History of Poker
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There are various opinions concerning history of poker, but there is no unequivocal opinion on history of poker. Poker, most likely, has received its today’s form from elements of various games. The consensus consists only in main principle - game Poker originates into gray-haired antiquity.
The origin of a word “Poker” was not a little discussed at all. The majority of dictionaries and historians of game prove that the word occurs from the French game of the eighteenth century “poque”. However, there are also other references, for example, on German game pochspiel. In game pochspiel there is an element of a bluff, when players express the desire to give in or open cards, knocking on a table and sentencing, “Ich Poche!”. Some people assume that this word has occurred from Hindu “pukka”.
One more possible explanation of a word “poker” can be explained by slangy underworld - the term “poke”, used by thieves-pickpockets. Sharpers, who applied “game of deceit” with 20 cards on the beginner to catch a purse of the last one, probably, used this word among themselves, adding “r” to form “poker”. The main idea is that if swindlers used a word “poker” for their “victims”, people, who knew the slang of the underworld, would not guess about “change in their pocket”.
There is also an assumption that “poke” occurs from “hocus-pocus” - widely used conjurers expression. At the late stage Poker included 32 cards, and at the modern variant - it has 52 cards and two Jokers.
