Poker Facts

• Playing cards were invented in China
• A fifth suit was added in 1937 but never caught on because people had to buy all new decks
• At least 65,000,000 Americans regularly play poker
• Dead mans hand is Aces and Eights
• Getting dealt 10,2 is referred to as Doyle Brunson because he won back to back World Series with the hand.
• In the 1800s, 2,000 to 2,500 riverboat gamblers played poker on American Waterways. By contemporary accounts, no more than four of these poker players were honest all the time. A straight beat a flush at this time.
• Las Vegas Casinos are not legally obligated to pay off their gambling debts
• Due to French influence, Spades represent Royalty, Diamonds represent Merchants, Clubs represent the peasants, and hearts represent the clergy.
• Edmond Hoyle lived to be 97, but died 150 years before Poker was invented.
• Playing cards were introduced in Europe in the 1300s
• When Columbus landed in 1492 in North America, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, drew pictures on them and played cards.
• Historians generally agree that Bill Hickock was a lousy poker player.
• Groucho Marx got his name from carrying his poker money in a "grouch bag"
• Former President Richard Nixon won $6,000 playing poker in his first two months in the U.S. Navy during WWll. That is roughly equal to $42,640 in 2004 dollars. He used that money as well as more poker winnings to finance his run for the U.S. Congress in 1946, which he won.