Did you know…
- It’s named for ‘drawing’ or replacing cards in order to make the best possible hand. House rules vary on how many can be replaced: usually about three!
- The four suits: hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs originate in 15th century France. Spades represent nobility, Hearts the clergy, Diamonds represent merchants and Clubs represent peasants!
- The name ’Poker’ comes from German‘pochen’, ‘to brag as a bluff’. Some trace it to tothe French word‘poque’, a card game resembling Poker.
- Casinos normally change decks after 15 minutes of steady play.
- Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history and legend: Hearts are for Charlemagne, Spades for King David, Diamonds for Julius Caesar and Clubs for Alexander the Great.
- Poker has a romantic beginning: it used to be played as a gentlemen’s game on Mississippi river boats in the 1820s, and spread through the United States via the waterways!
- In 1937, an attempt to introduce a fifth deck tot the existing four was made, but failed dismally, because people did not wish to buy new decks to replace theirs.
- The televising of Pokerhas turned it into one of the most popular spectator sports in the world.
- Sandwiches were invented all thanks to cards! The 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montague, ordered that a piece of meat be placed between two slices of bread so that he could eat with one hand and his card game could continue uninterrupted.
