Midwest Illegal Gambling

History of Poker

American Influence on Playing Cards

Collectors and Collecting

David Parlett

Introduction

Poker is a five-card vying game played with standard playing-cards.

A vying game is one where, instead of playing their cards out, the players bet as to who holds the best card combination by progressively raising the stakes until either - 

there is a showdown, when the best hand wins all the stakes (‘the pot’), or all but one player have given up betting and dropped out of play, when the last person to raise wins the pot without a showdown.

It is therefore possible for the pot to be won by a hand that is not in fact the best, everyone else having been bluffed out of play. One of Poker's earliest names was, in fact, ‘Bluff’. Bluffing is as essential to vying as finessing is to trick-play.

A five-card vying game is one where, no matter how many cards may be dealt to each player, the only valid combinations are those of five cards. In orthodox Poker these are, from highest to lowest:  

straight flush (five cards in suit and sequence, Ace high or low, as AKQJ10 or 5432A)

four of a kind, fours (four cards of the same rank and one idler, as K-K-K-K-x)

full house (three of one rank and two of another, as Q-Q-Q-4-4)

flush (five cards in suit but not in sequence, as J-9-8-7-3)

straight (five cards in sequence but not in suit, as 10-9-8-7-6)

three of a kind, threes, triplet, trips (three of the same rank plus two of two different ranks, as 7-7-7-x-y)

two pair (as Q-Q-9-9-x)

one pair (as 3-3-x-y-z)

high card (no combination: as between two such hands the one with the highest card wins)

(The highest possible straight flush, consisting of A-K-Q-J-10 of a suit and known as a royal flush, is sometimes added to the list in order to bring the number of combinations up to the more desirable ten, but of course it is not different in kind from a straight flush. Other five-card combinations, known as freak hands, are recognized in unorthodox Poker variants.)

Any vying game based on these five-card hands is a form of Poker, and any game lacking either or both of them is not, even if it contains Poker as part of its title. For example, so-called Whisk(e)y Poker and Chinese Poker are gambling games played with Poker combinations, but both lack the element of vying, the former being a commerce game and the latter a partition game. Other games or game components are sometimes drafted into the form of Poker known as Dealer’s Choice, but this does not make them forms or Poker. On the other hand, it does not prevent Dealer’s Choice from being classed as a form of Poker so long as it also includes genuine Poker components.

Poker is of French-American origin and is the national vying game of the United States, though it has come to have a world-wide following in many different forms. Other vying games include Brag (British, a three-card game), Primiera (Italian, a four-card game), and Mus (Spanish, also with four-card hands).

Birth and growth

The birth of Poker has been convincingly dated to the first or second decade of the 19th century. It appeared in former French territory centred on New Orleans which was ceded to the infant United States by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Its cradle was the gambling saloon in general and, in particular, those famous or notorious floating saloons, the Mississippi steamers, which began to ply their trade from about 1811.

The earliest contemporary reference to Poker occurs in J. Hildreth’s Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains, published in 1836; but two slightly later publications independently show it to have been well in use by 1829. Both are found in the published reminiscences of two unconnected witnesses: Jonathan H. Green, in Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (1843), and Joe Cowell, an English comedian, in Thirty Years Passed Among the Players in England and America (1844).

Green and Cowell describe the earliest known form of Poker, played with a 20-card pack (A-K-Q-J-10) evenly dealt amongst four players. There is no draw, and bets are made on a narrow range of combinations: one pair, two pair, triplets, ‘full’ - so called because it is the only combination in which all five cards are active - and four of a kind. Unlike classic Poker, in which the top hand (royal flush) can be tied in another suit, the original top hand consisting of four Aces, or four Kings and an Ace, was absolutely unbeatable.

Twenty-card Poker is well attested. In 1847 Jonathan Green mentions a game of 20-card Poker played on a Mississippi steamboat bound for New Orleans in February 1833, and in The Reformed Gambler (1858), a new edition of his earlier book, another session played at a Louisville house in 1834. A vivid account of a Poker game played on a Mississippi river boat in 1835 appears in Sol Smith’s Theatrical Management in the West and South for Thirty Years (New York, 1868), with an anecdote hinging on the two players’ switching from ‘low’ cards to ‘large cards’, i.e. Tens and over.

This provides evidence that the 20-card game was being challenged by the 52-card game in the mid-1830s. The gradual adoption of a 52-card pack was made partly to accommodate more players, perhaps partly to give more scope to the recently introduced flush (the straight was as yet unknown), but chiefly to ensure there were enough cards for the draw - another relative novelty, and one that was to turn Poker from a gamble to a game of skill. These novelties were regular features of Poker’s English relative Brag as played in its early 19th-century American form. (Brag is no longer played in America, and modern British Brag differs substantially from 19th century American Brag.)

It was in this form, but as yet without the draw, that Poker first reached the pages of American ‘Hoyles’. The earliest mention occurs in the 1845 edition of Hoyle’s Games by Henry F. Anners, who refers to Poker or Bluff, 20-deck Poker, and 20-deck Poke. In a Boston Hoyle of 1857 Thomas Frere describes ‘The Game of "Bluff", or "Poker"’, with a reference to the 20-card game so brief as to suggest it was becoming obsolete. Dowling, however, points out that it was apparently still played as late as 1857 in New York, for "In that year the author of a guidebook to the metropolis issued a warning against playing 20-card poker, which was described as one of the most dangerous pitfalls to be found in the city".

Between about 1830 and 1845 Poker was increasingly played with all 52 cards, enabling more than four to participate and giving rise to the flush as an additional combination. The end of this phase saw the introduction of the draw, already familiar from contemporary Brag. This increased the excitement of the game by adding a second betting interval and enabling poor hands to be significantly improved, especially the worthless but potentially promising fourflush. The first printed mention of Draw Poker occurs in the 1850 American edition of Bohn’s New Handbook of Games, p.384.

