Some Poker History

I've had this book forever;
Poker Is the Name of the Game by Walter Gibson.

Published in the early 1970's. No date as to when it was written. I have to think it was written much earlier.

It has no Holdem or Omaha sections. So far no mention of no-limit poker either. This could be due to the notion that in California, all the games were limit post war thru sometime in the late 70's. On a daily average basis, California is still probably the poker capital of the world.

The book covers a variety of Draw and Stud games, with many variations. It sort of covers strategy for those games, which at best, offers an insight into old souls that might still be playing those games.

But there are a lot of interesting things in this short small book, like;

-the blind was originally singular, only one, which would be the equivalent of a table full of ante's. The variation to 2 blinds (SB/BB) started as a forced straddle of that singular blind. Multiple straddles might be agreed upon as table rules.

-it mentions several times that bets in a hand would be 'equalized' prior to the next round of action in a hand. So calling a raise would equalize it at that point....

-the book also describes many alternate hands, with interesting names. My favorite is still the skip straight, 2,4,6,8,T for example. It also describes where those oddball hands would fit in the final showdown.

It is entirely possible this book was essentially a Kitchen Poker bible back in the days before Holdem evolved. I do not remember where I got it, or when. It is possible that I bought it long ago with a couple of decks of cards packaged with this book. It was published by the United States Playing Card Company. Thru most of the 80's I was an avid Bridge player. Slowed down in the 90's till I found Bridge online at Playsite.

Book was published by Harper and Row in 1974. Paper back only and only a single edition.

hmmm . is it good to read? online version available?

RajDev1979 said:

hmmm . is it good to read? online version available?

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Interesting is a better word here. Since few of these games are played these days, there isn't much relevant strategy. However, there are enough tips for playing those games, that might have some relevance in HE, or Omaha, or even HORSE games, that it is interesting.

No online version I think. I saw many copies available for about $4.95 online.

There are some very interesting hand analysis's in this book if you can ignore the odd games it discusses. It details from 6 players, their POV's when playing several to many hands.

As I mentioned it would be a handy book to have for the rules of those kitchen games many of us remember playing before the internet was invented. It tells pretty decent logic, with less math, games involving wild cards, a usual favorite at home games. It brings up the general probabilities and overall maths involved, but if you can make change for a dollar, they are not confusing.

Of interest is a mention of the first community card showing up in 'Spit in the Ocean'. 4 card draw with a single community card. Morphed quick into that card being wild.

For a book published in the 70's, it treats modern concepts with old names (or total lack of names). It talks about outs, without calling them outs. It does not mention the name Razz when discussing Hi/Lo games, which is less strange as I have thought that the name Razz came into being in the late 70's.

More interesting stuff from that book. Remember it was publish in the early 70's.

Omaha was originally (according to that book), a 7-stud variant with community cards and not with 4 down cards to start, only 2. Plus the river in that original version was dealt face down to each player.... so 2 down to each player, 4 up community cards, then another down card to each player. Betting as you would figure it to be.

In the book, Hold'em is the same as that version of Omaha, except the last card was added to the community cards. There is no mention of it being called Texas Hold'em.

Community card games were originally called Spit games, so 7 stud Spit was what that version of Omaha was. Others, like 'Spit in the Ocean' only had a single community card.

I learned poker back then via 'kitchen' games. Since it was for pennies it was for fun, and it was always dealers choice.

It would not be too much of a stretch to say the real competition was in who could get the most creative with making up the next game.

Thanks for the post. It is very interesting to know such things about poker and i am thinking to read the book these days I hope there are other people who think the same

Nice read here dj. I played a lot of those games when I was a kid. We would play with so me wild cards sometimes everyone would end up with 5 aces

Hold'em was also called Hold Me, and Hold Me Darling.

3 card Monte was (not sure if it still is considered) a H/L version of 3 card poker.

What the author seems to be aiming at is how to deal with even slight variations from Standard Stud. He does point out some interesting thought processes in the hands he describes.

As a HORSE player, it is extra interesting to me.

Sounds good dj. Must be one hell of a book. Memorabilia wise. Interesting to hear about how the game evolved.

dj11 said:

I learned poker back then via 'kitchen' games. Since it was for pennies it was for fun, and it was always dealers choice.

It would not be too much of a stretch to say the real competition was in who could get the most creative with making up the next game.

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Escanovi split, high-low Escanovi split, Dr. Pepper, 5 card draw, whores 4's & 1 eyed Jack's wild,names of the games were hard to keep up with, but it was great fun.

Finished the book. Very entertaining, and I sort of wish I would have had that book back in the day, and played all the weird games described in it.

There are some interesting HH's in the book. Stud is still widely played in casinos, and online, so there is some value to modern players.

Else it is mostly just historically interesting.