poque

The etymology of poker is disputed. The most supported theory derives it from French poque, a card game played in 18th-century France and Germany, which itself came from German pochen (to brag or bluff, literally to knock). German Pochspiel — bragging game — involved announcing holdings and calling opponents' bluffs. The game traveled to Louisiana with French settlers; New Orleans gambling houses adapted it with a 52-card deck.

Poker as we recognize it — five-card draw, betting rounds, the poker face — appears in American records from the 1820s. Jonathan H. Green, writing in 1843 in An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling, called poker 'the cheating game' and described seeing it played on Mississippi riverboats. The Mississippi River, the frontier's social artery, spread poker westward during the 19th century.

Texas Hold'em — the variant that has dominated the game since the 1970s and especially the 2000s — was brought to Las Vegas casinos by Texas road gamblers in the late 1960s. The World Series of Poker, inaugurated in 1970, turned the game into a spectator sport. The 2003 World Series win by online qualifier Chris Moneymaker — a Tennessee accountant who had won his seat in an online tournament for $86 — triggered a global poker boom.

'Poker face' entered English by the 1870s — the expressionless countenance that conceals your hand. Today it has entered popular culture (Lady Gaga's 2008 song among other uses) as a general metaphor for emotional concealment. The bluffing game named its face.