Poker History
The history of poker is a debatable issue, even though it has been the most popular card game for centuries. Poker is believed to have been mostly influenced by the German card game named Pochen and by the French game Poque,
both meaning to knock.
The latter was a pioneer of another ancestor of the game of poker known as Pochspiel, or knock play, knock game. It had a great influence on poker. It influenced not only the name of the game, but also the way the players would declare the value of their hands, the options of passing, entering or surrendering. In order to indicate the fact that they want to pass, they say Ich poch, meaning I hit and the player would knock on the table with his knuckles. It was in this game that the act of bluffing was first introduced. After this, it was often used in many other card games as well.
This is the most common belief, but not the only one. There are people who believe that the origin of the word poker is the Indian word Pukka. The Persian game As Nas has definitely had the greatest impact on the development of poker. From this game derived the French ancestor of poker. This was a pretty complicated process and it is assumed that the Persian sailors passed the game on to the French sailors. Poker and it's most popular variant, Texas Hold’em are believed to have been first played in 1829 from a deck of 20 cards. In the 19th century, it used to be played by 4 players who would bet on which one of them has the most valuable hand.