The introduction of Poker into English society is often credited, if only on his own claim, to General Schenck, the American ambassador to Britain. Blackridge quotes a letter from Schenck to General Young of Cincinnati describing a weekend retreat to the Somerset country home of a certain ‘Lady W.’ in the summer of 1872, when he was prevailed upon by the other guests to teach them this peculiarly American game. As part of the exercise he drew up a written guide for them. Some of his pupils subsequently had these rules printed in booklet form, much to Schenck’s surprise when he received a copy upon his return home. Schenck notwithstanding, a probable earlier reference to the game in England dates from 1855 when George Eliot is reported (in her second husband’s 1885 biography) as writing ‘One night we attempted "Brag" or "Pocher"’[sic].

Coming of age

From the middle of the 19th century Poker experienced rapid changes and innovations as it became more widespread through the upheavals of the Civil War. Stud, or ‘stud-horse’ Poker, a cowboy invention said to have been introduced around Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, first appears in The American Hoyle of 1864. More contentious was the introduction of Jack Pots, which originally meant that you were not allowed to open unless you held a pair of Jacks or better, and were obliged to open if you did, though the second half of this rule was subsequently abandoned. (At a table of five, at least one player will normally be dealt Jacks or better.) This device was intended to impose discipline on the game by driving out wild players who would bet on anything, while encouraging cautious players who did have something not to be frightened out of the pot by openers who didn’t. Blackridge opposed Jack Pots, pithily declaring it ‘equivalent to a lottery except that all players must buy tickets’. He added that the rule reportedly originated at Toledo and was common in the west, rarer in the east, and absent form the more conservative south. In 1897 Foster complained that ‘The jack-pot, with its accompanying small-limit game, has completely killed bluffing - that pride and joy of the old-timer...’ Nevertheless, he adds, self-contradictorily, ‘The two great steps in the history and progress of Poker have undoubtedly been the introduction of the draw to improve the hand, and the invention of the jack-pot as a cure for cautiousness... It has come to stay.’

Draw, Stud, and Jack Pots, all appear in the 1875 edition of The American Hoyle, together with Whiskey Poker, a form of Commerce based on Poker combinations, and Mistigris, which was Poker with a 53rd card ‘wild’, namely ‘the blank card accompanying every pack’. (This borrowed from a variety of Bouillotte in which the Jack of clubs appears under that name as a wild card.) By this time, too, the full range of Poker combinations was widely recognized, though not universally so. The 1875 edition notes that four of a kind is the best hand ‘when straights are not played’, and repeats it as late as the 1887 edition.

It is curious how unstraightforward was the introduction of the straight. The 1864 edition gives the hands as: one pair, two pairs, straight sequence or rotation, triplets, flush, full house, fours. It adds ‘When a straight and a flush come together in one hand, it outranks a full’ - not fours, be it noted, in defiance of the mathematics, and probably for the following reason. Without straights and straight flushes, the highest possible hand is four Aces (or four Kings and an Ace kicker), which is not just unbeatable but cannot even be tied. Traditionalists clinging to the unbeatable four Aces of Old Poker were opposed by innovationists, who found the game more interesting with straights. In this light, the acceptance of straights ranked in the wrong order may be seen as a temporary compromise. As late as 1892, John Keller defended his view that the straight ‘should be allowed. My authority for this is the best usage of today, and my justification is the undeniable merit of the straight as a Poker hand.’ He clinches this with the moral argument that has prevailed ever since - namely, that it is unethical and ungentlemanly to bet on such a sure thing as four Aces. If the best hand is a royal flush, there is always the outside chance that it may be tied. However minute that measure of doubt, it has to be morally superior to betting on a certainty.

Under the aegis of the United States Printing Company and, subsequently, the New York Sun, a great deal of research was conducted into the origins and varieties of Poker with a view to drawing up a set of definitive rules, which first appeared in 1904. In 1905 R F Foster published his book Practical Poker, summarizing the fruits of all this research plus additional material gleaned from the Frederick Jessel collection of card-game literature housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Amongst other things, it would appear from this that Dealer’s Choice began attaining popularity about 1900, according to Dowling. Subsequent developments can be traced through successive editions of Hoyles published by the United States Playing Card Company.

Following Draw and Stud, a third major structural division of the Poker game, represented today by Texas Hold ’em, is that of varieties involving one or more communal cards. The earliest of these appears in the 1919 edition under the name Wild Widow, whereby a card was dealt face up to the table immediately before each player received his fifth card, and the winner was the player making the best five-card combination from his own hand plus the turn-up. In the 1926 edition this is replaced by Spit in the Ocean. Here only four cards each are dealt, but the turn-up and the three other cards of the same rank are all wild. Deuces wild first appears in the 1919 edition.

High-Low Poker, in which the pot is divided equally between the highest and the lowest hands, is attested as early as 1903 (according to Morehead and Mott-Smith). It first appears in the 1926 edition and achieved its greatest popularity during the ‘thirties and ‘forties, subsequently giving rise to Lowball, in which only the lowest hand wins.

The rise of modern tournament play dates from the World Series of Poker started in 1970.

Ultimate origins

So many ridiculous assertions are made about the antiquity of Poker that it is necessary to point out that, by definition, Poker cannot be older than playing-cards themselves, which are only first positively attested in 13th century China, though some arguable evidence exists for their invention a few centuries earlier. Playing-cards first reached Europe in about 1360, not directly from China, but from the Islamic Mamluk Empire of Egypt through the trading port of Venice. Mamluk cards themselves also do not derive directly from Chinese cards but bear obscure relationships to the geographically intervening cards of India and (even more obscurely) Persia (Iran). Surviving specimens of Mamluk cards come from an original 52-card pack consisting of four suits (swords, polo sticks, goblets, coins) of 13 ranks each (numerals one to ten, junior viceroy, senior viceroy, and king). The only known Chinese card games of that period were of the trick-taking variety; and, while we have no contemporary account of games played with the Mamluk pack, it too was clearly designed for trick-taking.

