Texas Holdem History
The history of Texas Holdem isn’t well documented but people generally believe the game originated somewhere in Texas. Believe it or not, expert sources agree that Texas Holdem did in fact come from Texas. More specifically, Robstown, Texas is often credited as being the official birth place of Texas Holdem.
Well before Texas Holdem was even dreamt of, other forms of poker had been played all across the United States. There are many conflicting accounts about the origins of poker dating back to the 1700s and possibly even earlier than that. As far the United States goes, it is widely believed that the French first played a type of poker in New Orleans in the 1800s.
From there, it spread up the Mississippi and then out across the rest of the United States. Texas Holdem first hit the mainstream poker scene in 1967. The Golden Nugget casino became the first casino to offer Texas Holdem after a group of traveling poker players (including Doyle Brunson and Crandell Addington) brought the game to Vegas. The group claims that they first encountered Texas Holdem in 1959 but do not know where the game came from.
The first World Series of Poker was held in 1971 and that event brought much attention to poker, especially Texas Holdem. The game of choice for the Main Event was Texas Holdem. Interestingly, the winners weren’t chosen like they are now. That first year there was a grand total of 6 entrants and the winner was decided by a vote.
Over the next several years, Texas Holdem spread to other card rooms in the Las Vegas area. California card rooms joined the Texas Holdem club in the 1980s and from there, Holdem slowly crept up to overthrow Seven Card Stud as the most popular poker variant. Subsequent WSOP’s grew in size and the prize for first place finishes approached $1,000,000.
The big break for Texas Holdem came in 2003 when an amateur poker player named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker on national television. It was later learned that Chris had won a free entry to the Main Event by playing in an online tournament at PokerStars. Rather than putting up cash for the $10,000 buyin, Chris had paid $30 and won a free seat. That amateur poker player had turned $30 into $2,500,000 playing poker.
After that, there was a major surge in the popularity of Texas Holdem. Internet poker became especially popular once people realized how easy it was to play in satellite tournaments and cash games on the computer. No longer was it necessary to live near a casino or make long trips to the nearest card room to play poker for real money.
Ever since then, Texas Holdem has continued to grow. Internet poker is as popular as ever and the fields at the WSOP Main Event have swelled to nearly 9,000 players. One of the biggest prizes ever awarded was worth $12,000,000 when Joe Hachem won the Main Event in 2006.
The initial buzz has worn off a little bit today but new people still come to the game every day. Internet poker is a big business and poker players now come from all walks of life. If you’d like to try your luck at the poker tables, all you have to do is visit one of our recommended online poker sites and sign up for an account.