Poker is particular forms of a card game that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games 

differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown, limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed. There is no an oficial story about the history of poker game, the people on the table usually would say - "It depends."

Similar card games in the history in different regions:

One of the earliest known games with account betting, hand ranks and bluffing was the 15th century German game Pochspiel;

Persian game As Nas;

French game called poque;

Irish game Poca;

At Missisipi River region in 1800, the poker game was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players;

The poker game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards and four players betting on which player''s hand was the most valuable;

By 1925, the poker game alreday include flush, draw, stud poker, straight, wild card, lowball, split-pot poker and community card poker games;

The development of real poker beggining after World Series of Poker (WSOP) began in 1970;

The first serious strategy books appeared in the 1970`s: "Super/System" by Doyle Brunson, "Caro''s Book of Poker Tells" by Mike Caro and "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky;

The Community card poker games were introduced in California in 1987;

Poker and casino gambling spread across the United States in the 1990`s;

At the beggining of the 21st century, poker popularity increase thankfully to online poker and hole-card camera;

Since 2003, major poker tournament fields have grown dramatically;