The New Face of Poker
Poker is a game that almost everyone knows about; whether they know how to play it or not is, of course, another matter entirely. Most fans of the original card game are surprised to learn that, after slot machines, video poker is the second most popular casino game in the world. Video poker is often lumped in with slots because of its appearance, but don’t be fooled: video poker is still poker and requires the same skill as the original card game does. While the original game is probably what most fans will tell you they like the most, live online poker and video poker are definitely solid contenders for the title.
Let’s take a little trip down memory lane and see how poker evolved into video poker and how it has become a chart-topping casino game worldwide.
Image by Raka Miftah via Pexels
History Lesson
Everything starts somewhere, and of course, we know that poker was a card game before it was a video game…but how did poker machines themselves get started? In the 19th century, the first prototype poker machine was created using a straightforward and simple mechanical design. This machine consisted of five rolling drums and ten cards for each drum. To play, the player would spin the drums and get a random five-card poker hand to work with. Of course, progress waits for no one, and by the beginning of the 20th century, change was already afoot. Charles Fey, well known as the inventor of the very first slot machine, decided he would adapt the original poker machine design to include a hold feature. This version of the game would become known as Skill Draw, and it would quite literally change the game; players could now hold some of their cards after the first spin and re-spin only the drum containing the card they didn’t hold. These machines and the ones that would follow them soon after are still a very far cry from the video games we play today, but they were the seeds that would sprout the idea.
Image by Javon Swaby via Pexels
The Seventies and Eighties
While video poker is one of the most popular games you’ll find in a casino, it’s also one of the youngest, only being about half a century old. It was during the 1970s that video poker as we know it today really came into existence. Dale Electronics built and released the Poker-Matic in 1970. This machine combined a CPU and a television monitor and was very similar to slot machines. It gained popularity quickly, but there was definitely room for improvement. It would take a little time for analog players to get used to cards on a screen, and in the mid-1970s, William Redd came up with an improved version of the game that he called Video Poker. He used all the Jacks or Better five-card draw versions of poker, as it was the most popular at the time, but even so, he faced rejection, to begin with, when Bally refused to grant his patent. Unable to get a company to support his vision, Redd started his own, and in 1981 International Game Technology went public. The start of the 80s saw video poker completely taking over Las Vegas, and IGT became one of the world’s biggest software manufacturers, which it still is today. The 80s were the golden age of video poker; some of the most popular versions of the game that are still played today were made during the 80s. IGT also created the first and most progressive wide-area jackpot system in history- Megabucks- which launched in 1986.
Image by Oleg Magni via Pexels
The Nineties
As the 80s became the 90s, new players came of age and wanted more options. Naturally, the first place that casino game developers looked was to the internet. The early 90s saw the start of the first online casinos, and in 1994, the first online video poker game was developed and released by Microgaming. With no physical restrictions like travel or dress code, online video poker, and online casinos, in general, became hugely popular with immediate effect.
Now
These days, the options for playing video or online video poker are almost endless. There’s a version out there for every kind of player, and there’s a game built around pretty much every version of poker ever to have existed. All you have to do is head down to your favorite casino or jump online, and the options will be right there at your fingertips. Enjoy the game!
