FIRST RECORDED GAME? There are a lot of opinions about when the first game of cards that we would truly recognise today as poker was actually played. My favourite piece of reliable evidence is the account offered by an English actor name of Cowell (Not Simon Snr) but Joseph. Around Christmas time, in 1829, Cowell was travelling on one of the classic paddle steamers ploughing its way along the Mississippi, heading for New Orleans, and having just left Louisville. A group of wealthy eastern gamblers were huddled in a corner of the ornate saloon playing a game where “four-of-a-kind” was apparently thought to be an excellent hand to be holding (certainly sounds like poker). Joseph Cowell was very sensibly not taking part in the game but merely observing the flamboyant players out of professional interest with a view to incorporating their various mannerisms into his own theatrical craft.
FIRST RECORDED CON? The story goes that the riverboat suddenly struck a sandbank in the mist and briefly ran aground. Everyone rushed to look out of the windows apart from the suspicious looking dealer in shady specs who carried on carefully shuffling the cards, preparing a well rehearsed con-trick. His plan was to deal every player at the table a very good hand, encouraging them all to bet heavily. He had of course saved the very best hand for himself!
FIRST RECORDED SCREW-UP? Unfortunately the dealer had taken in just a little too much cheap whisky and managed to confuse all the glorious hands he had dealt. Somehow or other a young lawyer (why is it always a lawyer?) at the table had received the four Kings and an Ace the dealer had intended for himself. The dealer, on realising his ruinous mistake, managed to fold his cards, allowing the lawyer take the two thousand dollar pot and himself to escape with his life amid the confusion and eventual suspicion that engulfed the table.
CHEATING WAS AN ART-FORM We now know from historical records that cheating was an accepted fact of life in the early nineteenth century. If you were stupid enough to sit down to a game of cards with a table full of strangers chances were you’d be on the sharp end of a sting. On the river boats of the Mississippi river, the card sharps were busy making cheating an art-form, often aided by buxom saloon girls helping to make players’ wallets disappear along (eventually) with their trousers. Who would have placed a bet back then that a furious swirling lady christened Katrina would all but make New Orleans itself disappear in the early years of the 21st Century? You could’ve got any odds.
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ALL THE ACES poker column: Tuesday, June 20, 2006: "The First Recorded POKER game"
