The early European games of primero, brelan, and particularly as nas, from Persia in the early part of the 17th century, all seem to make up the shared ancestry of the game, although Egyptian playing cards have been founding dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. The late 15th century British game brag was considered the big brother of poker, and in the later half of the 19th century many of the common adaptions of the earlier "American"
poker were taken from brag, including drawing for new cards, and adding more cards to allow for more players and more potentially winning hands.
The name poker is not as clearly found through pochen, a German game, and poque, a French game dating back to the 15th century, which first introduced players to the suits as we know them: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades.
Of course, being able to carry away a large pot in a sack, called a poke from 14th century english, may be a clue to its etymology.
With these roots extending into French, German and Persian pastimes, poker is found in its earliest documented form in memoires, biographies and other writings dating back to the late 1820's and early 1830's in New Orleans and Mississippi, in the US. Further developments made through the 19th century into the 20th century, which added on new variations, styles of play, and brought the deck from the early 20 cards to the more modern 52 cards, make the game as we know it today. Now, online poker websites, TV broadcasts and international tournament games, are all commonplace.
