Poker is a fascinating card game that has a great following all across the world. It has a vibrant history, with poker being played everywhere globally right now. You can play poker casually amongst friends and friends or by visiting any particular poker room/casino or on any online poker room. Let’s have a look at a few intriguing facts about poker that will leave you stunned.
While many claim that the earliest versions of poker came from either the Middle East, China or Europe, the card game that we know was first played in New Orleans, in the United States of America, by the city’s French residents. Earlier known as ‘poque,’ the name quickly became known as ‘poker’ as English players started playing and mispronounced it.
While most of the millennials and Gen Z would find it difficult to imagine a time before the internet, there was a time when everything wasn’t just a click of a button away. Poker was played in private residences or casinos before 1998. The first real-money online poker game was played on 1st January 1998 on the Planet Poker website. Since then, online poker has boomed, citing its availability to the general public, which resulted in virtual poker becoming a multibillion-dollar industry.
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It is said that the early games of poker were played with just 20 cards. The games saw four players participating in each game, with five cards being dealt to each player. This saw the game being much faster and simpler, with fewer combination options. However, all of it changed in 1830, when the remaining 32 cards were added.
Texas Hold’em variant of poker uses a total of seven cards (with five community cards and two hole cards), which leads to around 133 million possible combinations! Meanwhile, a standard game of poker has over 2.5 Million possible combinations. Isn’t that crazy?
Yes, you read it right! The Bird Cage Theatre in Arizona hosted a poker game that went on for eight years between 1881 and 1889. Poker was played 24×7 while boasting a $1,000 buy-in. While the reports of this game remain unverified, the tourney supposedly lasted for eight years, five months and three days!
A mathematician at Anderson University, Indiana, named Courtney Taylor, claims that the odds of a player getting a royal flush are 649,740 to 1. This means that you need to play roughly 650,000 hands to get a royal flush!
The former US president joined the US Navy at the age of 29 after leaving his job as a lawyer. It is the Navy where he learned how to play poker, and he is said to have returned from his service with thousands of dollars in winnings. If reports are to be believed, he used the winnings to fund his first run for political office.
When a player is dealt a starting hand in Texas Hold’em, be it either online or in-person, if the player is initially dealt – an ace and a king (AK), then the hand is referred to as ‘The Anna Kournikova’. This name is more than just the same initials; it is also popular in tennis.
Kournikova was amongst the top 20 players in the world for a long time but never actually won any singles titles. She became an international star, citing her beauty over tennis skills. The AK poker hand is somewhat similar. Despite being one of the best hands to start with, many players often end up overplaying it.
This term can be traced back to 1876, when Bill Hickok, a famous poker player, was shot by John McCall. Hickok was shot during a round of poker while he was holding two Aces and two 8s. Since then, any time a player gets two Aces and two 8s, the hand has been known to be Dead Man’s Hand ever since.
While this is much more of a card fact than poker, it is still interesting to know that the king on playing cards is known to be based on old kings. It is believed that in the 16th century, the French card-makers standardised the suits and added four Kings.
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Smit is a sports writer at Gutshot Magazine. After completing his Bachelor’s in Mass Media, and a Master’s degree in Sports Management, this sports fanatic uses articles as a tool to express his opinions. Bring up cricket or football and you will find this usually quiet guy speak for hours! He also co-heads the official supporters club of Chelsea FC in Mumbai, wherein he hosts screenings, football meets and other such events.
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