- Poker is over 1k years old!
- Poker was originally evolved from dominos
- Only 20 cards use to be used in Poker
- in 2012 the first million-dollar poker game took place
- The longest game of Poker ran for more than eight years
- The biggest poker game took place in the UK!
If you’ve got some free time on your hands and you fancy trying out a gambling game, one of the most interesting options is Poker. The game itself has a very long and colourful past and is available at both brick-and-mortar casinos, poker rooms and in online casinos.
Mobile casinos now make Poker available right there in your handheld device. Mobile use now allows you to play the wonderful game on the go.
Given Poker has been going for over 200 years, there’s an awful lot of history attached to the fun.
There are a lot of amusing stories associated with Poker, from all over the world. The fact this game can be played anywhere (the best being with friends over beers), makes this game one of the best in the world. Literally.
Additionally, to these awesome stories, there are a lot of interesting tidbits that make for a good read.
This article will deliver some of those awesome facts about this equally awesome game from days gone by. It’s laid out in a Q&A format, to make it easily digestible.
What Is the Duration of the Longest Game of Poker, Ever?
This question is inevitable, given the nature of the game. How long do you think the longest ever game of Poker went on for?
Reports claim (although they’re unverified) that the single longest game ran for an incredible eight years, five months and three days.
The game was played in Tombstone, Arizona, at a place called the Bird Cage Theatre. They called it the Bird Cage Tournament. It started (apparently) in 1881 with a buy-in of $1k.
Do You Think Poker Has Always Been Played Using a 52-Card Deck?
No! Poker hasn’t always been played using a 52-card deck.
The earliest format of the game was played with four players and a deck of only 20 cards.
5 cards are dealt with every player, and the game had a wager on the best hand. The first official recorded instance of using 52 cards goes back to 1834.
Where Does Poker Originate From?
The USA has been playing Poker for over 200 years now! And this might surprise you, but the original game wasn’t even called Poker, but poque! This name was given to the game when it first appeared being played by French residents of New Orleans.
After several settlers who spoke English started increasing in population after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the name developed into ‘poker’, and the game itself evolved into the form we know today.
How Popular Is Poker Now?
A basic stat will tell you how popular Poker is global. In the USA alone, some 75m people play Poker. That’s huge. That’s over 20% of the entire American population.
Poker is highly accessible now, not just in physical poker rooms but with the increase in online poker rooms and casinos.
What’s the History and Origin of Texas Hold’Em?
There are a lot of variants of Poker that are wildly popular these days.
One of the most famous games you see at pretty much all physical and online casinos is Texas Hold’em. The name does suggest that it originated in Texas, but that’s misleading.
The specific location of where this incredibly popular poker variant is unknown. Despite Texas State Legislature officially declaring in May of 2007, via a resolution, Texas Hold’em is said to be birthed from Robstown of south Texas.
Where Does the Poker Chip Come From?
If you’re a poker-lover and even if you’re not so much a poker lover, you’ll all still be aware of the poker chip. You see them in casinos, both physical and online (and mobile) and you read about them in stories and see them in movies.
So where did the poker chip originate? In the history of the game itself, there were no standard poker chips; anything of value could’ve been used as a chip, be it a coin or piece of gold.
Things like wood, ivory or clay made the very first standardised chips.
They had a well-designed emblem and were put into circulation toward the end of the 1700s. Official clay chips have been in circulation since the 1800s and are commercially available today.
When Was the First World Series of Poker Tournament Held?
Poker hit an unforeseen level of popularity, and so a tournament of epic proportion was inevitably going to be organised so some of the best players in the world could get together.
The idea was realised in Las Vegas back in 1970 with the development of the World Series of Poker.
A little interesting fact about this tournament is that the very first event’s winner was decided via vote, not through a tournament.
When Did We Start Seeing Poker on Television?
The World Series of Poker took up so many column inches in the newspapers that it was an obvious thing to do to put the WSOP on the TV. Mainly so advertisers would cash in on the extremely high ratings.
CBS telecast the WSOP in 1973. This was just the beginning of a very big thing. Today, poker tournaments are watched on the TV still, but now the internet too.
