When was poker invented? The earliest recorded use of the English language is from a book called the “Poker”. It’s actually impossible to know when Poker was invented as no one in the written language mentioned it. However, there are plenty of clues that can lead one to suspect that Poker was played before the writing even started.
Poker was most likely invented in Great Britain: by either someone with contacts in the South American or Spanish Colonies, or someone who saw the possibility of running card games in the wild west. Card games like “bingo” had been around for thousands of years before the formation of the US colonies. These games were most likely started in either Spain or Mexico where they were called Tequila or Cinco de Mayo. A game of 21, where the objective was to knock all your opponents’ cards from their hands and then win the pot was created centuries before the formation of the US colonies when the English rounded up their neighbors and made gambling popular in what was essentially a borderless area between England and Canada.
A lot of the evidence we have about: when Poker was invented is from writings and drawings that were made in the 15th century by Spanish priests and explorers. A lot of the images show what would seem to be primitive video poker machines. This all ties into when the first official poker machine games were being played. Priests and explorers would use hollow reed pipes and cards that were covered with leather to play the game.
A lot of evidence points to the fact: that the first real poker game was invented in China in the year 3000. Records were kept by the Chinese government that showed that the first ever recorded live poker game took place in the Forbidden City in Beijing. The player was using a silver coin as chips. The game was immediately referred to as blackjack and the first names for the game were passed down through generations of Chinese leaders. By the time the transistor had been developed and was used in every home around the world, the card game had been transformed into what we know today as poker machines.
The most popular version: of when poker was invented remains unchanged to this day; the one that most people know all about is Texas Hold’em. It is a variant of the original game played with a 52-card deck called stud. Today the stud poker card deck is made from an extra thick cut of card stock rather than plastic, which means the cards are more durable and are much less likely to bend in the long run.
When the first real poker developed: it was quickly followed by variants where other cards were added to the basic set. The five cards dealt were changed to four cards whenokers and pokers were developed. The next biggest change when poker developed was the introduction of multi-layered decks.
This meant that players could choose to play with a single five-card deck or a multi-layered deck such as seven cards, or even a combination of five cards and six cards.