Poker has always existed in American card rooms, be they glitzy casinos or seedy dives. The already-global game then made its way to the New World by way of French settlers who brought it to North America. Either way, the earliest version of poker in European history was probably the 17th-century French game poque, which is where the English language gets the word “poker.” This version evolved alongside the German pochen as a new version of the Spanish game primero. Some say it was developed in China, while others claim it was started in Persia.
True to its spirit of bluffing and misdirection, poker’s history is full of rumors and apocryphal origins.
