Fun Poker Facts - Little known facts about the game of poker
So, you play poker... whether you are good or bad, win or lose, I am sure you do not know all of the following fun facts. These facts are pretty interesting to know for any type of player.
- 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.


