Poker is believed to be over a thousand years old. It has evolved from a number of games, all of which are based on principles of domino combinations or ranked cards and require a player to be skilled in bluffing for deceiving opponents in the game. Although no authentic records for the origination of the game of poker are in existence, the Chinese are credited with having devised a game very similar to poker in the late tenth century.

During the twelfth and thirteenth century, a similar form of playing cards was used by the Egyptians. In the sixteenth century, the Persians used Ganjifa or Treasure Cards to play different types of betting games. The Ganjifa cards were exquisite paper-thin cards made from either ivory or precious wood totaling to ninety-six in a deck. Persian were very fond of playing ‘AS NAS’, a game with rounds of betting with hierarchical hand rankings that was played among five players using twenty-five cards.

Two games, one German called Pochen and the other French called Poque were very popular during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Both these games had their origins in the Spanish game of Primero; a game involving three cards dealt to each player participating in the game. The game of Poque is known as the ‘mother of poker’ being the only game that is a confirmed version of a game directly related to today’s game of poker.

Poque was introduced to the new world by the French colonials when they first arrived on Canadian soil. With the founding of New Orleans by a group of French Canadian settlers, Poque, which was the national card game of France during the eighteenth century, spread to all parts of the US from the state of Louisiana.

During this period the three cards ‘monte’ was the most popular card sharp game that was played on Mississippi river boats. The Mississippi river was the busiest gambling region of that time. Poque swiftly began to replace monte. Jonathan Greene, a gambler of that period has referred in his autobiographical chronicles to a fast spreading version of Poque that he believed was developed by erstwhile riverboat cardsharps. He called it the ‘Cheating game’. It was gaining popularity because game players perceived it as being much more challenging. It was supposed to provide card enthusiasts with an honest way of gambling at a time when the prevailing three cards ‘monte’ was considered as a notoriously dishonest card game.

As an avid gambler, Green, fascinated by the game, dug into its past. While researching the issue, he discovered that it found no mention in the American Hoyle Book of Games series, an authoritative commentary on games, or any other documentation available at that time. Therefore, when Greene wrote his book ‘An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling’ he took to formally documenting and naming the ‘Cheating Game’ in it. 

Although it is not quite clear as to when the current name Poker came to be attributed to the ‘Cheating Game’ instead of it being a variation of the older Poque, the fact remains that today the game in scores of variations can be played in countless casinos, poker rooms and online as well.