Bluff: A Brief History of Poker

[@liberalsockpuppet4772]

History of poker? I'm all in.

[@skyden24195]

🤠 I call.

[@christopherdeguilio6375]

Buh-dum, tsss...

[@carywest9256]

Bet a hunnerd!

[@ghowell13]

🏆 for the Underrated Comment.

[@massmedia2008]

I'll call and raise, "a chip and a chair"

[@mathewfullerton8577]

The black and white photograph shown, starting around 8:55 or so, is a photo featuring "Poker Alice", Alice Ivers Tubbs. She was a well-known player mainly playing in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, including Deadwood around the beginning of the 1900's. She ended up owning a gambling house and brothel near Sturgis, SD and was also a bootlegger before she died in 1930.

[@skyden24195]

Cool bit of extra "History that deserves to be remembered." 😉

[@filmtajm35]

In other words:
A very tough chick indeed.

[@libbylee9722]

Thank you! I am buying the book on her.

[@robertlear2712]

My dad owned a restaurant in central Missouri during Prohibition he ran an illegal poker game in back. He also brewed beer. When I was about 10 years, around 1958, he gathered up me and my older sister to the kitchen table to learn the rudiments of poker. He taught us 5 card draw and 7 card stud poker. He considered it a valuable and necessary social skill to be able to play poker.

[@jfu5222]

I have the Cassius Coolidge tapestry of dogs playing poker in my library. When my daughter was young she said " those dogs are playing the matching game". Super cute, but tangential. Thanks for using the greatest American artist in your thumbnail photo.

[@jfu5222]

Cassius Coolidge deserves to be remembered, he's responsible for millions of photos taken of children putting their heads in amusing cut-outs. It started with the strong man and fat lady on Coney Island, and went on to roadside attractions and fairs across the globe.

[@skyden24195]

My dad had that tapestry as well. I grew up always seeing it hanging somewhere in whichever house we were living in at the time. (My dad was USAF, so we had to move a few times.) As a kid, I was always drawn to the dog that was cheating. lol

[@jfu5222]

@@skyden24195 It sent me down a path almost as wicked as gambling, I collect dog tapestries, I've got the dogs playing pool, dogs in a circus as well as dogs acting as they are intended! I'm not sure how many I have, more than the wall space they require!

[@rockymountainlifeprospecti4423]

Wonderful Lance! My grandfather used to have a game night places all over to play poker. I remember my mom being the respected hostesses, me and my brother would get any leftover candy/peanuts the next day, and if lucky a quarter from one of the players as they arrived we were allowed to still hang out. Thanks for the trip down memory lane and a lesson on a game I love and a part of me like it is to so many others, this really made my morning! All the best THG and fellow history buffs♠️♦️♣️♥️

[@Squirrelmind66]

I love the technique I see in a lot of your videos where you start with what is commonly known, then gradually move back in time to show the origins.

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

You can see Brag being played in the film “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. There’s both a 3- and 9- card version.

[@Heike--]

Always wondered what that weird game was. Pity they assumed the audience would know already - clearly not the case.

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

@@Heike-- they tried to be inclusive. There’s subtitles for the most extreme Cockney rhyming slang for those of you unfortunate enough not to be born within the sound of Bow Bells!

[@willthethrillguitar4826]

Incredible video!! Nearly perfect one thing i would say is drop the outro music by about 5 db and its perfect

[@t0ddbr0wn731]

I love the effort and the way The History Guy drafts his videos. Such as how he explained the 20 card deck and in which it was played. I’m in a VA rehabilitation program currently and I’m gonna start a “Classic” Poker night and follow the methods and rules as Lance basically taught us in mere sentences. Great Channel!

[@CowSaysMooMoo]

Boredom with 20 card no-draw poker will QUICKLY ensue

[@rebeccapaul418]

I really want to try it too. That and brag. Maybe I can get some friends together to try it out.

[@t0ddbr0wn731]

@@CowSaysMooMoo that is an opinion.

[@CowSaysMooMoo]

@@t0ddbr0wn731 Correct!! Please report back after it happens and tell us the FACTS!

[@JFJD]

Thank you for your…shuffle.

