged. The French and the Germans developed a game known as Poque (French) or Pochen (German), which borrowed much from the earlier Spanish game of Primero played some 100 years before.
“Bluffing, or betting high stakes whilst holding poor cards to deceive opponents, was an integral part of the game. Primero dates back to 1526 and is often referred to as “poker’s mother” as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker.” www.poker.com
One of the earliest written references to the game of poker comes from the writings of Jonathan H. Green in 1834. He says that “the cheating game” was played on Mississippi riverboats.
“Gamers embraced the new game as it was perceived as a more challenging and ‘honest’ gamble than the notoriously rigged 3-card game. Green took more than a passing interest in the new game and took it upon himself to formally name and document the ‘Cheating Game’ in his book ‘An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’: Poker was born.” www.poker.com
Today, you don’t have to board a Mississippi riverboat to play. You can log in to any of the excellent poker rooms online.