I was quite surprised to find out that quite a few friends of mine are into the poker scene. And it ranges from guys who play every now and again, all the way to people who would spend the whole day playing if they got the opportunity. They’ve played at home, they’ve played online, they’ve played in single games, they’ve played in poker tournaments. But the most astounding thing is that I had no idea that poker was so popular.
So I did some reading up about poker and picked up some interesting facts about poker. Here are some:
- No one really knows the origin of the game. There are elements that go as far back at the 15th century, while other developments are as recent as 1970.
- On a deck of cards, the king of spades represents David, King of Israel; the king of Clubs represents Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia; the king of Hearts is Charlemagne, King of France; and the king of Diamonds is Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome.
- Popular belief holds that a standard deck of playing cards represent significant religious and metaphysical meaning. The 53 cards in the deck represents the 52 weeks of the year, the 4 suits represent the seasons of fall, winter, spring and summer, the 13 cards per suit represent the 13 phases of the lunar cycle, and if you add up all of the cards in the playing deck you get 364 days of the year… then you add a joker for a total of 365 days.
- Ex-President Richard Nixon won $6000 during his first two months in the U.S. Navy in World War II, playing poker. His winnings were used to fund his first (and successful) campaign for congress.
Interesting stuff huh? Any other facts and figures you can add to the list? If you have any just leave a comment, I’m sure other readers would love to learn more.