Fourteenth century Europe saw an explosion in the variety of designs, suit-systems and structures of playing-cards, culminating before 1500 in the establishment of the principal European suit systems (Italian, Spanish, Swiss, German, French) and a correspondingly wide variety of accompanying games. A major European contribution to the realm of card play was the concept of a trump suit, first embodied in the Italian invention of tarot cards (at first called triumphi or triumph cards) in the 1420s, though also prefigured in the German game of Karnöffel. Also developed during the same period were a number of gambling games based on acquiring or betting on card combinations such as flushes (Flusso, Flüsslen, etc), sequences (Quentzlen, etc), matches (pairs, triplets, quartets), and numeration (as in Thirty-One, the ancestor of Twenty-One and perhaps Cribbage). Melding and numerical games were probably derived from, or modelled on, dice games of the period, though we lack sufficient information to be able to reconstruct the actual forms of dice play.

It is hard to imagine a process of Poker-style vying operating in dice games of the time, as vying originally depended entirely on being able to hide the identity of the cards you hold or draw by exposing only their plain sides to the other players, whereas the outcome of dice throws is necessarily open and visible to all. (As Cardano famously noted in 1564, ‘There is a difference form play with dice, because the latter is open, whereas play with cards takes place from ambush, because they are concealed.’) Nevertheless, whether originating in Europe or imported from elsewhere, there can be no doubt that vying card games were in use by 1500. This should not be taken to imply Poker-style vying, however, which may be a very late development. The earliest style of vying may more closely have resembled that traditionally followed in the English game of Brag.

It is possible that vying developed in trick-taking games as an extension of the process of ‘doubling’ now seen in modern Backgammon. In ancient card games such as Put and Truc, two players each received three cards and played them to tricks, but either player at any point could offer to double the stakes before playing a card. The other could then either accept the double and play on, or decline it and concede defeat for the existing (undoubled) amount.

A problem endemic in card-game history is that contemporary descriptions of vying are never unambiguous, partly because they find it easier to give an example of a round of vying without detailing the principles on which it is based, thus giving rise to irresolvable ambiguities, and partly because it never occurred to them that there could be more than one possible way of doing it. Two fundamentally different types of vying may be categorized as the Equalization method (Poker style) and the Matching method (English Brag style).

Equalization method. A player wishing to stay in the pot must increase his stake by the amount necessary to match the total so far staked by the last raiser, and may also raise it further. If unwilling to do either, he must fold. In the following example, column 3 shows the total staked so far by each player, and column 4 the total in the pot.

A and D have now equalized, thus calling for a showdown. Whichever of them wins it gains a pot of 16 less his total stake of 5, making 11 profit.

Matching method. In this case a player wishing to stay in the pot must match the stake just made by the preceding active player, instead of merely making up the difference between his total stake and that of the last raiser. As before, he may then also raise it further, or, if unwilling to do either, must fold.

In this case the winner gains a pot of 29 less the amount of his own stake, which in A’s case is 29 - 9 = 20 and in D’s is 29 - 12 = 17.

Further variations may be encountered, especially in Brag. For example, under what might be called a 'flat rate' system, each in turn must either add a fixed, invariable unit to his stake or else fold, and play continues until only two remain in the pot, when one of them can call by betting double. American Brag, as played according to an 1830 American Hoyle, used the equalization method, but an edition of 1868 points out that the game is played in various ways and describes a different vying procedure. In this, a player who brags when holding a pair (but not otherwise) may demand a private showdown with the next active player in rotation. They then examine each other's hands without showing them to the others, and the lower of the two must be folded. Play continues until only two remain and one of them either folds or 'calls for a sight [showdown]' upon equalizing. This procedure has the peculiar consequence that you can be forced into a showdown without having had a chance to raise. In Bouillotte there are circumstances in which equalizing does not necessarily force a showdown but entitles the next active player in rotation to instigate another round of raising. It is also possible for a player who cannot meet the last raise to call a sight for the amount he has left and stay in the pot (without further betting) until a showdown, when, of course, he cannot win more than the amount he has staked even if he proves to have the best hand.

Relatives and ancestors

Articles on Poker history mention a wide variety of earlier vying games, not all of them entirely relevant. For the sake of clarity, they may be grouped according to the number of cards dealt and listed as follows.

Three-card games include Belle, Flux & Trente-un (French, 17th - 18th centuries, known as Dreisatz in Germany), Post & Pair (English and American, 17th - 18th centuries) and its derivative Brag (18th century to present), Brelan (French, 17th - 18th centuries) and its derivative Bouillotte (late 18th - 19th centuries, French and American). Of these, Bouillotte and Brag are most relevant to the genesis of Poker.

Four-card games include Primiera (Italian, 16th century - present) and its English equivalent Primero (16th - 17th centuries), Gilet (under various spellings, French, 16th - 18th centuries), Mus (Spanish, specifically Basque, current, of unknown age), Ambigu (French, 18th century). None of these have much bearing, if any, on Poker.

Five-card games include the German Pochen or Pochspiel, which may be equated with a 15th-century game recorded as Bocken, and was played in France first under the name Glic and subsequently as Poque. Of all early European gambling games this one is most obviously germane to the genesis of Poker to the extent of having ultimately furnished its name. Pochen is a verb meaning to primarily to hit, strike, or knock on the table, and secondarily ‘(I) play’ or ‘bet’ or ‘raise’. Thus Pochspiel is the game (Spiel) of poching, i.e. knocking or betting. In its earliest form it appears as boeckels, bocken, bogel, bockspiel and suchlike.

