Posts Tagged ‘history’

The History of Poker

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

What time is it?

Do you really want to know the history of poker?

Poker is now, right now. It’s the fix you’re in, the cards you’ve been dealt.

The history of poker goes only as far back as your last hand.

Not buying that?

How about, the history of poker is.. a bit muddled, a bit muddied. Some people will tell you its origins are in Persia, in a game called As Nas, which might explain some of the problems we’ve been having over there in recent years. Others disagree.

Wikipedia speaks of a German game called ‘Pochspiel’, which translates literally as ‘the poke game’, and means something along the lines of, ‘okay bud, if you don’t believe me, put your money where your mouth is’. That German game, and the other European variations that came after, had one thing in common, bluffing.

Anyway, whether it was with a 20-card deck (which is the way they often played it in the eighteenth century and sounds like a game of pure bluff), or the standard 52 cards, a game that required the ‘temerity’ of what we now understand as poker, made it over to New Orleans in the early part of the nineteenth century and like jazz music, spread from there through that great artery of industry and commerce, the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio river system, into the very marrow of America.

Poker was, in those early days, already synonymous with the pioneer spirit, as it was the game of magnificent Paddle-wheel riverboats that were loaded with equal parts cotton and culture. Mark Twain – who began his adult life on the Mississippi, knew the game, and chronicled the American taste for risk taking.

I like the jazz metaphor myself, because at its best, poker is a kind of beautiful improvisation. Coltrane could take a few basic notes and turn them into a religious experience, and a talented card player could turn, perhaps, a humble Ten and a Two into enough folding money to fill a ten gallon hat.

Anyway, somehow, Poker got into our blood, and it might have stayed there, hidden, a subtle influence on literature, an easy way to add character to a cowboy movie, a diversion for bachelors and college kids, would have stayed that way if it were not for technology.

Really, and once again, the history of poker is most honestly defined by the last hand, and the last winning hand dealt to the history of poker was the Internet – and to a lesser degree, cable television.

Yes, in 1970 the first World Series of Poker championship was held, and out of that smoke-filled backroom emerged the now almost mythic personas of Amarillo Slim, Doyle Brunson and others. And yes Hollywood, which is always looking for authenticity, so they can market the hell out of it, came calling. But in terms of the average, fun-loving person, The World Series of Poker was not a revolution. In 1970 there was more of an audience for pocket billiards (as least in England), than poker. There were Rock Stars in 1970, but none of them were poker players.

But when Internet access to online poker and the hole-card camera were introduced at the end of the 20th Century, ‘pochspiel’ finally came of age.

Suddenly it wasn’t just heavy-set mustachioed oil-men from Dallas that could play the game at a high level. Suddenly it wasn’t just the stuff of eighteenth century melodramas where men in powdered wigs lost fortunes by candlelight.

Suddenly an unknown kid named Chris Moneymaker could not only hold his own, online, but without a moustache or a fondness for Bourbon he could enter and win that World Series bracelet.

The history of poker is there, right now, face down on the felt.

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History of WSOP

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

According to their own website, “The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the.. richest gaming event in the world .“ Over the years, since its humble beginnings in 1970, the WSOP has awarded more than a billion dollars in prize money. Today the WSOP is comprised of many tournaments, held at Harrah casinos in the US and Europe. The most well known tournament takes place each summer in Las Vegas and London. The WSOP also runs what they call ‘circuit tournaments’, where they also award winners their prestigious WSOP bracelets. At the main event in Las Vegas last year there were more than 60,000 players entered – many ‘ponying up’ $10,000 just to have a seat at the table.

The WSOP tournaments offer most of the more widely known variations on poker, including: Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Hi-Low games, Pot Limit and No Limit, Heads Up, Six-Handed poker.

Poker’s premiere event actually began a little east of Las Vegas, in a city then known more for easy divorces, than poker – Reno, Nevada.

In 1969 the owners of a place called the Holiday Casino had an event they called the Texas Gamblers’ Reunion. Participants included the famous all-round gambler and odds maker, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, the billiard’s hustler, Rudy‘ Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone, the owner of a Las Vegas casino by the name of Benny Binion, and some real poker players by the names of Moss, ‘Slim’, and Brunson.

That ‘reunion’ featured several games of high-stakes poker over a few days, but it generated no publicity outside of Reno, and indeed the Holiday Casino’ s owners didn’t seem to realize its potential. But Binion did, and when the Holiday Casino expressed no interest in a second ‘reunion’, Binion came up with the idea for a “World Series of Poker”.

In 1970 Binion’s Horseshoe casino didn’t even have a poker room, and there were only a handful of poker tables in all of Las Vegas. Though the event that year was called the ‘World Series” it bore little resemblance to the events held now, and the winner was chosen by a vote of the players.

But Binion didn’t ‘stand pat’, he upped the ante, tinkered with the format, and for 1971 the WSOP – though it featured only 7 entrants, required a $5000 entry fee, and was winner take all. For the second year in a row it was Johnny Moss who claimed the title of World Champion.

The next year the colorfully named ‘Amarillo Slim’ not only won the tournament, but he won over the hearts of millions of Americans. Following his victory Amarillo Slim went on a publicity tour, appeared on the Tonight Show, and wrote a best-selling book. Suddenly the media ‘discovered’ poker, and, perhaps, poker discovered the media.

