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A Bit of History About Playing Cards and Games Such as Poker
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The game of poker has seemingly taken the world by storm lately. If you look at your Television set and flip around the channels almost at any given moment, you are bound to find a high stakes poker game. There are bars that are featuring poker nights and now there are about one hundred variations of the game of poker. Why all the sudden interest in poker? The card game of poker has been around for a few hundred years, but cards themselves have been around for a much longer period of time and have a very storied past.
Games have been around for almost as long as the human race has and cards have been around almost as long as that, at least as long as paper has been around. It is almost always believed that the Chinese, shortly after inventing paper, invented an early version of the modern playing card as well. These cards had four suits and numerals but these appeared to be more dice like. The earliest known English reference to playing cards was perhaps in 1278 and is mentioned in writings by Chaucer and other writers of the day when early card games where being played.
Well into the late 1300s the early version of the playing card along games spread their way throughout Europe and is mentioned in historical writings of cities such as Barcelona, Paris and Florence. Early playing cards were decorated by woodcuts or by using a stencilling method. It has been said that the kings and queens on decks of cards have represented such famous royalty as Charlemagne and Julius Caesar, however, it is the French design that the playing cards of today are fashioned after.
The first playing cards on this side of the ocean in the early 19th century and Americans are known as the inventors of the Joker. And although playing cards have changed a great deal over the centuries, the idea of using them has really not.
The game of Poker has recently increased in popularity as the game of choice for card players, but this was not always the case. The origin of the game is not all that clear, some say it began in Germany (pochen) or perhaps in France (Poque) and the game closely resembles a Persian game that was taught to French civilians living in New Orleans. The English actor, Joseph Crowell (who lived in New Orleans) was have said to be first to play the game of poker. At that time, the game was played with twenty cards. The game of poker became popular and spread up throughout the Mississippi and spread even more with the Gold rush. By the time of the onset of the Civil War, a fifty two card deck was used and a few variances of the game of Poker became popular, such as stud poker and draw poker.
The modern Poker tournament became popular with the casino going crowd around 1970, with the inception of World Series of Poker and seen an awakening again in the early 21st century.
Another card game that has a long history is the game of Bridge. Who does not remember hearing about society ladies and their meeting to play bridge once a week? Ever wonder about the background of this game?
This game has also been around for a long time and was formerly known as Whist. It is known to have roots back to England sometime during the 17th century. The first know publication regarding the game of Whist was published in 1742. Over the years, the game of Whist evolved and became popular with all classes of people. As people immigrated to the New World, so did their cards as it was a good way to pass time and around 1890 the game was introduced to the United States. Somehow, over the years, the name got changed from Whist to Bridge, but how and why seems to remain a mystery. A man by the name of Harold Vanderbilt, in 1925, tweaked the game of Bridge to what is played today. He is also known as the inventor of the game of Contract Bridge. During his presidency, Eisenhower was a well known Bridge player and enjoyed the game as much as golf.
The game of Solitaire has also been around for many years. Much like the name, the game of Solitaire can be played by oneself and since cards are so portable, the game is a perfect choice.
Solitaire, or if it is known by its English name as Patience, was probably invented during the late 19th century as there is some mention of it in the writings of the time such as War and Peace written by Leo Tolstoy in the early 20th century. Franklin Roosevelt was said to be a big fan of the Solitaire game, Spider.
No matter which playing card games interest you, it does not matter. Playing cards have been around for many years and while some card games come and go, gain and loose in popularity, the playing card as we know it will no doubt be around for a long, long time.
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