Poker Facts and Trivia
Did you know…?
A national sport?…
40 to 50 million Americans regularly play poker. That’s more than one in five…
The origin of the name Poker is uncertain. It may come from the German verb pochen, meaning to brag or bluff, and there is an older, German card game similar to poker in that it involved bluffing, called Pochspiel. Another version traces the word to the French poque, also said to have been a card game resembling poker. The earlier version of the game in English was called brag.
Ex-President Richard Nixon won $6000 during his first two months in the U.S. Navy in World War II, playing poker. His winnings were used to fund his first (and successful) campaign for congress.
Each year more than 70 million decks of cards are sold in the U.S.
Playing cards were most likely invented in China in 1120 AD and first introduced to Europe in the 1300’s.
When Columbus landed on U.S. shores in 1492, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, marked them with images, and played cards.
On a deck of cards, the king of spades represents David, King of Israel; the king of Clubs represents Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia; the king of Hearts is Charlemagne, King of France; and the king of Diamonds is Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome.
The suits in playing cards derive from French influence, and represent the four classes of men: Spades represent nobility, Diamonds represent merchants, Clubs represent peasants, and Hearts the clergy.
Pass the…what?
In card games, sometimes a marker or buck is placed in front of the person who is to deal the next game. Every time the deal passes, players must also "pass the buck" (which explains why the expression "pass the antelope" never really caught on).
Edmond Hoyle, Poker’s Great Grandfather?
Not exactly. Poker wasn’t invented until 150 years after he died. His seminal work, A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist (1742), was about whist and whist only. Since his death in 1769, at the age of 97, the name "Hoyle" has been synonymous with precise game playing. To do something "According to Hoyle" means to play completely by the rules, accurately and without mistake. Just to clear up any confusion…
John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, was a man of doubtful integrity and a compulsive gambler who lived in the 1700s. He was so reluctant to leave a card game even for a meal that he had a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so he could eat with one hand and play cards with the other. The new invention was dubbed…a sandwich.
A gambling pal of actor Samuel Foote once complained that he’d been thrown out of a second-floor window for cheating in a high-stakes game of poker. When he asked for Foote's advice, the response was, "Well…don’t play so high"
Groucho Marx got his name because he carried his poker money in a ‘grouch bag’.
Poker Quotes
"Patience, and shuffle the cards."
Cervantes, Don Quixote.
"Poker is…a fascinating, wonderful, intricate adventure on the high seas of human nature."
Writer David A Daniel in, “Poker: How to Win at the Great American Game”
"The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing. The main thing is to play."
Nick "the Greek" Dandalos, legendary high-roller.
Quoted in “Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek”
"If you’re in a card game and you don’t know who the sucker is, you’re it."
Popular poker saying.
"The game [of poker] represents the worst aspects of capitalism
that have made our country so great."
Walter Matthau
"I’ve lost money so fast in these clubs it’s left me reeling. I’ve read every poker book ever written, but the only way to get better at the game is to go out and play with people who are really good. The problem is, you stand to lose a lot of money doing it."
Matt Damon, who, along with “Rounders” co-star Edward Norton, was quickly eliminated from the $10,000 main event at the World Series of Poker in 1998.
"I must complain the cards are ill shuffled till I have a good hand."
Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects” (1728)
"How long does it take to learn poker, Dad?"
"All your life, son."
Michael Pertwee quoted in David Spanier, “Total Poker” (1977)
"Poker: The art of civilized bushwhacking."
Attributed, Nick "the Greek" Dandalos, legendary high-roller.
"This was the first time he had seriously confronted what he was doing, and the force of that awareness came very abruptly- with a surging of his pulse and a frantic pounding in his head. He was about to gamble his life on that table, and the insanity of that risk filled him with a kind of awe."
Paul Auster, “The Music Of Chance” (1990)
"He said, "Son, I’ve made a life out of readin’ people’s faces, and
knowin’ what their cards were by he way they held their eyes."
Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler”
POKER, n. A game said to be played with cards
for some purpose to this lexicographer unknown."
Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary” (1906)
"If one is able and strong,
then one should disguise oneself in order to appear inept and weak."
Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
"I’m a gambler. I’ll always be one. I couldn’t be anything else. So, my life will always be full of wins and losses. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s exciting. There’s never been a dull moment in my life."
Doyle Brunson, “How I Won $1,000,000 Playing Poker”
"Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where- at least in the short run- the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens."
John Luckacs, “Poker and the American Character” (1963)
"Cards are war, in disguise of a sport."
Writer Charles Lamb, “Essays of Elia” (1832)
"I recently watched a rank novice win $10,000 in an hour-long Poker session at the Dunes Hotel Casino in Las Vegas from five men who are considered to be among the twenty best Poker players in Las Vegas. That was chance, a momentary aberration in the probabilities. They are inevitable in any gambling game. If it weren’t for them – and the long-odds winning they make possible – gambling would be barren of what makes it gambling. Certainly luck operates, to this limited extent, within the theory of probability. All that theory guarantees is that ultimately each player will have been dealt an approximately equal number of opportunities to win, an approximately equal number of good, bad and indifferent hands."
John Scarne, legendary gambling author
"Poker is a fighting game, a game in which each player tries to get the better of every other player and does so by fair means or foul so long as he obeys the rules of the game….. It probably began as a war game; that is, the representation of a miniature battle between the forces of two kingdoms."
Karl Meninger (1893–1990), U.S. psychologist, “Love Against Hate” (1942)
"Industry executives and analysts often mistakenly talk about strategy as if it were some kind of chess match. But in chess, you have just two opponents, each with identical resources, and with luck playing a minimal role. The real world is much more like a poker game, with multiple players trying to make the best of whatever hand fortune has dealt them. In our industry, Bill Gates owns the table until someone proves otherwise."
David Moschella, “Computerworld”
"Perception is reality."
Immanuel Kant
"It’s hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Think about what it’s like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that’s the way it is at the poker table. If you don’t believe me, then you’re the lamb that’s going off to the slaughter."
Stuey Ungar, three-time World Series Poker champion
"It’s not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
Gore Vidal, author
"See, in my world – the world of high-stakes gin and poker – we play for cold, hard cash. It’s all business, pure and simple. Anyone who thinks cardplaying is a ‘game’ – I’ll show you a loser. Money…M-O-N-E-Y. That’s how you measure success. One dollar at a time. One chip at a time. That’s how you keep score."
Stuey Unger
"I think that we are all in the right place at the right time almost every day. It’s the people who are prepared to be lucky who can take advantage of being there. How do these people position themselves to be lucky? It was Goethe who said, ‘Anytime that you take the first step toward trying to achieve something in life, all manner of good things will mysteriously fall into your path to help speed you along your way.’ Amen to that!"
Phil Hellmuth, 1989 World Series of Poker champion
"I’ve always had confidence, but I never let my ego get to the point that I think I’m the superstar, because I know that ego has destroyed many a poker career."
Jim Boyd, modern-day road gambler
"Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be rough-hewn
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