THE WORLD'S #1 POKER MANUAL - Card Games

Poker Book, Bibliography
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Appendix B
Bibliography
Early poker literature tried to establish firm rules for the game. Unlike other card games in being a
uniquely dynamic game (a competitive money-management game rather than a routine card game),
poker could never be bound in rigid rules. Continuously changing within a loose framework of
traditions, poker remained a versatile, living game always subject to modifications and variations (over
150 varieties of poker are described in the literature).
As early as 1674, Cotton's Complete Gamester's (published in England) described a card game called
Post and Pair, a predecessor to Bragg, which, in turn, was a predecessor to poker with a full deck. Bragg
and the art of bluffing were first described in Cotton's 1721 edition. Poque, a French card game that
directly influenced the development of poker, was described in the eighteenth-century editions of
Acadence Universelle des Jeux.
Until 1850, there were no printed rules for poker.[ 47 ] Neither of the two American Hoyles then in print
(George Long, New York, 1825, and G. Cowperthwait, Philadelphia, 1838) mentioned poker. The
English Hoyle (Bohn's Handbook of Games) made no reference to poker in either its 1850 or its 1887
edition. But the 1850 American reprint of Bohn's book mentioned poker in an addendum. Also in 1850,
Hoyles' Games (H. F. Anners, Philadelphia) had a brief note about poker that described a full deck, ten
players (therefore, no draw), and a bonus paid for any hand of trips or better. In 1857, Thomas Frere's
Hoyle (T. W. Story, New York) described poker without referring to a draw.
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