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Although card games date back as far as the 9th century in China, the game that's usually credited for giving rise to poker didn't come along until the 1400s in France. Poque was a game played with the same 52-card deck we're familiar with today and, given the similarities in the name and the gameplay, it doesn't seem like a stretch to draw a line from poque to the more modern forms of poker that popped up in America roughly 400 years later.
Poque came from other even earlier games like brelan in France. In England brelan evolved into the card game brag or bragg which incorporates elements of bluffing and is still played in different forms today.
Poker shares some similarities with earlier card games like poque but the truth is, a lot of the betting, raising, bluffing and gameplay we associate with poker is actually unique and don't have any clear ancestors. When those facets of the game were added in the Mississippi River Delta in the mid-1700s, the first versions of modern poker were born.
By 1800 it was a popular game and if you somehow found yourself on a riverboat on the Mississippi over 200 years ago, you'd be able to sit down and play the next hand without missing a beat. Poker used the same 52-card deck we have now and was played in straight poker and stud versions. They even had a heads-up version of the game that used only 20 cards from the deck.
Throughout the 19th Century, poker was spreading all over the young American country. Riverboats carried the game far up the Mississippi and beyond while the California Gold Rush brought the game far to the west. The American Civil War is also credited with helping develop poker since soldiers were often stuck in camp with a lot of time to pass and not much else to do.
By the mid-1800s poker was an established game and references began appearing in books. The first known mention was in Hildreth's 1836 account Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains. Poker was mentioned a handful of times in other books over the next decade and then, perhaps most famously, was detailed in Hoyle's Games in 1845.
During the second half of the 19th Century and into the 1900s people began innovating new ways to make poker more exciting. The concept of a flush was developed sometime around 1850 and soon after the straight was added too.
The wild card was thought up around 1875 and not long after, people began experimenting with lowball versions (where the lowest cards have the highest value) and split-pot games (where the pot is split between two hands, often a high-hand and a low-hand). The first time community cards were used, like in Texas Hold'em, was around 1925.
Poker continued to grow throughout the 1900s but it was still confined to riverboats, backrooms, saloons and gambling halls. That stigma truly started changing in 1970 when Benny Binion invited the country's seven best poker players to compete at his casino in Las Vegas.
In its first year, the WSOP wasn't a formal tournament like we know today. Legends including Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim played cash games and voted at the end to decide the first-ever world champion of poker.
The WSOP also changed the course of poker history because it chose to play No-Limit Texas Hold'em, a fast-paced game the event's organizers thought would be fun to watch and easy to understand. They liked that it used community cards and players could bet all their chips at any moment. The decision to play Hold'em set it on the path to becoming by far the most popular poker game in the world. (See Texas Hold'em Poker Rules).
Poker was gaining speed all over the US but two key things happened in the 1980s in California to create the first true “poker boom”. First, the State of California legalized Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and Stud. As a result, massive poker rooms started opening up in the Los Angeles area. Second, US Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988 which legalized casinos and gambling on indigenous lands.
The poker community grew quickly and Limit Hold'em became the most popular game on the West Coast. On the other side of the country in New York and New Jersey, a parallel poker scene was developing that mostly preferred to play Seven Card Stud.
The very first hand of real-money online poker was dealt on January 1st , 1998 on the website Planet Poker. For the previous few years, play-money poker had been available online but this was the first time players were officially betting actual cash.
As game and payment technology advanced, so did online poker's popularity. At the time a lot of people saw the potential in online poker but it was hard for anyone to predict how big it would actually get.
In 1995, recreational poker player and Holocaust survivor Henry Orenstein patented a video camera that could be mounted inside a poker table to discreetly broadcast each player's hole cards. It was hands-down one of the biggest innovations in poker history.
It made poker a spectator sport and it quickly caught the attention of television producers looking for the next big hit. The British show Late Night Poker took off and it was followed by full broadcasts of the World Series of Poker and later the World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, and countless other shows.
