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The History of Poker and Playing Cards |
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It is definitely hard to pin down the precise origins of Poker as we know it nowadays, but through history we can say that it was approximately during the 18th and 19th century that the game was developed in the States. This was during the big arrival of French immigrants who were entering the U.S.A, all looking for new life and work opportunities.
We even have written proof through a published author, Jonathan H. Green who wrote ‘An exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’. This book was published in 1834 and gives a full description of the poker game, its rules and something that the author likes to call ‘the cheating game’. This ‘game’ is when there is a deck of as little as 20 cards because they thought that a smaller deck would make card manipulation and cheating a harder task.
Jonathan Green did not name this game as Poker but the parallel is also clear through a quote from British actor Joseph Cowell who in 1829 said he was at a similar game being played in New Orleans and knew that it was being played on the Mississippi riverboats. In fact it was these riverboats that helped expand the game from Louisiana to the other ports through the U.S. These paddle streamers were an ideal location for the card games as they could play inconspicuously and at the same time carry the game around and involving more players.
Europe was a big influence on the game of poker entering the U.S with European cards similar to the poker game that started appearing already in the 15th Century in France. The most substantial root to poker is definitely linked to France and then leaking into Canada and New Orleans by means of the travelling French colonials who then settled in these new continents.
It was here that a game called ‘Poque’ was imported and started appearing and it had a big resemblance to the bluffing method of Poker itself. ‘Poque’ consisted of a deck of 32 or 36 cards with pairs, three and four of a kind constituting a winning hand. Even in Germany, although a bit later a game called ‘Pochspiel’ was discovered and something similar with ‘il Frusso’ in Italy. Also in 16th century Spain, a game called ‘Primero’ was linked to ‘Pochen’ and the English game of ‘Brag’ where players had three cards and worked up to a hand.
Another theory about the origins of Poker, takes us to Persia, where a game called ‘As Nas’, was very similar to what we know as ‘five-card stud poker’. ‘As Nas’ used a deck of 20 or 25 cards and the first records about this game indicate the years of 1890 which may weaken this origin of poker alternative.
Even though the exact origin of Poker cannot be proven to a 100%, what we can vouch for is the strength by which this game grew once it reached the U.S territory. During the late 18th Century the game spread through the country and the American culture developing to what the game is today.
History has it that the first playing cards recorded appeared as early as 10th Century China, Egypt and then 14th century Europe when the Moors and the Saracens used them. Back then it was only the wealthy who could enjoy card games and the cards itself were made of thin ivory or wood slices with coloured hand painted designs depicted on them. Later on, less exclusive materials were used, such as cheaper woodcuts, printed variations and paper with the low class people being involved in the games. Variations to the cards as we know them, can still be seen in the old Spanish and Italian cards for example. The designs were that of coins, cups, swords and batons while the old Germanic ones include hearts, leaves, acorns and bells and a traditional Latin card would feature variations on the theme of the suits.
In France, a standard of 4 suits – clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades was created and standardised together with the classic royal court figures that represent a higher value card. Following that, the card games spread through Canada and North America with the Americans creating their own designs in the 1800’s. They created indices on the corner levels of the cards, as well as borders and double-headed court cards with different patterns and colours.
Later on, they followed with a round edge to reduce wear-and-tear together with a varnished lacquered card finish that prolonged the lifetime of the playing cards. The basic shape of the court cards and the suits has not varied much through the years, as the French kind of spades, queen of hearts, double-headed jack of clubs and jack of diamonds which designs have been almost intact since the 19th century.
Nowadays, the cards we know are very refined and have the double headed court cards of the king, queen and jack as well as having index labels on opposite corners to help identifying the cards when overlapped. Nevertheless, it is proven that the playing cards as we know it have been around for around 200 years with little changes made and an improvement in printing quality and specifications being the only major changes through the years.
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