Barriers began to be broken. There was the first female entrant in 1978. The first win by an amateur, Hal Fowler, in 1979, and in 1980 the championship was taken by – of all things, a kid from the east. Up that point it was almost assumed that no one could compete with a poker player from Texas. Up to that point it might have seemed a requirement, that the championship go to a drawling, Stetson-hat wearing, cowboy boot bedecked westerner. Now people were getting the idea that – if you played your cards ‘right’ anybody could win.

Today there are satellite games, in which amateurs can win a seat at some of the other WSOP events around the country. Today there are millions of people playing poker online. Today there about 50 WSOP events around the country (all awarding the coveted ‘bracelets) and the final WSOP event in Las Vegas attracts thousands of player – many of whom pay $10,000 just to get in the tournament, and for which the grand prize of the Texas Holden portion, could be from $5 to $15 million dollars. Overall, WSOP events award more than $100 million in prize money each year

In the past several years unknowns, including amateurs who only got in to the WSOP finale by qualifying in an online tournament, have won it all.

In the past several years television coverage of WSOP and other poker events has grown dramatically and is now a staple of ESPN and other cable channels.

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History of Online Poker

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

In the early days of the Internet, a program called IRC, which stood for Internet Relay Chat, was created by a Finnish programmer. Though the number of computer users who had systems capable of using IRC effectively was – by today’s standards, miniscule, IRC quickly became an important alternative to traditional communication methods. In 1991 the failed Communist coup d’etat in Moscow was reported by IRC users, even while the television and radio broadcasts were blocked.

In 1991 IRC began to be used by poker players to conduct non-profit tournaments. Initially players had to master a series of commands, to receive cards and make bets, but soon graphical elements were added that greatly speeded up play. While the interaction was nothing like what online poker players experience today, the basic strategies applied. One of the early practitioners of IRC poker was Chris Ferguson, who later became a “bracelet” winner in the World Series of Poker.

It was almost seven years later, in 1998, before online players had to ante-up real money in an online poker game. That came on New Year’s Day, 1998, when a site called Planet Poker offered a $3-$6 game of Holdem.

Very few companies that are the first to enter a new industry, end up being the dominant players in that industry – and that held true for Planet Poker. Though its interactive site was unique at the time, and its players loyal, the overall environment in which it operated did not allow for consistent, uninterrupted play. Games often froze, or crashed, or were the victims of unreliable networks. Planet Poker’s ground-breaking software was full of glitches: not surprising considering that they were making it up as they went along.

One year after Planet Poker, Paradise Poker appeared – offering a more sophisticated look, and more reliable software. From 2000 to 2004 several new poker sites appeared – each one more sophisticated than the previous, each one offering a more realistic style of play. Planet Poker led the way but, ironically, never quite caught up. While the new sites were ‘seating’ thousands every night, Planet Poker seemed to be caught in an endless cycle of software iteration. Planet Poker is still available today, but only as a free play, subscriber site.

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Faro

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Though poker is often the game depicted in movie westerns, the card game you would most likely find in the saloons of the old west, was Faro.

Faro was popular for a number of reasons – especially because it was a ‘house game’: that is, it was a card game that could be controlled by the saloon owner, allow for a number of players at one time, and had odds that ensured the saloon owners would turn a profit. Actually if played straight the odds are about even, but since saloons often were being paid by professional Faro ‘bankers’ to allow them to conduct their games in the saloon, the saloon owners could guarantee their own profit.

Poker historians often speculate however that Faro’s demise came about because the profit was too low for the independent ‘bankers’ who often traveled from town to town with their own Faro rig, risking their own money.

The game itself is relatively simple, though subtleties are often revealed once play is underway.

In Faro an entire set of cards – or a cloth imprinted with these cards, was laid out, face up, in from low Ace to high King on a table. Players could place bets of any amount, on any of those cards or – bet that the player’s card would be higher than the house’s (dealers) by putting their bet in the ‘higher’ box.

Once bets had been placed on one of those 13 cards the banker, using a standard 52-card deck, would traditionally ‘burn’ the first card and then lay the next card down to his right. That was the dealer’s card, also known as the house’s card, or the banker’s card. According to most game historians, the house would only win those chips that had been placed on that card – and the rest could be taken back. But the game progressed until each of the 52 cards had been played, so the odds changed as the game went along and experienced players (or those that thought they knew what they were doing)either let their bets stand, or would move their bets around to cover cards that hadn’t shown to that point

In any variation after the bankers card was dealt, another card was then issued – the players card, and if you had bet on that card, the house doubled your money.

You could also ‘split’ your bet: that is, place your bet between two cards. And you could ‘copper’ your bet by placing a copper slug over the bet, thereby reversing the bet (betting it would lose), or if it were placed in the ‘higher’ box, betting it would be lower than the dealer’s card

If the game were played straight – and the dealer could only win money bet on the house card, it doesn’t seem likely that the house could win much money at this game. The only time the house had a chance to do a little bit better, was when the player and house cards were the same – in which case the bet was split. Consequently, according to historical accounts, the ‘bank’ did not play fair: often relying on trick decks or crafty dealers to tilt the table in the direction of the saloon owner.

But there were other variations of play, and as the dealer got down to the bottom of the deck players often took larger risks. When only three cards remained, the dealer offered a specialized bet called “calling the turn”. If you correctly identified the exact order of the last three cards you won four times your bet.

If you want to try a few hands of Faro without risking any cash, check out Scott Gleeson’s Faro website (http://www.gleeson.us/faro/game)

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