In 2003 the auspiciously-named Chris Moneymaker qualified online for the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. The satellite he played on PokerStars.com cost him only $86 and he went on to win $2.5 million and become the world champion of poker. Moneymaker not only won the tournament, he out-bluffed and out-played legendary poker pro and gambler Sammy Farha heads-up to do it.
That dramatic story was shown on ESPN and along with online poker, it was the main ingredient in poker's massive boom. Now anyone could try a small-stakes satellite on the internet in hopes of winning a seat and potentially millions of dollars in a live event.
In 2011 the unthinkable happened when the US Department of Justice completely shut down the three biggest online poker rooms operating in the United States, freezing the funds of every single player on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and AbsolutePoker/UltimateBet. They also charged the website's owners with a laundry list of money laundering, gambling and other financial crimes.
Although players eventually received their money back, the situation had a hugely negative impact not only on the poker industry but also on individual poker players all over the world. Ultimately PokerStars settled with the DOJ and actually purchased Full Tilt Poker as part of the resolution.
Live and online poker continues to grow all over the world. Asia, South America, and Russia are all emerging markets and are experiencing their own poker booms. The United States is experiencing an online poker renaissance as the game is regulated on the internet on a state-by-state basis. The outlook is optimistic for more and more Americans to regain the right to play online poker.
The World Series of Poker continues to attract tens of thousands of players to Las Vegas every year, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in prizes plus new up-and-coming poker stars. Similarly, live events all over the world are thriving and that's only expected to get better.
But for all the success, poker is also experiencing challenges in other areas, mostly due to increased restrictions imposed by government.
Leading up to the 1970s poker was mostly lumped in with other gambling and casino games. It didn't exactly have a shining reputation. That began to change when Las Vegas casino owner Benny Binion invited the world's seven best poker players to battle in what he was calling “The World Series of Poker”.
Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim, Sailor Roberts, Johnny Moss, Crandell Addington, and Carl Cannon competed in a cash-game format and at the end were asked to vote for a winner. The story goes that in the first vote, each player voted for himself. They were then asked to vote for the second-best player in order to decide a winner and the title went to Johnny Moss.
Moss would return the following year and win the first ever WSOP Main Event that was played in a tournament format. Six players bought in for $10,000 each which is nearly $65,000 adjusted for today's inflation. Moss beat Puggy Pearson heads-up to win $30,000.
By 1980 the Main Event had grown to 73 entries with a first-place prize of $365,000. Stu Ungar, a card-playing prodigy from the East Coast, had just arrived in Las Vegas and stunned the poker community with a dominant victory against the best and most experienced poker pros in the world. The very next year he came back and did it all over again.
In 1981 Ungar took down $375,000 for beating a slightly larger field and forever cemented his name as one of history's truly great poker players. Amazingly, after battling drug and gambling addiction for years, Ungar returned to the WSOP Main Event in 1997 and won a third world championship before passing away less than a year later.
Throughout the 1980s the WSOP Main Event's first-place prize was steadily growing but it wasn't until 1991 that it officially hit seven-figures. Brad Doherty was the first person to win $1 million in a poker tournament and he beat the Main Event field of 215 entrants to do it. 1991 also set a new record at the WSOP with 18 separate bracelet events. That same year Doyle Brunson won his seventh bracelet with a victory in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event.
In 2003 an accountant from Atlanta named Chris Moneymaker became the first person to win the WSOP Main Event after qualifying through an online poker room. Moneymaker turned $86 into $2.5 million and caught the attention of millions of people.
Moneymaker's story was perfect, all the way down to his name. When the tournament got to the final two players he was the perfect underdog, an amateur player facing off against an experienced Las Vegas professional. In fact, if you look up “Card Shark” in the dictionary you'll probably find a picture of Moneymaker's opponent Sammy Farha.