Pochen has a long history in the German repertoire and is not entirely extinct today. It requires a staking board of special design and consists of three phases: payment for being dealt the best card, vying as to who holds the best combination, and playing cards out as in a ‘stops’ game such as Newmarket or Michigan. A similar tripartite structure applied also to Belle, Flux & Trente-un, in whose second part the players vied as to who held the best flush, and to Post & Pair, in whose second part they vied as to who held the best pair or three of a kind. An early form of Brag was also played as a three-stake game, and a similar pattern underlies Mus - where, however, the first part has been split into two, thus turning it into a four-part game.

We may surmise that dedicated gamblers found the central section of these games - the vying - more interesting than either the first, where a stake was won for being dealt the best upcard (‘belle’), or the third, where it was won for drawing cards totalling nearest to 31 (or, in some games, for playing a variety of Stops). If so, Brelan may be characterized as an extract of B-F-&-31, Brag as an extract of Post & Pair, and Poker as an extract of Poque.

Given that Poker originated in culturally French territory, its likeliest immediate ancestor is Poque, the French version of Pochen. Poque first appears under this name in the late 16th century, but was previously played in France under the name Glic. It remained current until well into the 19th century, undergoing a brief mid-century revival under the spelling ‘Bog’. The French equivalent of ‘Ich poche eins’ is ‘Je poque d’un jeton’ (‘I bet one unit’), and poque itself denotes one of the six staking containers. The final ‘e’ is briefly pronounced as a neutral vowel, which may explain why non-Francophone Americans perceived and perpetuated the word as ‘poker’ rather than ‘poke’. Louis Coffin writes "The French name was poque, pronounced poke, and Southerners corrupted the pronunciation to two syllable to pokuh or Poker". This sounds more plausible than a fancied derivation from ‘poke’ as related to ‘pocket’.

Poque, however, was a tripartite game played by up to six players with a 32-card pack, whereas the earliest form of Poker was a one-part game played with a 20-card pack equally divided among four. If Poker was based primarily on Poque, we must assume that it developed naturally within a community that was already acquainted with a 20-card vying game and decided to use the same stripped pack for a new version of Poque based only on the vying section. A possible candidate for this influence could be its contemporary and equally French game of Bouillotte, itself played by four with a 20-card pack, albeit with only three cards dealt to each and the top card of stock turned up to enable four of a kind. This, however, would have left a five-card vying game in which the only effective combinations were four or three of a kind. To account for the introduction of one and two pairs and the full house we must either assume that they were obvious additions that may already have been drafted into Poque itself, or else look for another game from which they could have been borrowed. Which brings us to ...

The problem of As-nas

Contentious calls have been made on the possible contribution to Poker of a Persian five-card vying game called As-nas through the medium of ‘Persian sailors, or Frenchmen who had been in the French service in Persia’ - whatever that may mean. The problem with this theory is that it is based on no more than a strong resemblance and suffers from a total lack of contemporary evidence, since the earliest descriptions of As-nas do not occur until the 1890s. The first, very brief, is by ‘Aquarius’ in 1890; the second occurs in Stewart Culin’s 1895 catalogue for an exhibition of ‘games and implements for divination’ under the short title Chess and Playing Cards. Culin, in connection with several incomplete sets of Persian playing cards generally referred to as ganjifeh, consulted a certain General A. Houtum Schindler of Tehran and received a reply describing As-nas in terms remarkably similar to that of Poker.

The following table shows how the earliest form of Poker compares with Schindler’s game and the two most relevant contemporaneous French vying games:

The resemblance between As-nas and 20-card Poker is very close (though Schindler does not mention four of a kind - probably by oversight. Original descriptions of 20-card Poker unfortunately do not specify how combinations rank). Schindler’s description also leaves open the possibility that raising could continue after equalization: it all depends on the precise meaning of ‘when the stakes of all players are equal and no one raises any more’. (Does ‘and’ specify a second requirement for a showdown, or does it merely amplify the first?)

The question naturally arises as to which way round any borrowing may have taken place. Favouring the priority of As-nas is the fact that As-nas cards, a subset of the Persian ganjifeh pack, are attested as early as 1700 in Persia, though without any account of the game played with them. Against it are the absence of any description of the game earlier than 1890;

the fact that As is not a Persian word and obviously derives from the French for Ace; and (hence) the probability that As-nas derives from a European vying game rather than the other way around.

The role of Brag

Research by Jeffrey Burton has thrown new light on the significance of Brag to the development of Poker. Brag is the English national vying game and remains popular in Britain today, though it has undergone considerable evolutionary development in the past 100 years and is restricted to a social stratum having no significant overlap with that of Poker. First described by Lucas in 1721, Brag is basically from the central section of the tripartite game of Post and Pair, or Belle Flux et Trente-un. For much of the 18th century it was popular with the same sort of society that played Whist, especially with its distaff side, which accounts for the fact that Hoyle himself went so far as to write a Treatise on it published in 1751. Brag - which means ‘vie’ or ‘bluff’ according to context - is a three-card vying game. The version described by Lucas, which has formed the basis of most printed descriptions until the last quarter of the 20th century, is actually of a three-stake model, but it had shed its two outer portions by the time of Hoyle’s effusion. The latter describes a game played by five with a short pack of 22 cards, or by six with one of 26, four of which - the black Jacks and the red Nines - were known as ‘braggers’ and could represent anything, including themselves. The first round of betting was followed by a ‘draw’ to give each player a chance to improve a pair to a pair-royal or a lone card to a pair or pair-royal by discarding and ‘taking in’ fresh replacements from stock. However, given that the peculiar length of pack, leaving only seven or eight cards to draw from (implying a maximum of one each), is unique to this notoriously unreliable and muddled source, we may assume that Brag was mostly played with all 52 cards, and that Hoyle’s reflected some local or temporary aberration.

