Poker

Poker, card game whose earliest forms date back to 520 in Europe, developing into bet-and-bluff games like brag in England, pochen (“bluff’) in Germany, and poque in France. The French brought poque to America (1800), where it was developed and reexported to Europe as poker (1870). It is now one of the world's top 3 card games. There are many variations, but basically 5 or 7 cards are dealt, and each player tries to make up a winning combination, on which he or she bets and bluffs in a contest of skill and nerves against the unknown combinations (“hands”) of his opponents. The winner either has the best hand or has bluffed all opponents into “folding” (dropping out of the game).