Moneymaker not only beat Farha, he did it by making big bluffs and actually out-playing his more skilled opponent. That was all the world needed to jump on the poker bandwagon in a huge way.
After Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event in 2003 poker exploded in popularity and so did the size of the WSOP. It topped out in 2006 with a field of 8,773 and a total prize pool of over $82 million.
Hollywood agent Jamie Gold absolutely dominated the event, holding a major chip lead for much of the tournament, he steamrolled the final table with constant table-talk, bluffing, and psychological strategy. Unfortunately for Gold, the win was complicated by a supposed deal he had made before the event with business associate Crispin Leyser. Gold and Leyser ultimately settled the dispute out of court.
In 2007 the World Series of Poker made its first foray outside of North America and hosted the WSOP Europe in London in partnership with BetFair.com.
It was a marketing department's dream come true when 18-year-old female poker phenome Annette Obrestad won the WSOPE Main Event for £1 million. Obrestad, from Norway, had experience playing online poker but that was her very first major live event. She defeated some of the best poker players in the world to make a big step for women in the game.
The WSOP had seen seven-figure winners many times before but it wasn't until 2012 that they hosted a tournament where each individual buy-in was $1 million. It was a special event held in partnership with the One Drop humanitarian organization run by French-Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte. $111,111 of each buy-in went directly to the charity and the players were charged zero rake or commission by the casino.
Poker pro, Antonio Esfandiari won that event for an astonishing $18 million, the biggest prize ever in the history of the game. The Big One returned in 2014 and Dan Colman defeated Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win over $15.3 million. In 2016 another Big One for One Drop was held in Monte Carlo with a €1 million buy-in. Elton Tsang took it down for €11,111,111.
Nicknamed “The Grand Old Man of Poker”, Johnny Moss was one of modern poker's pioneers. He was also arguably the best player on the planet when he was at his best. The biggest legend surrounding Moss was an amazing months-long heads-up match against Nick “The Greek” Dandalos supposedly played at the Horseshoe Casino in 1949. The whole story is fishy, however, starting with the fact that the Horseshoe Casino wasn't even built until the following year.
What we know to be true about Moss, on the other hand, is that he did win the first two World Series of Poker events ever held, first in 1970 and again the following year. Moss was a charter member of the Poker Hall of Fame when it was formed in 1979 and went on to win a total of nine WSOP bracelets during his career before passing away in 1995.
It's hard to name someone more influential in poker than Doyle Brunson. Nicknamed “The Godfather of Poker”, Brunson not only wrote the most widely-respected poker strategy book of all time, he's also been at the top of the game for more than half a century.
Brunson has won a total of 10 WSOP bracelets, including back-to-back WSOP Main Event wins in 1976 and 1977. Along with a cast of the world's best poker players he wrote and self-published Super/System in 1978, giving everyone access to a professional-level strategy for the first time. Brunson stopped playing in tournaments in the recent years but is still known to compete in cash games.
Stu Ungar's story is nothing short of amazing and even though he was only active in the poker world for a short time, he made a huge impact. Ungar got his start playing cards in New York where he grew up. When he was still a teenager he became the best gin player in the country. Before long he couldn't get a game and turned to poker.
In only his second live tournament, Ungar won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1980 for $365,000. Amazingly, he entered the same tournament the year after and won it again. In addition to genius-level intelligence and a natural aptitude for strategy, Ungar also had deeply-rooted addictions to drugs and gambling. He fought those demons over the next decade and, incredibly, came back to the WSOP to win the Main Event a third time in 1997 before passing away the year after.
When Phil Hellmuth won the 1989 WSOP Main Event he was just 24 years old, the youngest world champion ever at the time. Since then Hellmuth has grown up but he's become famous for continuing to act like a child. Nicknamed “The Poker Brat”, Hellmuth was a favorite of poker TV producers for his loud, sometimes offensive outbursts and blow-ups.