Burton surmises that Brag reached America in the late colonial period at the hands of English emigrants, British colonial officials, and perhaps Americans returning from transatlantic visits. At first played mainly in the plantation colonies of the South - Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas - by about 1800 it had caught on in New England, as well as in the southern states of the young republic. Its first description, in The New Pocket Hoyle (Philadelphia, 1805), continued to be faithfully reproduced in a succession of American Hoyles for much of the 19th century, though the game itself was well on the way out by 1850, having been replaced by - or, rather, merged into - the form of Poker to which it contributed the draw. Until that time, however, as Burton says, a multitude of contemporary memorabilia testifies that the rules and procedures were more or less the same in the California goldfields at the end of the 1840s as they had been in the gaming salons of Mobile or New Orleans in the 1820s and in the taverns of Washington or New York twenty years before that.

Brag, he continues, "disappeared during a period of no more than five or six years between, roughly, 1848 and 1853. What had happened is that the ‘taking in’ or draw feature of Brag was merged into the new game of full-deck Poker. The five-card Poker hand yielded a far greater range of distinctive combinations than the Brag hand, in which the pair-royal (three of a kind) and pair were still the only ones recognized by American players. Hence, when the draw was transplanted from Brag to Poker, the three-card game lost its following in next to no time. The result of the amalgamation could have been called Five-card Brag; instead, it became known as Draw Poker."

Conclusion

Nobody ever knows how a classic card game really originates because at the time it does so its originators do not know that it is going to become a classic and so keep no record. In any case the process of origination rarely takes place at a single table but mostly among a group of players within a given locality, so gaming ideas and variations pass around without anyone being sure who thought of them first. By the time a game description appears in a book it has by definition settled down into some sort of fixity, and may be more than a generation old - especially in the case of games played by a community that circulates its cultural artefacts orally rather than in writing. The following summary of the genesis of Poker is therefore no more than a surmise, albeit at least consistent with the evidence outlined above.

Original Poker, a game in which four players received five cards each from a 20-card pack and vied as to who held the best hand, evidently originated in the New Orleans some time between 1810 and 1825. Its gaming milieu was that of French-speaking maritime gambling saloons, especially those of the Mississippi steamers. Its name suggests that its first players felt they were continuing the tradition of playing a game called Poque in which one said Je poque to open the betting. At this time and place, and before it underwent development, Poque probably denoted a five-card vying game consisting of the central section of a formerly tripartite game of the same name. Its ultimate ancestor must have been the substantially similar German game of Poch (Pochen, Pochspiel), which can be traced back to the 15th century.

Poque itself was played with 32 or 36 cards by up to six players. Its transition to one played with 20 cards by four players may have been influenced by the known contemporary French vying game of Bouillotte, or by the speculated Persian game of As-nas, or both. As-nas would be an ideal candidate were it not for the fact that there is no evidence for any knowledge of it at that time or place.

In the 1830s, having spread northwards along the Mississippi and westwards with the expanding frontier, Poker had adopted its anglicized name and become increasingly played with 52 cards to accommodate a greater number of players, thus also giving rise to the flush as an additionally recognized combination. Under the influence of Brag, its three-card British equivalent, it adopted the draw. This led to its further and more rapid expansion of popularity, as Poker-players preferred the additional round of betting after the possibility of improving a promising hand, while Brag-players preferred the wider range of combinations offered by a five-card hand. Draw Poker, first recorded about 1850, marks the coming of age of what Allen Dowling rightly calls ‘The great American pastime’ - a game which, as Burton observes, could equally well have been dubbed ‘five-card Brag’.

The spread of playing cards throughout the world brought the first decks into the United States around the time the country was formed.

After the introduction of the playing cards in the late 1700's, it didn't take long for the American's to begin adapting the cards. Around 1800, the first American-designed and manufactured decks began appearing.

Non-standard decks were the first development, some with political undertones, and some with purely commercial designs.  Practical additions to the playing cards soon followed.

In America, court cards become double headed to end the bother of turning the cards to an upright position.  Varnished surfaces were invented to allow for faster and easier shuffling, along with the durability of the cards.

The next American development was designing identifying marks in the playing cards' corners, called indexes.  Rounded corners were implemented to help durability and avoid the damage that occurs to square corners when they are played.

These changes were made on the French designed cards that came to America, by way of England.  The French decks that made their way to America also traveled across the globe in all directions.

The Joker: The Wild Card and the Jester

The original decks in America were the French designed packs that traveled across the world in all directions.  They made their way to America from France via England and then to the colonies.

The American innovations were created from these original 52-card French playing card decks.  In France, playing cards first received the spade, club, diamond, and heart suits.

The biggest American addition to the playing cards was the Joker.  The Joker card was first invented during the 1860's to be the highest card in the game of Euchre.

In the beginning the Joker was referred to as the 'best bower' card. The game of Euchre, sometimes called Juker, is considered the reason that the card came to be called the Joker.  The 'best bower' was probably called the Juker card so many times that the name finally stuck.

During the 1880's the Joker was being illustrated as a jester, clown, and different types of imps.  This card became another type of social satire in the political and advertising playing card world.

Many politicians were drawn as Joker playing cards.  American playing cards, like many across the world, were a huge political and advertising medium.  The backs of cards contained American events, famous landmarks, historical figures, and even ideas, products and fads.

Despite rumors, the Joker had nothing to do with the Fool Tarot card. It was created solely for the game of Euchre.

Even today, the Anglo-American playing card decks have 52 cards with the four French suits.  They also have reversible court cards, two Joker cards, indexes, varnished surfaces, and rounded corners.

