“Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two of great value, to put it in a nutshell.” -Actual proposition written by a dealer in a French casino to the couple who brought him a pack of cards.
If you opened a book on card playing, the very first thing that would pop up is a drawing of a poker hand with its suit and number of cards.
This is the way the French drew cards back in the day, with the palm of their hands particularly lucky.
Modern card playing in the US got its start in New Orleans, as local boatmen would pass the time playing Poker, according to mythology. After the French and the South took down the Mississippi, gambling can be said to have started to venture out of French territory.
During the period that gambling evolved into an established form of industry, the name of the game was changing from ‘Horse Poker’ to ‘Pokerrepublik‘. The name itself was coined because of the full suit of the cards – all the cards were covered in gold, with the Ace (A) in the highest deck.
As the game moved up the Mississippi, it gave birth to a style of playing cards known as ‘Wild Things’. The suits were replaced with other elements, and the cards themselves took on new identities. Higher deck cards such as the deck of 22. (These cards were shoved into the deck in a stoneaker, a large wooden plate, with azagering across its face.)
The Aces were given a Persian Prince in the German town of Homburg. This Prince was Casanova, and the deck of cards reflected his clothes, which were marked with the spades of his Order of the Armed Guard, the soldier’s swords, and the cross of the Order of the Holy Ghost.
Many books have been written that explain how wild cards came to be associated with poker. Most say that it was because in the 18th century a French deck was discovered that had all the cards of aces and eights (a total of 52 cards). But many people who are familiar with poker say that the history of poker begins with the German game pochspiel.
Papal authority was forced to Letter about the game to the archbishop of Orleans, who was having the cards delivered to the flock in exchange for papal annuities. This was a forward then, for the cards were a long time for the Church, but poor cards were associated with the innocent church goers.
The young French priest Louis XIV was said to have been very fond of the game, and when one of his mistresses offered him a game, he declined for the reason that no one could prove that he had ever won any game, and that definitely, if such a game did exist, the codes of conduct would be very strict. The code was very strict, and included the advice that ‘the house’ should have the advantage after ten cards are dealt, no matter what the value.
When in Rome, the card game was known as ‘uru’, which literally means ‘the number’, and from it the game traveled to the people of the various Italian Principality’s. When cards were brought to the US, they were usually marked with the index and middle class people started to play with gusto, and by anön, as a sign of greeting. The game was soon internationally known and a term used to describe the various games is dime pinchers, which is Americans’ slang term for five dollar cheques.