The origins of Poker are clouded at best and no clear early ancestor of the game exists. Poker most likely evolution and merger of a multitude of game and cards sources from Tarot cards to the Ganjifa deck consists of an elaborately painted 96-card deck (in fact, these cards are often collected by galleries.  Because most of the rules were established long before its written history, most believe it to be an ancient game!

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to poker in 1834. Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was being played on Mississippi riverboats. It wasn't until this time that he realized this was the first such publication and that American Hoyle, then current did not mention the game, and he named it Poker.

The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green wrote about it, poker was the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, receiving even more action than Three-Card Monte. Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game and they came back time and time again. It would certainly appear, then, that poker was developed by the cardsharps.

The origin of the word poker is also in dispute. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. But, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Card sharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

There are those who also believe that "poke" probably came from "hocus-pocus", a term widely used by magicians. The game of poker later evolved to include 32 cards, and eventually the modern day deck of 52, not counting the two Jokers.

It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

If you compare the prizes of major sporting events around the world, you will find that the monetary outcome of any given event in poker would (pardon the pun) stack up. Poker today is one of the fastest growing, but hardly recognized sporting events. The pinnacle of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top poker players.

Poker will always be around and will continue to grow and flourish like so many other past times. There will always be a game to play, money and bracelets to be won. Long Live Poker!