[@guillermodiego819]

Noticed the two Enterprises (the Constitution and the Galaxy) behind you in the last videos I watched. Loved them both!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

The Enterprise D model was somewhat of an homage to the episode Cause and Effect, suggesting that poker was still going strong in the 24th century.

[@shawnr771]

​@@TheHistoryGuyChannelExcellent episode.

[@AaronOfMpls]

​@@TheHistoryGuyChannel ​Yah, as I recall, they usually played either 5- or 7-card stud. (I'd have to look through some episodes to check which.) There was also the episode "Lower Decks", where we saw some of the junior officers playing too.
Meanwhile, my own poker playing has generally been friendly in-person games of 5-card draw (or double-draw), or friendly online games (not real money) of 5-card draw or Texas Hold 'Em. Though it's been years since I've last played.
An enjoyable video as ever! ❤

[@-jeff-]

Thanks THG for putting your cards on the table for us.

[@Ivehadenuff]

This was a nice treat to see this morning.

[@RetiredSailor60]

Good Wednesday morning History Guy and everyone watching. The holiday season is beginning.

[@goodun2974]

No it isn't; the "holiday season" traditionally used to begin on, or the day after, Thanksgiving. Capitalism, however, in its endless drive for ever-more profit, starts stocking stores with Halloween Candy a month before Halloween, and stocking the stores for Thanksgiving and Christmas no later than November 1st. Commercialism sucks. I can't wait for Jan 2nd when the worst of it will be over.

[@rebeccapaul418]

I learned to count playing poker with my family. My parents used both learning my numbers from the cards and learning to count and add from betting. I don't play anymore but it's a fond memory.

[@shawnr771]

Thank you for the lesson.

[@HM2SGT]

Great thing about this guy; it's always something interesting, and it's something you'd seldom expect. 😃

[@stevenrisso5535]

One of my favorite pastimes! Thanks for the presentation

[@Mabon-sz9nz]

Love this video. I grew up where my relatives used to play poker every weekend, and also especially during the holidays!!!

[@earlewhitcher970]

The twenty card game you describe in the early part of this video sounds very much like the game of Eucre which we would play as a follow up to double deck pienochle. It was fast paced and not as mentally taxing as the former.

[@randyrobertson4686]

I pitted myself to a game once from an acquaintance back in my youth that he had referred to as 52 Pick-Up. I must say I heeded the advice given in the final verse in that classic “hook” , of which song you were referring to in your intro, and that would be…..I knew when to run.
Seriously though, has anyone honestly ever actually picked up the deck of cards after some bozo attempted to humiliate someone in that classic, not so humorous game ?? I surmise that a few gullible souls did…however I am sure with much internal dialogue of curse words to horrible to leave in the comment section. lol….great work though, I love history too and I absolutely love this channel. 👍👍

[@ranchobob48]

LOL ...My favorite piece of art. "Dogs Playing Cards".

[@kraneiathedancingdryad6333]

Nice reference to Kenny Rogers at the beginning.
Because you never count your money when you're sitting at the table, there'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done...

[@NoGamble.NoFuture.]

Pre Black Friday I was able to make a supplemental income on Poker Stars playing $10 sit n go tourneys. I'd play 3-5 tourneys at a time, seemed like easy money back then.

[@kdvinson5638]

Online poker sure was a game changer. There are 'free roll' tournaments with say 1500 players with $1000 chips each which including later 'buy-ins' would have $3 or 4 million chip final tables that could cost you thousands in antes just to throw your cards down and last for 6+ hours. But remember chips are not cash! Talk about too much of a good thing!
Playing face to face with a few friends is very different than online and some are playing multiple games simultaneously. I haven't had time to play in a few years but I think I've still got $50 bucks left on Poker Stars.
Good Luck to Us All
Peace

[@tommypain]

I’m ALL IN with your excellent videos! Can’t wait to learn something from the next one.

[@marcrettew8284]

will we ever get a "history of the history guy" episode? great stuff again!

[@jdk9673]

I want this.

[@tedkocot8987]

I'm not that surprised we don't know the evolution - from my Society for Creative Anachronisms activities I'm familiar with all the earlier games you describe but invariably the rules set you describe and the ones I was taught are close enough that I recognize the game but different enough that we'd have to negotiate the rules if we sat down to play.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

I did SCA in the Outlands until my knees became anachronistic.

