The History of Video Poker

Video Poker is very much similar to slots and is one of the most popular games at both online and land based casinos. The history of video poker is a fine example of how combination of two great gambling games - slot machines and poker became a fascinating new casino game.

The first poker machine was invented in 1891, Brooklyn, New York, by Sittman and Pitt company. There were five drums in the machine, each holding ten different cards. In order to play one ad to insert a nickel, pull a lever and wait for the drums to spin around. After the spinning the drums would reveal the cards that made up the player's hand. As a rule these machines were placed in bars and the prizes for winning were cigars, drinks, etc.

There were only 50 cards in these machines. As a rule the jack of hearts and the ten of spades were left out of the deck. Due to that, the odds for getting a royal flash were two times lower than usually.

Charles Fey, also known as the Father of the Slot Machine, improved the poker machine. He created the Card Bell in 1898. It was a poker machine able to automatically pay out cash prizes to the winner. Today, an original Card Bell machine can be found at the Liberty Belle Saloon and Restaurant in Reno, Nevada.

Three years later, in 1901, Charles Fey created a new poker machine with a "Hold" feature, Skill Draw. After observing the results of the first spin the player could increase his chances of winning and improve his hand by holding one or several drums and re-spinning other drums. With the "Hold" feature players were able to use skill and strategy playing the game that used to be the game of blind luck. Today, the "Hold" feature remains to be a very important element in video poker games.

The first try electronic video poker machine was introduced by Dale Electronics in 1970. The machine was called Poker-Matic and was featured at almost all Las Vegas casinos.

Later, in 1979 a new video poker machine called Draw Poker was introduced by SIRCOMA (today known as IGT). The availability of both Hold and Draw feature made this machine far more popular than Poker-Matic and lay the foundation of modern of video poker.

The very first online video poker games were introduced by Microgaming in the late 1990's. Since then the popularity of online video poker has been growing rapidly. Today, online video poker game can be found at any online casino.