Evening star., 1905-08-20
ORIGIN OF POKER

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A discussion took place recently at a
London club about the origin OF various
| popular games. especially bridge and poker.
An account was given OF the efforts made
| by the Sun to discover the earliest date a,
| which poker was played In America. and In
| what part Of the country It was invented.
From the various letters It was evident
that there were card players now lv-
| ing who could remember a time when poker
was unknown. Several correspondents sent
descriptions Of the game they had seen
| 1t played on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers
AZ far back as 1870
They remarked upon the primitiveness of
the rules. the auickness of the play. the
! facts that the pack contained twenty cards
| only and that straighss jackpots hnd
| drawing were unknown. But not one OF
| them recalled any evidence that poker was
| a new game. even In lS4O.
| One correspondent said that as he recol-
| lected the game in New Orleans 1t was first
| called poke. This name appears in an early
description of the game. but seems to have
| been generally regarded misprnt. Was
| 1t?
| One of the men present at this discussion.
| Frederic Jessel OF Craven Hill Gardens,
| London. who is famous as a connoisseur
1
owner OF what is probably the finest col
| lection Of books on cards and card games
in the world, comprising more than 2.ooO
| volumes, very kindly suggested that If the
! writer would take the trouble to wade
| through this mass OF literature, some of
| which dated back to 1865. it at his dis
| posal an offer which was very promptly
| accepted.
1t took good many afternoons to go
through the thirty odd books devoted ex-
| clusively to poker. the earliest OF which
| was published In 1874. but none of them
shed the slightest ray of light on the ori
gin of the game. or how 1t got Its name.
| Leaving the poker textbooks behind the
| next search was made through various
| commonly spoken Of under the generic title
| Of ''Hoyles." any book which treats OF
number or variety of games being now
| called a "Hoyle."
! The European Hoyles and Bohn's Hand
| book of Games make no reference to poker
| until 1884. "Cavendish," the great author
| ity on whist and for nearly forty years card
| editor of the Field. which during his life
was the recognized authority on all mat
| ters relating to cards. wrote a book
Round Games of Cards''-in 1875 In which
| poker is described. Winterblossom's book
must have been published In England about
the same time. the copy In the British
Museum Is dated 1875.
| In the American reprints and copies OF
some of the European Hoyles poker was
| tackled on at the end OF an appendix as early
as 1850 In the 1s45 edition of "Hoye's
Games" published by Fl. F. Anners In
Philadelphia, there Is mention of poker.
but In the supplement to the edition OF
| 1850 there is very brief description of the
game.
1t seems to have been played with the
| full pack. straight poker. of course and
| had the popularity that any player holding
| 4 hand better than triplets received a bo-
nus from each of the others at the table
! as sort Of consolation in case no one bet
| against him.
| found in Dick & F'itzgeralds Hoyle. the
| edition printed in 1861 and not until the
edition published in 1875 do we find any
mention of jackpots In the edition of 1879
| jackpots are still unknown. and "Caven-
dish" in his Round Games of Cards"
which came out in 1873. makes no mention
| of jackpots,
In none of these works is there any ex-
| PLANTATION Of the origin of the game itself.
The English edition Of Bohn's Hand
| book of Games which came out in 1880,
was printed from the same plates un-
changed until 1884, when poker added.
| In the American edition poker added
from the first, in 1880, but draw poker was
| not put in until 1887.
| While there is no attempt to account for
poker itself. several writer's attribute the
| invention Of jackpots to some players In
|
| anxious to put a stop to the constant
| throwing up of hands by close players who
would not come in on anything less than
jacks, leaving the liberal players with no
| one to play against.
That jackpots We're unknown much be-
| fore 1870 has long ago been proved and if
| Toledo invented them there certainly
| should be some people still living who
| could recall the circumstances.
Stepping into another path of investiga-
| ton. the columns of the press. there is no
mention to be found of single dispute
| about poker In any of the English papers
until about 1875. In America a careful
examination of all the decisions on card
questions published by Wilkes Spirit of
| the Times. from 1870 to 1874, showed not q
single case in which jackpots men,
toned although almost every other phase
| of the game Is decided upon.
Early In 1874 we find the first mention of
| jackpots. when a correspondent asks if he
must show his entire hand only openers
when he is called. To this the editor re-
| plies: We know of no rules for jackpots
| poker"
| In all this mass Of matter there was no
reference to the origin of the game. and
| not a single correspondent seems to have
raised the question. This being the case.
| the search through the treasures of the
| Jessel library had to be diverted to books
published at earlier dates which were not
| Hoyles. but books the evils of gam
| bling. a favorite topic with the old
| writer's.
1t is in one of these books that the first
mention of poker is to be found. The Re-
| formed Gambler" by Jonathan H. Green.
| published by 7. P. Peterson & Bro. Phila-
| delphia. and copyrighted in 1858.
On page 40 of this book is a description
of an incident which occurred on steamer
plying between New Orleans and Louis
Vile The trip was made in June. 1894.
! and the game was twenty-card poker, which
| appears from various sources to have been
| the original form of the game, the ace.
king, queen, knave and ten of each suit
alone being used.
In the same book, page 1854, there is re-
lated another gambling incident, in which
a game of poker was played on the steamer
Smelter Capt. Harris running between
Cincinnati and Galena. The chief figure
in this affair was well-known Cincinnati
gambler, John Howard.