culture
Two centuries, eleven fixed points.
Poker has no invention date and no inventor, and most accounts of its origins are firmer than the evidence they rest on. What follows is the version that can be checked: eleven moments that a source will put a date on, with the vague parts left vague on purpose.
the timeline
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1829
The first eyewitness account
The English actor Joseph Cowell reported a game played in New Orleans with a twenty card deck and four players. It is the earliest description of poker in America that the record carries.
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1843
Down the Mississippi
Jonathan H. Green described the game in a book about gambling, spreading along the riverboats. Poker travelled the way the river traffic did, which is why it reached the whole country before anybody wrote its rules down properly.
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Before 1850
Fifty two cards, and the flush
The twenty card deck gave way to the full French deck of fifty two, which made the flush possible and made room for more players. Draw poker was first mentioned in print in a games handbook in the same period.
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American Civil War
Stud, and the straight
Five card stud and the straight both entered the game during the war years. Everything after this is variation on a settled idea rather than a new game.
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Around 1875 to 1925
Wild cards, lowball, and community cards
Our source dates the wild card to roughly 1875, lowball and split pot games to roughly 1900, and community card poker to roughly 1925. Those are approximations in the source and they stay approximations here.
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1970
The World Series of Poker
Benny Binion started it at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas. In that first year there was no tournament in the modern sense: Johnny Moss was elected world champion by the other players and received a silver cup. The freezeout format arrived the next year, and the ten thousand dollar buy in from 1972.
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17 July 1999
The cameras under the table
Late Night Poker first aired on Channel 4 in Britain, made by the Cardiff company Presentable. Its cameras under the table, later known as hole cams, let viewers see the cards. Poker became watchable, which is the single technical change that made everything after it possible.
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2002 and 2003
Poker on American television
The World Poker Tour was founded on 27 May 2002 by Steven Lipscomb and its first season aired on the Travel Channel in the spring of 2003. It reached network television on NBC on 1 February 2004.
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2003
An accountant with an eighty six dollar seat
Chris Moneymaker qualified for the Main Event through an eighty six dollar satellite on PokerStars, beat a field of 839 and won 2.5 million dollars. Whether one man caused what followed is arguable. What the numbers show is not.
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2004 to 2006
The field multiplies by ten
From 839 entrants in 2003 to 2,576 in 2004, then 5,619 in 2005 and 8,773 in 2006. Three years, ten times the field. The record now stands at 10,112 entries in 2024.
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15 April 2011
Black Friday
An American indictment was unsealed against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus, alleging breaches of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act along with bank fraud and money laundering. The civil case was settled on 31 July 2012 with a payment of 731 million dollars and PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt.
where the game came from, honestly
Poker did not descend from one game. The names that come up as probable influences are the French poque, the German pochen, English brag, the Persian As Nas, and the Renaissance games primero and brelan. In 1937 the writer R. F. Foster stated that poker as first played in the United States, five cards each from a twenty card pack, was undoubtedly the Persian game As Nas. That is one author making one claim, and it is repeated across the internet as though it were the settled answer.
The part that is solid is what happened after the deck changed. With fifty two cards instead of twenty, the flush became possible and more people could sit down, and from there the family grew by addition: draw before 1850, stud and the straight during the Civil War, and community card poker some seventy five years later. Every variant we still play is a branch of that. You can read four of them at five card draw, seven card stud, razz and Omaha.
the change that mattered most
It was not a rule, a player or a tournament. It was a camera. Before 1999 a poker broadcast showed people staring at each other, and the only thing an audience could follow was who won. Late Night Poker put cameras under the table so viewers could see the cards, and suddenly the interesting part of the game was visible: not the outcome, but the decision, and how often the decision was made on very little.
Everything people think of as poker culture stands on that one change. The televised final tables, the famous bluffs, the idea that you can watch and learn something. It is also why the famous hands page is dominated by hands from after 1999: earlier ones were played, but nobody saw them.
next step
The rules, all of them, in one place.
Nine variants written out, from hold em to razz, including the ones this page describes as nineteenth century additions. Reading them in order is the shortest way to see how one game turned into a family.
questions about poker history
When was poker invented?
There is no date, and anyone giving you one is guessing. The earliest description of the game in America is from 1829, when the actor Joseph Cowell reported it being played in New Orleans with a twenty card deck. What came before that is a family of European and Persian card games rather than a single ancestor.
Where does poker come from?
Several games are named as probable influences: the French poque, the German pochen, English brag, the Persian As Nas, and the Renaissance games primero and brelan. A 1937 writer called As Nas the direct ancestor, and that remains one author’s claim rather than a settled fact.
How old is Texas hold em?
Younger than poker itself. Community card poker, the family hold em belongs to, is dated by our source to roughly 1925, which makes it a twentieth century development on a nineteenth century game.
When did the World Series of Poker start?
In 1970, at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, started by Benny Binion. That first edition was not a tournament: the players voted Johnny Moss world champion and he was given a silver cup. The freezeout format came in 1971 and the ten thousand dollar buy in from 1972.
What caused the poker boom?
Two things arriving within a few years of each other. Cameras under the table, first used by Late Night Poker in 1999, made the game watchable. Online qualifying then made it enterable, and in 2003 someone who had qualified that way won the Main Event. The field went from 839 to 8,773 in three years.
What was Black Friday in poker?
The 15th of April 2011, when an American indictment against three online poker companies was unsealed. The name is the poker world’s, not the court’s. The civil case settled in July 2012 for 731 million dollars.
sources
Every date, name and number on this page comes from one of these, read on 30 August 2026. Where a source gives an approximation, this page gives an approximation.
- Wikipedia, History of poker
The nineteenth century section: Joseph Cowell in 1829, Jonathan H. Green in 1843, the move from twenty cards to fifty two, and the approximate dates for the wild card, lowball and community card games. Also the 1937 quotation from R. F. Foster about As Nas.
- Wikipedia, World Series of Poker
The 1970 founding by Benny Binion at Binion’s Horseshoe, Johnny Moss elected as the first champion, the freezeout format from 1971 and the ten thousand dollar buy in from 1972.
- Wikipedia, World Series of Poker Main Event
Field sizes and winners per year. Every entrant number on this page comes from here, including the record of 10,112 entries in 2024.
- Wikipedia, Late Night Poker
The first broadcast on 17 July 1999 on Channel 4, the Cardiff production company Presentable, and the under the table cameras later known as hole cams. The article does not say who invented that camera, so neither do we.
- Wikipedia, World Poker Tour
Founded on 27 May 2002 by Steven Lipscomb, first season on the Travel Channel in the spring of 2003, network debut on NBC on 1 February 2004.
- Wikipedia, United States v. Scheinberg
The indictment unsealed on 15 April 2011, the three companies named, the charges, and the settlement of 31 July 2012 including the payment of 731 million dollars.
Back to poker culture, or read where the game stands legally today on the page on where you can play.