Poker is one of the most widely played games all over the world, both in online casino rooms and their land-based counterparts. From online poker rooms, to a traditional poker game with a group of your friends gathered around a table, poker is played in many different forms by people from all walks of life. But where did it come from and how did it become the most popular form of online gambling today?

Poker’s history is open to debate. Historians often disagree about its origins, but what they do know is that it has evolved over many centuries from a variety of different games. Most, if not all of these games involved numbered or ranked cards and tricking your opponents by what is now known as bluffing.

In the 12th Century, Egyptians used some of the first incarnations of playing cards as a form of entertainment. In the 16th Century, Persians used “Treasure Cards” to gamble. A Ganjifa deck, which consisted of 96 cards, was used. These decks were often made of paper-thin slices of ivory or wood. The Persians also played a game called “As Nas” which consisted of a deck of 25 cards and involved rounds of betting and hand rankings.

In the 16th century, the Spanish created a game called “Primero” in which each player was dealt three cards and bluffing was a big part of the game. From here the French created a game around the 17th Century, called “Poque” and the Germans created a game called “Pochen”. Bluffing was also a huge part of these casino games as well.

The French then brought the game to Canada and its popularity spread throughout all of North America. Jonathan H. Green wrote in 1834 about “The Cheating Game” that was being played on Mississippi river boats and was supplanting the popular cardsharp game of 3-card monte on the gambling circuit.

By the Wild West era almost every saloon had a poker table and cowboys would gather ‘round each night to play the new popular card game. From this, poker developed into the game it is today.