Playing cards have been known since at least the early 1300’s, and it is a safe wager that almost since that time there have been people who were fascinated enough by the card images, artistry and folklore surrounding the cards to collect them. Certainly by the 17^th century there were collections housed in museums and we can speculate that individual collections abounded as well. It is noteworthy that there now seem to be more collectors of old and unusual playing cards than ever before.

Collectors, whether casual or serious, fall into several categories. Firstly, there are those who collect complete decks of cards and those whose primary interest rests in collecting single examples of playing cards, whether for a court card, Joker or back interest. Then there are those who collect playing cards related to another main interest, for example Coca Cola whose advertising decks are highly desired by Coke collectors, or gambling paraphernalia where American collectors like to add Faro or Steamboat decks to their displays. There certainly seem to be more and more collectors and many of them are specializing, some by inclination and some by the need to focus their limited resources.

Collecting playing cards can be a very rewarding hobby. There is the excitement of the hunt for new decks, whether through collectors' meetings, internet auctions or at shows and flea markets where every new table may unfold the unexpected treasure. Even better, there is the enjoyment of fellow collectors, some of the most interesting people in the world. 

There are a number of clubs supporting the playing card collecting hobby. Two of these are essentially American clubs, albeit with many overseas members; 52+Joker, a club for deck collectors with an emphasis on American cards and The Chicago Playing Card Collectors’ Club which caters to both deck and single card collectors. In Europe there are a number of clubs and England is the home of the International Playing Card Society, a group with members from around the world, whose main emphasis is on education and research into the history and use of playing cards. 

CONDITION

Like any collectible, condition plays an important role in desirability and thus in value. We would all like our decks to be sparkling mint and still in their original wrappers and/or boxes. Unfortunately, most decks that collectors find have seen at least moderate use and have probably lost some element of their desirability.

While terminology relative to assessing the condition of playing cards has not been standardized, most collectors would agree that “as issued” means the deck was found in about the same condition as when it left the factory. Perhaps it had been opened but never really taken from its packaging, and certainly never played with. If even the slightest element, e.g. a cellophane wrapper, is missing from an otherwise pristine deck, it could not be classified as ‘as issued’ – rather it would be ‘mint’. If the missing element was of more consequence it would likely be further downgraded.

A system we use to describe decks of playing cards is as follows:

·   As issued – a complete deck, in mint condition, with all cards, jokers and extra cards contained in the original packaging when first distributed for sale. It might be unopened or carefully opened for examination, but not played with. If applicable, the tax stamp, not necessarily unbroken, would be attached.

·   Mint – a complete deck showing no signs of use. Normally all cards would be present as would the original box in mint or near mint condition. The inside wrapper would not need to be there.

·   Excellent – a complete deck that has been occasionally used, but still in first class condition. Gold edges would still be intact and you would be proud to use this deck in your game.

·   Good – A complete deck showing signs of repeated use, but still useable. There would be no serious creases or bent/broken corners. The deck would not be swollen or misshapen and would fit comfortably into the original box.

·   Poor – A deck not good enough to fit into one of the above categories. It likely would have at least one of these serious faults - bent or broken corners, bad creases, heavy soiling, etc.

·   With Faults – A deck in one of the good to as issued categories, but with a serious fault like a missing or damaged card or a damaged, incomplete or missing box.

These descriptions have stood the test of time. Many collectors have introduced variations into their cataloguing, e.g. ‘mint plus’, ‘mint’ and ‘mint minus’. In addition, it has become popular to describe the condition of a deck’s box as OB1 (basically mint), OB2 (some damage but complete) or OB3 (quite heavily damaged and/or some portion missing). Nonetheless, use of the above descriptions and a careful notation of anything that is missing will provide an appropriate listing for cataloguing or selling purposes.

In all attempts to grade a deck, it is important to describe everything that is there and anything that is missing. For example, a brief description of an early advertising deck might read as follows:

“Advertising deck from 1910 for Dawson ’s Old Time Ale. Mint condition, in original box (slight damage to flap) with dated 2¢ U.S. revenue stamp. 53 cards with advertising Ace of Spades and special advertising Joker. The extra advertising card is missing and the Club Jack has a small smudge”.

A note on missing cards. The extra cards over and above the regular 52 and Joker(s) are clearly of less importance and a deck lacking one is hardly devalued, although the extra cards in wide advertising decks (which usually depict a factory, a separate ad, a price list, etc.) are more important. Again the pips in an important deck, especially one with unusual or non-standard courts, are of lesser importance than the courts. The Ace of Spades or Joker, if missing, creates the most serious deficiency.  

Despite most people’s desire to collect only as issued, or perhaps mint, decks, collectors will still rejoice at finding a deck in only, say, good condition if it is high on their want list or quite scarce. Often it will be purchased with the expectation that the same deck in better condition will one day replace it.

DATING PLAYING CARDS

The following material, designed to assist collectors in dating their U.S. decks, is produced here courtesy of 52+Joker. It appeared originally in an article by Margery Griffith, then Curator of the United States Playing Card Co. Museum in Cincinnati, in their quarterly bulletin “Clear The Decks” in April 1991.

"At first tax stamps on cards would seem an ideal way of pinpointing the date of manufacture of cards. This feature, however, has an area of inaccuracy ranging from zero up to 50 years or more, bearing in mind that old stocks of cards may not be released for many years; the blocks may be reused time and again, or even sold, the purchaser then making further packs."

Sylvia Mann made this statement in her book, All Cards on the Table: Standard Playing Cards of the World and their History. Ms. Mann spoke primarily about European cards, however the same holds true of their American descendants. For example, while re-examining our American cards in the process of cataloguing the USPC collection, a Samuel Hart deck was discovered dated 1868. It bore a 5 cent tax stamp (1872-83) covered over by a smaller 2 cent stamp (1894-1917). The cancellation overprint was "AD 1910" indicating that the deck was sold by Dougherty (not NYCC!) in 1910, showing a possible 40 year lapse between its manufacture and its distribution!

