Poker Trivia

• It is believed that playing cards were invented in China in 1120 AD.
• The Sandwich was invented through playing cards, John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, was a compulsive gambler he lived in England during the 1700s. He loved playing cards that much that he wouldn't leave even for meals, so he had a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread, this enabled him to play cards with one hand and eat with the other, this new meal was named after his title, hence the Sandwich (lets face it the Montague would never have caught on).
• On a deck of cards, the king of spades represents David, King of Israel; the king of Clubs represents Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia; the king of Hearts is Charlemagne, King of France; and the king of Diamonds is Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome.
• The playing card suites originated in France and represent the four classes of men. Spades equals nobility, Diamonds, merchants, Clubs, peasants, and Hearts the clergy.
• The 52 cards of the ordinary playing deck are said to symbolize the 52 weeks of the year. It is also thought that the 4 suits relate to the 4 seasons:
  • Spades = Winter
  • Clubs = Spring
  • Hearts = Summer
  • Diamonds = Autumn
• When Columbus landed on U.S. shores in 1492, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, marked them with images, and played cards.
• A gambling pal of actor Samuel Foote once complained that he'd been thrown out of a second-floor window for cheating in a high-stakes game of poker. When he asked for Foote's advice, the response was, "Well don t play so high".
• Pass the what? In card games, sometimes a marker or buck is placed in front of the person who is to deal the next game. Every time the deal passes, players must also "pass the buck" (which explains why the expression "pass the antelope" never really caught on).
• Ex-President Richard Nixon won $6,000 during his first two months in the U.S. Navy in World War II, playing poker. His winnings were used to fund his first (and successful) campaign for congress.
• Actors Matt Damon and Edward Norton played the $10,000 buy-in Texas Hold 'Em championship event at the 1998 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. During the first of four days, Matt Damon was knocked out by former world champion and poker legend Doyle Brunson.
• Wild Bill Hickok who was shot in the back of the head while playing poker in Deadwood by Jack McCall. It is reputed that Hickock's last hand contained Ace of Clubs, Ace of Spades, Two Black eights plus various other cards ever since then this hand has been known as the Dead Man's Hand.
• Groucho Marx got his name because he carried his poker money in a 'grouch bag'.
• 40 to 50 million Americans regularly play poker.