Poker is a card game that is very difficult to track down its origin; it has no direct traceable history and is therefore assumed to have been created from a combination of many different card games that date back many centuries ago.

The earliest record of a game being played closely resembling poker is by a man named Jonathan Green who encountered a 20 card game being played in 1834 that he came across on a Mississippi steamboat whose destination was bound for New Orleans. Many other prominent people at that time noted a 20 card game being played on steamboats including Sol Smith who documented it in 1835.

The 20 card game was played by evenly distributing the cards out amongst four players and creating a winning combination from the cards dealt. No draw would take place and bets were limited to different combinations either through a pair, two pair, triplet or full house which used all five cards up. Nothing was stronger than having four aces or by having four kings and an ace unlike modern poker where a royal flush would win the round against such a hand.

The 20 card game progressively transformed into the current 52 card deck that is played nowadays due to more players wanting to play in the same round and by only having 20 card decks you could only play with a maximum of 4 players.

As poker became more popular during the 19^th century, new rules were being invented to turn poker from a game of chance into a game of skill and as more cards were added the number of winning combinations changed as draws were finally introduced which allowed for cards to be changed if a player was unhappy with the cards he had been dealt. This created more possibilities and changed the perception of the game for many people as it was no longer down to luck but rather to skill.

The invention of the jackpot came soon after the introduction of the draw to allow more cautious players to be more aggressive as they would have to put money into the pot in order to play which made the game more fluid and interesting to play.

The name poker is thought to have derived from a French card game that was played during the 19^th century although many people dispute this and say that is actually originated from a German card game that was played during the same époque.

In the following years during the 19^th and 20^th century various rules evolved such as which combination should score higher between a royal flush and four aces and how many rounds of bets should take place which today make our up our current version of poker.