The origins of the game are not very clear and while some people locate it in Europe, France more precisely, some others assure that it was a British invention which then was known in the continent and afterward reached the United States of North America. Anyway, it is true that in old times some similar variants to today’s poker were played….suicides legends, fortunes lost, lovers, wives, everything to recover from the ill luck card.
The history of poker is full of funny, amusing, tragic anecdotes; high society gentlemen going to hovels, gamblers with dusty wigs ready to skin their victims; mixing aristocrats with important surnames and not much money, waiting for those who would be cheated. There were also terrible tails about murders of people because they discovered the cheater and wanted to organize scandals against him. But we cannot blame the game for this. People who played it cheating victims are to blame. Another golden age was the conquest of the American West and its colonization, including the good and the bad things implied.
It was predictable that adventurers of all kinds would arrive at a developing world like that of the XIX century. Among these adventurers, there were people who wanted to obtain a fortune as soon as possible. With the huge livestock routes and with the mineral deposits many persons earned fortunes with their jobs and other persons committed themselves to set the bases to skin people with gambling, the most audacious and unscrupulous ones did it with guns. In this way, the casinos or saloons appeared. They placed the scenarios anywhere and the goal was to skin incautious cowboys. They added women and alcohol.
In spite of the wheel of fortune, poker was the game everybody preferred. Losing the salaries was not the worst thing that could happen to them. They were hurt when they realized they had been cheated. When the cheating gambler was discovered a tragedy was triggered. The voyages through the Mississippi and Missouri were a historic time for poker players. The owners of floating casinos made lots of profits; they had played like The Bluff, The Roulette, and Poker.
The games on board attracted travelers and gambling professionals, everybody wanted to obtain money. The owners or administrators of these casinos did not admit gamblers but they did admit professionals: the difference was that the first cheated and the second ones did not. However, for travelers, the destiny was the same: to lose. The professionals with no need for cheating skinned the travelers. They were people who really seemed to had been born with cards in their hands and they had an incredible perception about their adversaries. This made them superior during the game since it seemed that there were no secrets for them.
During the 20s, in the United States, the game was to become an emporium; everything seemed to revolve around alcohol and gambling. Huge and luxurious rooms received the best of the society to waste millions of dollars in the tables. That was a great time for cinema and fiction and action literature. The truth is that Poker was the favorite for citizens. It is regrettable that negative things are associated with this beautiful game and too many other custom and used ones. We cannot blame the games themselves; the lack of scruples of some people or the ambition of others has nothing to do with the good intentions of the people who want to spend a good time playing with their emotions and dreams. During this same age, the miners played poker to relax after their hard work; also the marines did this.
Although Latin Americans can choose poker or other games with Spanish cards, more and more people choose this game which becomes stronger every day because of its participation peculiarity. It is obvious that Poker has something which is fascinating. It is extraordinary that it can be adapted to so many latitudes and mentalities; it survived so many centuries with almost no variables in its style. For some reason, the legend says that it is a King’s game.