[@tedkocot8987]

My right knee has informed me that counted blows is the superior approach to blow acknowledgement. ;)

[@demiseisdue]

Great episode, THG. The topic brings to mind a person who would be a good video subject, "Amarillo Slim." Certainly an American character who deserves to be remembered.

[@pamartin]

Excellent choice of tie and glasses. Yeah, the knuckle roll and hat were good, too. OK, OK, yes, the vest was awesome. 'Nuff said; Deal...

[@mattgeorge90]

Thanks for sharing!

[@BenjySparky]

THG you rock! Love the channel and content. Peace

[@theseeingeye454]

Nice coin walk, Lance. Now do it with a quarter

[@skyden24195]

...Then try a dime. lol

[@flovanhoorn5444]

Nice one, and a idea for a new upload. The history of teletext on tv. Fits right in the weird but interesting video's you make.

[@hughbarton5743]

Great video! ( nice coin work as well.....I would be extremely impressed to learn that you did not require multiple "takes" to nail it). Good fun!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

No, I didn’t need extra takes for the coins. I’ve been doing that a long time.

[@skyden24195]

I was rather impressed with that bit of "handiwork." But honestly, it kept me thinking of Jack Sparrow at the end of the first "Pirates of the Carribean" when it is revealed that he stole a gold coin from the treasure chest. 😄

[@ghowell13]

​@skyden24195 well, like THG always says, "Don't all good stories involve pirates?"

[@skyden24195]

@@ghowell13 good point indeed. 👍

[@brianives4843]

Ambidextrous coin chops....well played

[@VespasianJudea]

Thank you for the insight. I absolutely love Texas Hold Em and this video was awesome. I never thought to even think of the history of the game. Do one for euchre next.

[@ghowell13]

Michigander? Only asking be ause the only people I know, that know that game are from Michigan! (I'm not, they were all transplants to NC) Each tried to teach my wife and I, to varying degrees of success.

[@VespasianJudea]

@@ghowell13
Ohio actually. My step mom’s side of the family and my fathers side all played euchre.

[@SMac-bq8sk]

Lots of Euchre in eastern Iowa too!

[@VespasianJudea]

@@SMac-bq8sk
Good, it’s a great game that shouldn’t be forgotten.

[@kingkull77]

This was something else. Actually very interesting. Good job, really well done.

[@user-py6oc4jo6c]

Well done, that man!!--Bob Bailey in Maine

[@Bayou_Russ]

Ol’ Doc Hostory Guy nonchalantly rolling that sliver dollar the whole episode 🤌🏻💪🏻😁😁

[@BasicDrumming]

I appreciate you and thank you for making content.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

I would love to play a game of Faro!

[@lakrids-pibe]

Baccarat seems very accessible.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

@@lakrids-pibe Yes it was just played at upscale Strip Casinos here in Las Vegas. But any casino with 500 + capacity off of the Strip could have a room for the game.

[@earlewhitcher970]

An absolutely personal opinion: As much as I enjoy playing poker I 100% abhor the overly lauded game of Texas Holdem'. I despise the game and it is specifically forbidden at our regularly scheduled "game nights" - which mostly due to our group's advancing seniority have become "game matinees".

[@rickintexas1584]

I’m surprised that Poker is such a recent invention. I thought it had been around much longer.
I’m a magician and do a lot of card routines. I have some awesome routines based on poker. It is a lot of fun to perform.

[@gailnewcomb8256]

Very interesting! Thanks for the great video! ❤

[@dchevron77]

Very interesting. Appreciate the vid!

[@modelnut617]

Nice ENTERPRISE D on the shelf!

[@dimpledpirate]

Your channel is fun and educational 😊

[@mikiusmann]

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that THG would be a formidable opponent on the felt! Great video as always sir.

[@ventonthorn3455]

Best thumbnail ever.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Hey Playboy,🤓👋 you look awfully dapper. You Bobby Dazzler!

[@MrMadmark9]

nice how you twirl the coin whilst talking about gambling... *wry smile*

[@jeffbangkok]

Good night. Hate it when the time changes and puts the videos past my bedtime. hehe

[@cpnscarlet]

Lance, where did you get that hat??? The vest is pretty sharp too!

