The Evolution of Poker
After 52-card poker evolved from 20-card poker, other developments and variations on the game emerged in the mid-1800s, perhaps brought about by the many stresses and changes of the American Civil War. People turned to games for distraction.
In the vicinity of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, stud-horse poker, or simply stud poker, appeared and was mentioned in The American Hoyle in 1864.
Another variation of poker that was controversial was called Jack pots. The original version demanded that the game be opened by the player who held two Jacks or a higher pair. This was most popular in the west but not known in the south.
Stud poker, Jack pots and draw poker were already featured in The American Hoyle much earlier, in 1875. Also mentioned then were whisky poker and mistigris.
Whisky poker, though, is considered to be a game of commerce rather than real poker. It uses poker combinations but with different mechanisms.
Mistigris was real poker, but used a wild card. This was the 53rd blank card in the deck. Mistigris was influenced by an earlier French gambling game called Bouillotte.
Foster also lauded the development of draw poker as a progressive step in the evolution of the game.
In 1875, all the poker hands known today were already being used in some areas, although some hands were still not as popular. The 1875 and 1877 editions of The American Hoyle said that the best poker hand is four of a kind if the straight hand is not being played.
The next development in poker was the emergence of community card poker, of which Texas hold'em is the most popular today.
The earliest version was called wild widow and first surfaced in the 1919 edition of The American Hoyle. Players were dealt four cards each, then a fifth community card was placed face up on the table. The player who makes the best hand with a combination of his card plus the community card wins.
By 1926, the year's edition of The American Hoyle featured a new community card poker variation called spit in the ocean. Players are dealt four cards each and a fifth community card is also placed face upon the table. The big difference is that the community card is wild, and so are all cards of the same rank.
Also featured in the 1926 edition is high-low poker, although Morehead and Mott-Smith argue that it has been played as early as 1903. In high-low poker, the highest and lowest hands win, dividing the pot between them. This eventually led to the emergence of lowball where the lowest hand wins everything.
Today, poker continues to enjoy great popularity in its many variations. The game continues to evolve, too, having conquered even the Internet.