But Hellmuth was always able to put his money where his mouth was. In addition to his WSOP Main Event win, he's taken down 13 more WSOP bracelets during his career which is the most currently won by any single player. Hellmuth continues to be a poker icon because of his outspoken personality and his ability to win tournaments.
The leading all-time money winner with more than $34 million in earnings, Daniel Negreanu is arguably the most recognizable poker player in the world. He's been the main face of PokerStars for years and he continues to succeed at the biggest and most competitive poker events in the world.
Where Hellmuth made a name for himself by being brash, Negreanu has created a brand that's based on being friendly, interactive and an extremely active poker ambassador. Negreanu does hundreds of autographs and photos for fans at every live event and is also active online and on social media. One thing he shares with Hellmuth is success. He's got six WSOP bracelets, two WPT titles, and countless other awards and trophies.
A lot of poker players, including Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, do everything they can to get media and fan attention. Poker superstar Phil Ivey has taken the exact opposite approach. Ivey is usually seen only on the felt, which makes sense considering how successful he's been there.
He's got 10 WSOP bracelets, one WPT title, and he's earned almost $24 million playing live tournaments. It's even more amazing when you realize he actually spends more time playing cash games. Ivey is known to be one of the most shrewd and competitive poker players and gamblers in general. He participated in some of the world's highest-stakes poker matches every against billionaire banker Andy Beal and the Aria Casino in Las Vegas even named their high-stakes poker area Ivey's Room.
Johnny Chan is a legitimate modern poker legend and the great part is, he's still competing in major poker tournaments. Nicknamed “The Orient Express”, Chan was known as a top player in the poker world even before he won back-to-back WSOP Main Events in 1987 and 1988. To really put his stamp on the WSOP Main Event, Chan returned in 1989 and almost pulled off the three-peat, ultimately losing to Phil Hellmuth heads-up.
Chan gained mainstream celebrity when his 1988 victory was included in the cult poker hit Rounders. In the clip, Chan defeats Erik Seidel while wearing a perfect 1980s tracksuit and sunglasses combo. It's an iconic moment in poker history, to say the least.
The history of poker chips is long and quite fascinating. As far back as the 18th Century, gamblers were using different objects to keep track of scores and bets while playing card games. In France, players used small counters called jetons, fiches, and mils. Each player's counters were a different color, similar to how modern roulette is played, and they often had different denominations, similar to modern-day chips.
In the early 19th Century, poker players in America were used to using different objects that were inherently valuable to make bets while playing poker, gold nuggets, gold dust, or just straight currency for example. Soon, though, poker games started using uniform discs made of different materials like bone, wood, paper, or a composite of clay and shellac.
Starting around 1880, companies began manufacturing and selling chips commercially. Surviving records from the time show the chips were available in hundreds of colors and designs with white, red, yellow, and blue being the most popular.
Even before 1900, the term “blue-chip” had entered the American language to mean something of high value and it was a direct result of the color that casinos and gambling halls were using for their high-value chips.
Nowadays white chips are usually $1, red are $5, green are $25, black are $100, and yellow are $1,000. This varies from casino to casino by the roots of these chip colors and denominations can be traced back to the early days of poker and gambling.
During the first half of the 20th Century, casinos around the world were buying and using clay chips, but they had a problem. Since the chips were made of 100% clay, they didn't stand up very well to rough or frequent use. Too many chips were breaking and it was costing the casinos money. Around 1950 manufacturers began adding other materials to the chips to make them more durable. This led to the “composite clay” chips that are used almost everywhere today.
In 2004 casinos around the world began putting radio frequency identification chips inside their high-value casino chips. This was done to help track and authenticate the chips but it had other unintended consequences for the poker world. It allowed poker television shows to put RFID receivers in poker tables and instantly track the bets, raises, and pots to display to the viewers.
Along with RFID chips placed inside the playing cards, TV producers can track everything that happens in real time and automatically update on-screen graphics without having to manually enter the value of every single card and chip.
