The origins of poker

There is little consensus over where and when poker originated. Variants of the game can be traced back to China from over 1,000 years ago, though the game was not played with cards, but with painted dominoes.
Others accredit poker’s origins to an Indian card game called “Ganjifa,” which was also a betting game but consisted of 96 painted cards.
Mainstream historians usually source its origins to a French card game called “poque,” itself a variant of the German, “pochen,” which means “to bluff” in English.
However, they warn that these early prototypes share little in common with the game as it is known today. Modern versions of poker are thought to have developed sometime between the late 18th and early 19th Century.
There exist accounts of the game being played extensively throughout the Mississippi region in the U.S. from the 1830s onwards, though with just 20 cards and with players betting on which hand was most valuable.
On the other hand, the history of the game in its modern form in Asia is relatively brief with its surge in popularity coming mostly in the last two decades.
Today, despite the game’s popularity paling in comparison to traditional Chinese games like baccarat, Macau remains one of the largest poker destinations in the world.