[@mercster]

I love Texas Hold'em, thanks, really enjoyed this one!

[@elcastorgrande]

G. M. Fraser described winning at Brag in the British Army in WWII. Apparently the game survived into the 1940s.

[@General_Confusion]

A good old game of Snap is more than complicated enough for me.

[@Rocket_Man232]

"California Split is a 1974 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers and was the first non-Cinerama film to use eight-track stereo sound.
"Plot
"In Los Angeles, a friendship develops between Bill Denny and Charlie Waters over their mutual love of gambling after they are beaten up and robbed by a card player whose money they have won.
"On their way to Reno, Bill and Charlie pool their money to stake Bill in a poker game. (One of the players is former world champion Amarillo Slim, portraying himself.) Bill wins $18,000 and becomes convinced he is on a hot streak."
Wikipedia

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Back in the Saddle Again Naturally

[@flashgordon6670]

Ty Mr Flim Flam man Sir! You the business!

[@terrywestbrook-lienert2296]

I love your outfit for this episode! You look like a high stakes gambler!

[@jliller]

Back in the day, Texas Hold 'Em was a fun game to play casually with friends for minimal stakes, like penny poker.
However, having known a number of avid Hold 'Em players back during the early 2000s boom, I learned enough about the game to be very much turned off from every playing for even modest stakes, much less competitively. Besides the psychology aspect (reading your opponents as to the strength of their hand), it was all about memorizing statistical odds (none of which was better than about 40%, IIRC) for a variety of two-card combinations and often betting heavily on the first two cards before even seeing any of the other three.

[@missing_score]

rounders is a great movie 👍

[@MoodyTheGoose]

I actually learned how to deal poker from Crescent School of bartending and gaming! Small world

[@doriWyo]

Nice costume!

[@laserbeam002]

My family and I along with a few friends used to play a cardgame that i think was a form of poker called "Setback". It has also been called "Pitch". I learned it from my Uncle. He was a pretty good poker player and did win money playing. I'm not sure anyone has ever heard of Setback these days. To play it well you had to think and use strategy.

[@skyylow]

8:35 "A friend in need" Dogs playing poker

[@mollybell5779]

Having played it a lot, I especially love Texas Hold'em. I do much better at tournaments than cash games.
Thanks THG for this history lesson. Now to go look up 3 card Monty. 😁

[@johngregg5735]

The body of a dead poker player was found in an alley, buried under 53 bicycles.
The police decided that he had been cheating at cards....
lol

[@skyden24195]

Nice.

[@ghowell13]

Nice

[@claudejudd6105]

Thanks!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Thank you!

[@bruce5579]

We used to play a game called Guts back in the 1960’s & 70’s that sounds a lot like Brag.

[@filmtajm35]

Very interesting and informative.
May I suggest you make a YT video about another very popular American game; Craps and how that came to be and spread around the world?

[@MarshOakDojoTimPruitt]

thanks

[@jhonwask]

Poker is a really fun game. Jacks or better is probably the funnest game to play.

[@lukevaxhacker7762]

Pity you used a couple of bad photographs. The group shot in a casino looks like one of the oddball three card games that sort of use poker rankings. The lady throwing her cards in apparently is throwing them in face up, from the angle we're seeing the card backs. This would give an advantage to the other players to know which cards are *not* possibly in the deck or someone's hand. She would likely be asked to leave the game…

[@reallyseriously7020]

The history of playing cards would be an interesting topic

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

ruclips.net/video/LbfX76LaZ3A/видео.htmlsi=xQGP8hJ9YlMLO22J

[@marksimpson2689]

Excellent episode, as per usual

[@bobstroud9118]

“Is this a game of chance?” “No, not the ways I play it. “. wC Fields

[@ricardokowalski1579]

That is a nice vest

[@fabricdragon]

first of all, nice hat. secondly: i am impressed with your dexterity on the coin manipulation! nicely done!
oh, and good video as always

[@KevinDC5]

I believe it was Dan Harrington who put it best...."Poker is NOT a card game! It is a wagering game that uses cards to construct imperfect betting situations"
Ive played poker most of my life, my greatest achievement was winning 2 live tournaments back to back with at least 50 players in each tournament.