While the dates given in the tax chart appearing below are generally accurate, additional information is necessary to use the chart effectively. In addition the cancellations on decks can help pinpoint the date of sale.  

The tax rates, per deck, were as follows:

1862 to 1864               2 cents

1872 to 1883               5 cents

1883 to 1894               nil

1894 to 1917               2 cents

1917 to 1919               7 cents

1919 to 1924               8 cents

1924 to 1940               10 cents

1940 to 1941               11 cents

1941 to 1965               13 cents

In addition to the standard revenue stamps issued by the U. S. Government, there was another grouping of playing card revenue stamps that one rarely sees on a deck. These are the Private Die Playing Card Stamps issued from 1864 until 1883 when the revenue tax on playing cards was repealed.  Under the Revenue Act of 1862, manufacturers were permitted, at their expense, to have dies engraved and plates made for their exclusive use. This method gave the manufacturers a slightly lower cost and the advertising value of the proprietary stamps could not be overlooked.

There are 16 different stamps in the Scott catalogue, numbers RU1 - RU16. They are listed below, along with their issue dates and total production, which indicates the size of the companies and number of decks made in that period:

RU1 - Caterson Brotz & Co. - 5 cents brown - first produced in 1882 but never issued - only 3 known

RU2 - A. Dougherty - 2 cents orange - May 1865 to July 1866 - 800,500 issued

RU3 - A. Dougherty - 4 cents black - December 1864 to September 1866 - 515,250 issued

RU4 - A. Dougherty - 5 cents blue (20x26mm) - August 1866 to 1877 - 12,450,428 issued

RU5 - A. Dougherty - 5 cents blue (18x23mm) - 1878 to 1883 - 7,980,983 issued

RU6 - A. Dougherty - 10 cents blue - December 1864 to May 1866 - 442,700 issued

RU7 - Eagle Card Co. - 5 cents black - 1880 to February 1883 - 1,800,900 issued

RU8 - Chas. Goodall - 5 cents black - November 1870 to August 1875 - 1,155,200 issued

RU9 - Samuel Hart & Co. - 5 cents black - Sep­tember 1866 to 1877 - 8,129,053 issued

RU10 - Lawrence & Cohen - 2 cents blue - July 1865 to July 1866 - 1,149,750 issued

RU11 - Lawrence & Cohen - 5 cents green - July 1865 to March 1874 - 8,116,600 issued

RU12 - John J. Levy - 5 cents black - March 1867 to January 1873 - 3,124,840 issued

RU13 - Victor E. Mauger & Petrie - 5 cents blue -1877 to October 1880 - 1,021,020 issued

RU14 - New York Consolidated - 5 cents black - 1876 to March 1883 - 10,063,000 issued

RU15 - Paper Fabrique Co. - 5 cents black - June 1873 to October 1880 - 3,986,710 issued

RU16 - Russell, Morgan & Co. - 5 cents black - May 26, 1881 to March 22, 1883 - 1,304,100 issued

The different denominations result from the rates of tax during the period. While the tax was normally 2 cents to 1872, and 5 cents from 1872 to 1883, it is in reality more complicated than that. According to a series of articles written on these revenue stamps in 1931-32, the tax rates varied with the retail price of the playing cards from 1862 to 1866. The precise rates were as follows:

1862 to 1864

packs @ 18 cents or less - 1 cent

packs @ 19 to 25 cents - 2 cents

packs @ 26 to 36 cents - 3 cents

packs @ 36 cents or more - 5 cents

1864 to 1866

packs @ 18 cents or less - 2 cents

packs @ 19 to 25 cents - 4 cents

packs @ 26 to 50 cents - 10 cents

packs @ 50 cents to $1 - 15 cents

From 1866 to 1883 the rate was 5 cents a pack.

Keen readers will have noted that only Dougherty had a 10 cent stamp in the period 1864-66. The only other manufacturer with a private die stamp at that time was Lawrence & Cohen who would use two (or more) 5 cent stamps. In fact they had a 5 cent stamp when there was no 5 cent tax rate exigible! The other 5 cent stamps were all printed after the 5 cent rate came into existence in 1866.

Another dating aid, very useful for decks manufactured by United States Playing Card Co., was a dating code placed on the Ace of Spades at time of manufacture. This code was first published in Part V of Hochman. The code first came into use in 1904 and it applies only to Aces of Spades that bear a letter plus a four-digit number. Combinations with fewer numbers have no meaning for collectors.

The letter code is as follows (updated from the original article):    

Right from the beginning in 1904, the same codes were used by National Playing Card Co. and New York Consolidated Card Co., subsidiaries, by then, of USPC.  Andrew Dougherty and Russell Playing Card Co. also used these codes, as they became part of USPC in 1907 and 1929 respectively.

Around 1965, USPC began the practice of "pre-facing" some decks, especially Congress decks. A supply of faces could be printed and stored and the backs could be added as needed. Therefore, Congress cards and any other pre-faced brands stopped using the codes altogether.

Decks were taxed based upon the number of cards per deck, jokers and advertising cards being exempt. One stamp was required for a deck of 52 or less cards; two stamps for decks from 53 to 104 cards (e.g. 64 card pinochle decks; double bridge sets required each deck to be wrapped and sealed with a stamp.

The cancellations on these stamps can be very useful to the collector, if not in determining the date, at least in identifying the maker. This is especially important for advertising or souvenir decks, or any deck which does not bear the maker's name but that of a publisher.

