There are a few similar games that have popped up the world over.  The Persians played a game called As Nas (My Beloved Ace), the French played a game called poque, the English played a similar game called bragg, in the Renaissance much of Europe played primero, but modern poker is similar to these games in that bluffing plays a role but different in regard to betting and its inclusion of straights and flushes.

Historians believe today’s game is most closely linked to games played in the Mississippi River region in the 1700s and early 1800s.  In fact, the first account of the game was described by English actor Joseph Crowell watching it in New Orleans in 1820.  No record exists if there were any poker schools for the newbies or if they were just gettting fleeced.

James McManus in a Carplayer suggested the birthplace of poker was the perfect marriage of the gumption it took to play the game with the people that had it, pardon the pun, in spades:

“New Orleans was an American city, more English-speaking whites tried to make a go of it in what felt like subtropical climes. Their own taste for bluff-based card games had developed while playing brag up north or in England. And lo and behold, bragging turned out to be the ultimate tactic in the pokuh games they found in the saloons along Bourbon Street, where drinking, dancing to live music, gorging on succulent cooking, and of course prostitution were found. More than a few of them must have sat down, learned the rules of this not-so-strange local card game, and felt right at home at these tables”  Cardplayer.

Conventional belief is that the game spread throughout the U.S. and later the world by way of the Mississipi riverboats.  The Civil War might have broken the United States in half, but it also brought poker to every corner of the country as it and baseball became America’s pasttimes.

From there it went westward with the expansion of the United States and eventually found it’s way back to Europe in its Americanized format.   These days, a new breed of players, those from Northern Europe and beyond are changing the way the game is played.