Poker is a kind of card game, or rather, a whole series of card games. Poker is played all over the world, but it has gained the most popularity in North America.
In one deal, each Poker player is dealt five cards. Players try to pick up a combination of two or more cards of the same suit, make sequences of five cards, that is, they carry out a sequential set of cards of the same suit or simply pick any five cards of the same suit. The more complex and unusual a set of cards, the higher it is valued.
Basically, Poker is a gamble and is played only as a game of chance. Each deal of cards is a separate game, or party, with its own set of bets, called the bank, which is the seat of the bets (both preliminary - antes, and regular - bets) for this game. Players strive to either win all the contents of the bank, or end the game with the least losses, if it is impossible to win. There may be one or more rounds of advance bidding. After the end of the last round, the remaining players reveal the cards in their hands. All money from the bank, including the bets of those players who are out of the game after the earlier rounds of raising bets, goes to the player with the best combination of cards in hand or, in some variants of the game, is distributed among several players. The player can bluff, pretending to have the best cards, even though he knows this is not true. He may even win if the rest of the players, despite their, in fact, the best cards, do not dare to confront him with their bets.
It is known that the first games from the Poker family were noted in Europe, as there are references in the literature for 1526. Nowadays, Poker is played with five cards, and in that early one, Poker, three cards were dealt, and the game was called "primero" in Spain and Italy and "la prime" - in France. The game included the announcement of bets, and the evaluated combinations were: three identical cards, pairs, and three cards of the same suit, called a flush (flush - one suit).
In 1700, the bluffing that had appeared by that time was combined with the announcement of bets and the dealings of not three, but five cards, and the games became known as Brag in England, Pochen in Germany and Poque in France. In these precursors of the game of Poker, bluffing, or calling a high bet when you have bad cards in your hand, to get other players out of the pot, was an important element. It is likely that the French name "pok" is a cast of German, and the name "poker" comes from French.
The game of Poker was brought to America by French colonists who first settled in Louisiana, then spread up the Missouri River and throughout the country. Poker itself was first mentioned in 1829 in the memoirs of the English actor Joe Cowell who traveled to America. In 1834, Poker was played with a 52-card deck. The first mention of these memoirs in a collection of card games dates back to 1858, but it refers to Poker as an old game. The undoubted stormy interest in Poker dates back to the times of the Civil War, when soldiers of both warring sides were actively playing it.
In the games Brag, Pohen and Pook there was only one round of betting. Revealing cards - showing all players the cards in their hands to find the winner - occurred immediately after the end of this round. The seniority of hands was determined by the following sequence: four of the same (high); full house - (full house - three identical and a couple of others); three are the same; two pairs; one pair and no pair (high card - the highest ranked card is taken into account). The seniority of cards of the same suit in descending order: ace (highest card), king, queen, jack, ten, etc. until the very end, up to two. There was no seniority between the suits and does not exist now.
Later, combinations of cards of the straight type (strait) were added to the rules of the game - in some sources - straight - five cards in a sequence (that is, in a sequence of denominations) regardless of the suit, flash (flush - the same suit - five cards of the same suit, regardless of the sequence), and additional rounds (intervals) were added to increase rates. Two main forms of play have emerged:
Closed poker, which distinguishes between Simple (strait), or Poker with replacement of cards (draw poker) - all cards are dealt face down;
Open poker (open), or Stud poker (stud), in which cards are dealt cha
face down (one or two cards), and the rest - one card in one round face up.
Poker in its modern form was first mentioned in 1829 in the memoirs of the English actor Joe Cowell who traveled to America. In 1834, poker was played with a 52-card deck. At one time, poker was the national card game of the United States. It is still the most widely played card game in the United States.
The return of Poker from the States to Europe began after the US Ambassador to Great Britain, Colonel Jacob Schenk, introduced the game to the court of Queen Victoria in 1870. In fact, Schenck drew up a code of conduct for the queen, who expressed her interest in the game. It was the first known work entirely devoted to the game of Poker. However, in those years, the game did not spread throughout Europe. It only spread there during the First World War by the soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force.
For many years, Poker was considered a game for men only, but by the middle of the 20th century, women also began to play it often. It should be noted that the Swap Poker and Open Poker options remain classic male fun.
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