Poker Fun Facts

Here, we take a look at ten interesting facts about your humble deck of cards. How many of them did you know? 1) A long history Cards first arrived on the scene around 900 years ago in China, yet. 5 Fun Facts About How Poker and Gambling Changed the World Author: Robbie Strazynski June 2, 2016 Gambling, casinos, and poker have had their part to play in various historical events, as well as being at the center of superstitions – from the origins of the humble sandwich to the building of the Great Wall of China, and a fair few things in. Fun Poker Facts - Little known facts about the game of poker So, you play poker. Whether you are good or bad, win or lose, I am sure you do not know all of the following fun facts.

What Do You Know About Poker?

The Deck Has Changed

In the early days, the first versions of poker were played with a 20-card deck: 4 suits of 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. As the game gained popularity, more and more people started using the English 52-card deck to allow for more possible hand combinations.

In the late 1930s, there was even a fifth suit added – but this quickly fell by the wayside, as people used to the game didn’t want to buy new cards!

The Game is American… Kind Of

The earliest accounts of poker as we know it – five-card hands and the name we use today – come from Louisiana in the early 1800s. The French settlers of that region would have been familiar with a game known as “poque” – which likely lead to the American version (and the name).

Still, even the history of those games is contested. Scholars also compare poker to a Persian game called As-Nas, as well as the French game brelan and the Italian game primero.

The Longest Game

The Birdcage Theater in Tombstone, Arizona (yes, like the movie!) held the longest running poker game in history – or so the story goes. They claim the game ran continuously, day and night, for 8 years, 5 months, and 3 days. Supposedly, more than $10 million exchanged hands, and famous people like Doc Holiday took part!

First TV Appearance

3 years after its debut, the World Series of Poker was first televised on CBS in 1973. Walter “Puggy” Pearson won the main event for $130,000! In fact, you can watch the tournament coverage on YouTube!

A Game of Stats

Master poker players can calculate their odds of winning based on a variety of factors, especially when playing Texas Hold ‘Em (where all players can see “the flop”). The probabilities can be misleading, with hundreds of millions of possible combinations among just 5 cards.

Poker Fun Facts

Here are a couple examples that can lead novice players astray:

  • If you need two exact cards on the turn and the river (the 4th and 5th card turned over), your odds of getting both are just 0.3%
  • Top starting hands like pocket Aces, Kings, A/K, or “picture pairs” only happen about 2.1%of the time
  • Having two suited cards only improves your hand by about 2.5%

This is just a small look at all the things there are to know about poker. You can learn different games, betting strategies, and the huge list of terms experienced players use to describe their hands, their bets, and other parts of the game. The best way to learn is to start playing!

To explore poker tables, chips, cards, and accessories of all kinds, visit Emerald Spas and Billiards today!

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Fido is K-9 (as in 'canine'). It is sometimes referred to as The Donk because a donkey (or 'donk') is a new player who doesn't know what he's doing. K-9 may look like a good hand at first, but is not a statistical favorite to many of the hands that poker players would play. Thus, playing K-9 religiously will lose you a lot of money and is considered a donk move, giving it the nickname.
The reason K-9 is usually no good is that it rarely makes winning hands. Let's say you pair your king on the flop. Even assuming there's no ace on the board, anyone else with a king in their hand is likely to beat you, as you have a weak kicker and they probably would not have played the hand with a kicker less than 10. One reason that bad players will play K-9 a lot is that they see a straight opportunity (K-Q-J-10-9). The chances of achieving a straight by the river (assuming you stay in that long) starting with K-9, though, are bad, namely 2.68%, or approximately 1 in every 37 hands.
Bullets are pocket aces, marriage is K-Q, and snowmen are pocket eights.