What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

Before the craze, poker was best known as the game the outlaws played in the smoky bar in the old west. Does anyone know how much of this is real and how much is made up by Hollywood? And also, what game were they playing? No limit draw poker would be my guess. The image that I conjure up is that of a pot full of red white and blue chips with some gold and watches and whatever else the player had to scrap together to call his opponent’s large bet after the draw.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

I don't think anything but table stakes has ever been played.

-SmileyEH

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

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I don't think anything but table stakes has ever been played.

-SmileyEH

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From what I've seen in movies (and when have they ever been wrong?) this is not true. There's always the scene where the guy has to reach into his wallet, pawn something, hand over the deed to his house, etc., to call a bet.

I was always under the impression that they generally played five-card draw, though I'm not sure what the betting structure was.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

In Mel Gibson's Maverick they played 5 card draw and 5 card stud.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

someone should check out historychannel.com - I just saw a show about riverboat gambling back in the west. Quite interesting.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

The most popular card game back then was a game called Faro, which has very few similarities to poker.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

The old road gamblers like Doyle Brunson said that they always played table stakes. Considering how well poker of today is portrayed in tv/movies, I don't have much hope for the acuracy of wild west films.

-SmileyEH

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

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The most popular card game back then was a game called Faro, which has very few similarities to poker.

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That looks like a house edge game, not a game random players would play together.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

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The most popular card game back then was a game called Faro, which has very few similarities to poker.

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Haven't you seen Tombstone? Faro was a house edge game that Earp ran at the Oriental. Meanwhile Doc Holiday played plenty of poker on the side.

Re: What poker game did they play in the \"Wild West\"?
 

I remember watching a history channel show about the history of poker, and they stated that the first types of poker played in the US were similar to draw, but there was no actual drawing cards after the original deal. Seems that the riverboat gamblers used the draw as a way to extract the most from their victims. I believe they also said that the most popular form of poker in the cow towns was 5 stud. It was definately no-limit, for the origin of the term "nuts" as the phrase for describing the best possible hand came to be because when one would want to bet his wagon in a game, he would go out and get the nuts off of the wagon wheels and place them in the pot.