Although poker today is a round-the-world pastime, it's really an American card game, the great American game, in fact, ranked several notches higher in popularity than its only competitor, contract bridge. Though its origins are obscure, chances are it was devised somewhere in the eastern desert kingdoms, probably in Persia, for a Persian game called an-nas bears the modern game more than a coincidental resemblance. It came to Europe, historians believe, with returning crusaders and by 1700 it was a common round in every tavern and alehouse. One version of this oriental diversion was the game of pochen in Germany. Another was the still-played English brag. In France card players anted-up in a contest called poque. This last version, the French version, was the one that would capture the fancy of Americans. Poque migrated to the States with French settlers. In 1803, after the Louisiana Purchase, English-speaking gamesters quickly picked it up. They modified it, Americanized it, claimed it for their own.

The origin of the name "poker" is peculiarly American. Almost as soon as poque arrived in the United States it became part of every Mississippi gambler's repertoire. Now most river-going gentlemen, we know, were Southerners born and raised, with accents as thick as jam on bread. Not able to parler francais, these high-class hustlers nonetheless had to somehow pronounce the name of the new-fangled foreigner's game, and they did so with incomparable fractured French. Poque quickly became poo-kah. For ever a generation this was the accepted pronunciation. But the metamorphosis was not over. During the early years of the Civil War, Yankees and Rebels occasionally fraternized during a lull in the battle. Their favorite pastime was cards, and during these sessions poker began its first infiltration of the North. The card-rattling Yankees with their short-clipped, nasal accents then proceeded to reduce rather than drawl out the vowels, changing the ah to er and poo back to po. In the end the game as no longer poo-kah but poker.