While this playing card game has European roots its contemporary appeal was developed in the United States and now enjoys an international following. The game requires a standard deck of 52 playing cards, and to speed up the game (and impede cheating) most players alternate each game using a matching deck with a contrasting card back color. The photograph to the right illustrates two of these standard decks in the collection.
Poker is a gambling game for five to seven players and while the game is based on chance,"player bluffing" to outsmart opponents is essential to winning. There are a number of variants to the game, but the two most popular are called Draw Poker and Stud Poker. The player who holds the highest sequence of cards in the last round of each game is the winner. The video clip below, from the 20th Century Fox 1975 film At Long Last Love illustrates this in a game of Draw Poker.
To see and hear this video, move your cursor onto the video and click on the controls in the lower left corner of the video. Moving your mouse away from the video removes the controls.
The following table illustrates the precedence of winning hands from the highest to the lowest. As illustrated, some hands require cards of the same suit. When two players hold identical hands, a hierarchy of suits takes precedence, namely: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and lastly Clubs. For example: if their were two "Straight Flush" hands, the Spade flush would beat a Diamond flush. In a two pair win, if both hands held two Jacks and two Aces, the lone fifth card would decide the winner, and if the fifth cards had an identical value, the suit hierarchy would take precedence.
| Royal Flush |
|---|
 |
| Straight Flush |
|
| Four Of A Kind |
 |
| Full House |
 |
| Flush |
 |
| Straight |
 |
| Three Of A Kind |
 |
| Two Pairs |
 |
| One Pair |
 |
| High Card |
 |
Because of the many variants of this game, in a casino or like-venue the rules which govern play are normally printed and/or posted. In a less formal setting, before starting a game players mutually decide on the rules that will be followed, betting limits, and the like. Specific methods of play for many variants of poker have been published in books about playing card games, and are readily available in book stores and in public libraries. Computerized poker games in the form of "slot machines" are now common in gambling casinos. Personal computer software editions of poker which allow a computer user to play against a number of "electronic opponents" are readily available as is interactive gaming via the Internet.
Last update March 29, 2010