From 1940 to 1941 the tax rate was raised twice, from 10 to 13 cents. In order to disguise this increase, the government issued stamps saying "1 pack". Decks with the "1 pack" stamp can date anywhere from 1940 to 1965.  Finally on June 22, 1965, the tax on playing cards was revoked”.

The use of tax stamps can be a very useful tool in dating a deck. Unfortunately, the collector often finds a deck where the tax stamp is missing or so defaced that it is illegible. In these cases the codes used by the USPC family of companies are helpful for decks produced between 1904 and 1965. Other sources of information include books, manufacturers and playing card collector club publications.

STORING AND DISPLAYING

It is important to take good care of your collection and handling and storage of your cards are key elements of proper care. When showing or looking at your decks be careful as you handle them, especially as you remove or replace them in their boxes and wrappers. In fact, many collectors store old wrappers in albums rather than risk damaging them as they look at their decks.

There are a number of stationery and archival stores where the packaging you need can be obtained. We can’t emphasize too much the importance of using good archival materials (albums, wrappers, boxes, etc.) in storing your decks, especially your old and rare ones. After all, playing cards and their packaging are paper products and paper deteriorates with age. We owe it to ourselves, and those coming behind us, to do our absolute best to make sure our decks stay in the condition that we found them in for as long as possible.

There are a number of ways to store decks, including archival boxes, cases and spool cabinets or other chests with flat drawers. Decks that have no boxes should be packaged in some kind of protective cover, whether a plastic box, a paper wrapper, homemade box, etc. Elastics, unless of the new archival type, should never be used on a deck as they deteriorate with time and can cause considerable damage. Again, proper storage helps decks stay in their present condition longer and helps preserve them for the enjoyment of future collectors.

CATALOGUING

Most collectors like to know what they have in their collections, so they record references to entries in playing cards books and keep track of values and other pertinent information about their cards. With the advent of the personal computer this has become a relatively easy task and most serious collectors now use some kind of computerized cataloguing system. Others use home developed cataloguing systems based on recipe cards, notebooks, etc.

It is normal to have at least the following information about your collection available for each deck:

·        Manufacturer

·        Brand name, including brand number, and the name of the deck, if  

          applicable (e.g. Congress #606 - Moonfairy)

·        Date of issue

·        Box, wrapper, etc., whether or not there

·        Number of cards and missing cards, if any

·        Condition

·        Type of deck (e.g. standard, advertising, souvenir, etc.)

·        Cost and/or value

·        Hochman or other reference

·        Other pertinent data (e.g. gold edges, damaged cards, etc.)

·        Catalogue reference number

VALUING OLD PLAYING CARDS

Gene Hochman, in Volume I of his Encyclopedia in 1976, included a price guide for all the decks listed. Oh, that we could purchase these for the prices he quoted at the time!  For the 21st Century, a separately bound price guide is available as an accompaniment to the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards in which we use three of the categories discussed earlier to describe the listed decks. These are:

·   Mint – a complete deck showing no signs of use. Normally all cards would be present as would the original box in mint or near mint condition. The inside wrapper would not need to be there.

·   Excellent – a complete deck that has been occasionally used, but still in first class condition. Gold edges would still be intact and you would be proud to use this deck in your game.

·   Very Good – A complete deck showing signs of repeated use, but still useable. There would be no serious creases or bent/broken corners. The deck would not be swollen or misshapen and would fit comfortably into the original box.

Prices for decks in the other categories can be interpolated from those shown. For example, a deck that is ‘as issued’ would command a premium over the mint price. Conversely a deck that is poor would be worth less than a ‘very good’ one, and one with faults would likely be subject to a significant discount.

There are still quite a number of decks where the number of known copies can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many of these are in museum collections and many of the very early decks, listed ‘mint’ may not even exist in that condition, but the category is priced on the basis that one or more may become available in the future.

When using the Price Guide in determining the value of any deck of cards, keep in mind that, while it has been compiled from auction lists and decks offered for sale by antique dealers, internet and other auctions, rare book shops and private collectors, prices are nonetheless somewhat subjective. As sales of rarer decks are few and far between, a particular collector’s desire for a certain deck can often result in an unrealistic price. Or, the sudden entry on the market of a few copies of a scarce deck can result in sales at prices substantially less than previously obtained.

The Price Guide attempts to take note of decks that appear to be present in most collections and those that are scarce and wanted by many different collectors. Prices must also be based on the number of collecting fields an individual deck might encompass. For example, a baseball deck would appeal to baseball nostalgia collectors as well as playing card collectors. An advertising deck from the Columbia Exposition might be sought by World's Fair and advertising collectors as well as those in our field. In the final analysis, scarcity of the item, the law of supply and demand and condition will determine the price.  

Some advice for both buyers and sellers. “advice to buyers .... if you see a deck that you really want for your collection and you have an opportunity to buy it, and the price seems higher than the listed value, remember you may never find another .... and if you do, it will probably be for more. Even if you overpay slightly, it will not be long before the value will surpass the purchase price. Advice to sellers .... using a Price Guide as ‘the price’ you must get, will result in many lost sales. You must find a collector looking for a particular deck and willing to pay your price. It may pay to wait, but if you must sell quickly, be prepared to take less.”

The demand for old and rare playing cards far exceeds the supply, and we have all experienced regret, on occasion, for not paying the additional dollars necessary to purchase a scarce deck that we have not had another chance to buy.

The prices of standard decks are more difficult to estimate than those established for popular categories such as transformation and insert cards, souvenir and railway cards and advertising decks. Non-standard decks usually have beautiful and/or interesting courts, can be of historical significance and often appeal to more than one group of collectors.  

A final point. We believe that values for good decks will only rise. Scarce items only become scarcer, and as more people realize the joy of collecting playing cards and become serious collectors, the demand for old and scarce decks, especially ones in excellent or better condition, will continue to grow and drive prices upward.

From the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards