Poker’s popularity got a big boost in recent years as high-stakes tournaments have been live-streamed or turned into television programs. We can’t be sure that the poker hands chart we know today was still in use on the Enterprise. In the 1980s, poker made it to the final frontier when it was featured in at least 10 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The popularity of friendly poker games among middle class men was illustrated in movies and television programs like The Odd Couple. James Bond was a high roller in books and on screen. In the 1950s, Hollywood’s Rat Pack glamorized the poker tables of Las Vegas. Poker gained more popularity in the 20th century.

Card hands weren’t always the same as the ones we use in the modern version of the game. The straight was added during the Civil War. For example, it wasn’t until after the California Gold Rush in the middle of the 19th century that the flush was developed. Poque was like poker, but it took a long time for the modern game to develop. Some of the settlers transplanted themselves to the American colony of Louisiana, where they were called “Acadians.” Their descendants are still called that today, but in the local patois the word is pronounced and spelled “Cajun.”

The game spread throughout Europe, eventually giving birth to a French version called “Poque.” Playing cards and poker scoring traveled with French settlers to a Canadian province called Acadia. Before we discuss the strength of different poker hands, let’s look at how poker became one of the most popular games in the world.Ī bluffing card game called “Pochen” was popular in Germany as early as the sixteenth century.

Poker hands percentage chart explained