The History of Poker

Poker is a game of betting that depends on the cards a player has and his or her knowledge of the odds of winning. It is also a game of psychology and bluffing. In the long run, the skill of a player in determining whether to call or raise his bet is more important than his or her actual cards.

The earliest forms of the game are not directly comparable to today’s Poker; Green and Cowell report that the 16th century Germans played a bluffing card game called Pochen, which had developed into the French-American game of Poker by the late 18th century. However, it was not until the nineteenth century that poker achieved its current form with the introduction of the button (a marker that indicates who should be dealt cards), a kitty to collect all the forced bets, and the dealing of two cards to each player, face-down, before any betting takes place.

The kitty is built up by “cutting” one low-denomination chip from the pot whenever there is more than one raise. When the game ends, any remaining chips in the kitty are distributed equally among those players still in the hand. This is different from some other games, in which the players are entitled to their share of the kitty, even if they are not in the hand when it ends. This is meant to avoid a situation in which the players would have to pay for new cards from their own funds, should the deck run dry.

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