History of Texas Hold ‘em
Texas Hold ‘em is by far the most popular of all card games played in the world today. So where did it all start? To be honest, no one really knows. Rumour and folklore states that the earliest game was in Robstown, Texas back in the early 1900’s and while this is widely recognised as a speculative guess, Texas State Legislature does acknowledge that this is the town where it all started.
Hold ‘em, as it was called back then, slowly became popular across Texas and there are reports that the first Dallas hand was dealt in 1925. Nevertheless according to the history books it didn’t make it outside of the Texan border lines until 1967. That was the year that a posse of Texan punters including Doyle Brunson, Crandell Addington, Amarillo Slim and Roscoe Weiser took Hold ‘em to the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. By all accounts the Golden Nugget wasn’t the most salubrious of venues back in the late 60’s so when the chance came to play Hold ‘em in the foyer of the Dunes casino slap bang on The Strip in 1969 the pros jumped at the opportunity. This proved to be the game’s first major turning point as the prime location attracted passing amateurs who sat down and filled the pockets of Brunson, Slim, Addington et al. It had finally been brought out from the backroom and into the spotlight.
The same year saw the first poker tournaments held at the Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention, one of which was Texas Hold ‘em. Benny Binion, who had famously arranged the five month marathon “heads up” game between Nick ‘The Greek’ Dandolos and Johnny Moss back in 1949, saw the potential and along with his son Jack attained the rights to the convention and changed the name to the World Series of Poker. Held in his own Binions Horseshoe casino the first WSOP took place in 1970 with the very same Johnny Moss taking the title after his peers voted him to be the best player.
Perhaps the biggest leap forward for the game as we know it today was the growth of the internet in the late 1990’s and into the early 2000’s. Now you no longer need to make it to a casino to play. Texas Hold ‘em is available to everybody, at any time of day, without leaving their home. When amateur Chris Moneymaker won the televised 2003 WSOP main event the world of poker was changed forever. After gaining entry via an online $39 Pokerstars satellite tournament Moneymaker pocketed $2.5m live on TV and also proved that the game of Texas Hold ‘em is one of life’s great levellers.
While we do not all want to play million pound poker games you can now have the latest poker machine in your public house or social club. Our new digital roulette machines come with hold’em poker and blackjack games on as well which are proving very popular. So lets raise the level of your machines and go all in at no cost with a new digital Texas hold’em fruit machine for your pub or club.
If you do like going to play live poker games at casino’s here is a saying that we love at Comrie – If you look round the poker table and you can’t see a mug, its usually you!