[@Makeshift_Mulder]

Yes, but what about the history of the dogs that play poker?..

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

The famous paintings by by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge were originally commissioned as cigar advertisements.

[@rockymountainlifeprospecti4423]

​@@TheHistoryGuyChannelalways wondered if there was a different reason for being painted, very nice, thank you!

[@QueenetBowie]

To this day it’s my favorite game to play, I haven’t even bet real money in years but something about the game itself is just really enjoyable

[@kushkrazie]

This pleases me

[@herrunsinn774]

To each, his/her own, but I've never understood the desire or need to play gambling games. Life is fraught with enough danger to our financial well-being without intentionally tempting fate. "A fool and his/her money is".... well... You know. 😅🤣😂

[@skyden24195]

Right! I've always found it rather ironic that, despite being born in Las Vegas, I've never been a fan of gambling. For the most part, the very few times I have gambled I have not won. The one real successful gambling experience I have ever had happened on New Year's Eve of 1999 going into 2000. I was with a couple of friends in Las Vegas for the epic night, and although I usually don't indulge in such activity, I did decide that night to hit a few slot machines. I ended up winning enough money to cover my expenses for that one night. So, basically, I won a free night in Las Vegas. lol

[@workingguy6666]

I enjoy kicking back to games of Texas Hold'em in Read Dead Redemption 2, though it does seem that RDR@ thought the game was from just pre-1900 it seems. I don't have to do anything else in the game those evenings, just a little free-time playing and losing or winning fake game money.

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Once again things i never knew about Poker thanks to THG🎀 i do now 👍

[@BarryH1701]

Love the outfit and hat!

[@OmahaLasse]

Great short summary of the game. Stud games, especially a game known as Canadian or Scandinavian stud or Sökö was brought to Finland by loggers working in Canada. It is the national poker game of Finland and takes a lot of skill and has a way bigger edge between the skilled and unskilled players. It has the addition of 4-straight and 4-flush that are added into the hand value list above one pair and below two pair.
I also would have liked to know more about the history of stud games per se as they are still alive even in casinos.

[@kcthesledgestoryteller]

Ah, doing the Val Kilmer Doc Holliday.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

I’m your huckleberry…

[@candyflair7946]

Great outfit! You can pick a hat very well! Perfect.

[@ronalddevine9587]

Very ambidextrous.

[@paulcunningham2859]

Nice

[@schroedingersdog7965]

Perhaps the most interesting mystery of poker is how the early 19th-century players managed to assign the relative values of the various hands (one pair, two pair, three of a kind, etc.) in the correct order of their mathematical probabilities. For example, how did those players know that a flush was less common (and, hence, more valuable) than a straight? Was it an empirically derived result of playing thousands of games, or did some unknown mathematician calculate the odds for each hand?

[@cynthiaslater7445]

I wonder if "faroal" is related to poker. Spell check - it was a popular game in the great plains and old/wild west.

[@brucelee5576]

Sklansky’s Book The Theory of Poker written in 1978 and the 2003 WSOP change Poker forever .

[@Redmenace96]

There is no history to record because people just play games and make up rules as they go along. When we were kids, we would alter rules, change the number of cards dealt, and change the size of the deck- just to have fun and experiment. THG could do whole nother vid on the history of 'cards' and games. Those Persian decks looked amazing.

[@ponyote]

I think that the film Shade with Sylvester Stallone also portrayed the game very well. An underrated movie, IMO.

[@dukelornek]

yep

[@michaelmanning5379]

"A Big Hand For A Little Lady" is a western featuring draw poker. Henry Fonda plays a homesteader with a gambling habit, over his head in a high stakes game versus Jason Robarts, Charles Bickford, Kevin McCarthy, John Qualen and Robert Middleton. Joanne Woodward plays Fonda's wife. Burgess Meredith and Paul Ford round out the ensemble.

[@jeffjones6951]

1:55 "...four FACE cards..."
Are Aces faces?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Aces were included in the 20 cards yes.

[@jeffjones6951]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel
But were Aces regarded as "face" cards in that era?

[@CountlessPWNZ]

the gambler, sad song

[@MattSmith-yq3rr]

Cant be ante this topic, some if the history certainly raised my eyebrows!