Nobody knows for sure what the origins of poker are. The history of poker has been and still is a subject of debate.

One of the ancient card games closely resembles poker. This game was played by the Persians and it was called as nas.

As nas was spread by the Persian sailors and it was learned from them by the French settlers in New Orleans.

It seems that poker got its name form the German word pochen or “to knock”. The German word for poker was adopted by the French and changed into poque. Although the name of the game closely resembles the names used by the French and Germans it is not known for sure if the actual game is anything like its “ancestors”.

A popular game in the Renaissance called primero seems to have similar ancestry to that of the poker game.

Brag, an English game descends from brelan and it incorporates bluffing. When this game was famous the concept of bluffing was also used in other card games.

The poker, as it is played was most likely influenced by all those earlier games. Testimonies of the poker game being played since as early as 1829 are known. The poker game as it existed in 1829 in New Orleans was played with a 20 card deck. The four players that participated in the game placed bets on who's hand was most valuable.

As early as 1843 Jonathan H. Green wrote “An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling”. That is how we learned that poker spread from New Orleans to the rest of the country via the riverboats going up and down the Mississippi.

Here's an interesting little story about how poker was being played on the Mississippi riverboats:

The year was 1832. On a Mississippi steamboat going upriver four men were passing the night playing poker. Of these players three were professionals. The fourth man didn't know the first thing about poker. The three professionals rigged the game so that the helpless young man would lose all his money to them. Things were going according to plan so the young man was soon broke. Losing all his money threw the man into a deep misery and her tried to take his own life by jumping into the river from the moving steamboat.
An observer of the game stopped the young man from doing such a foolish thing and took him to his cabin. The mysterious man returned to the game as an observer. At one point in the game he caught one of the three remaining men cheating. As he wrestled the cheater and pulled a knife on him he yelled “Show me your hand! If you have more than 5 cards I'll kill you!” the observer twisted the cheaters wrist and six cards fell. The observer took the 70.000 $ pot, gave the young man who lost all his money 50.000$ and saved the remaining 20.000 $ for aiding him. It was later revealed that the benefactor was James Bowie.

The game further spread up the Mississippi and in the West in the times of the gold rush. Poker then developed and the 52 card English pack was used, also the flush was introduced. With the America Civil War poker saw further additions: the draw poker, stud poker and the straight. Still in the USA poker was further developed with the introduction of the wild card in 1875, split – pot poker and lowball in 1900, community card poker in 1925.

It seems that poker was introduced to other countries, especially Asian countries by the U.S. Military. As the popularity of the poker game spread, expressions used during the poker game were introduced and are still used in everyday conversation. 1970 saw the beginning of the poker tournament era with the first World Poker Series.

Poker grew in popularity since on – line poker was introduced and since the spectators could see the cards players held via the hole – card camera.

Famous poker tournaments are: World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour.