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The origin of the word Poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

Why did he call it Poker? Researchers looked into games of other countries to see if there was any game whose name sounded anything like "poker." They came up with an eighteenth-century French game called poque, a German game that involves a certain amount of bluffing called Pochspiel, and there's even a suggestion that the word derived from a Hindu word: pukka.

Well, more realistically, the word "poker" probably finds its origins in the underworld of thieves. Some of the card hustlers may have already been using the expression since "poke" was a slang word used by pickpockets. It is believed that card hustlers, who emerged from that same underworld to cheat unsuspecting opponents, used the word in relation to their card-playing victims. The "r" might have been added to throw off players who were wise to the underworld slang. The reason Poker has such seedy origins has mainly to do with the fact that it is a simple game (sometimes even a quick game, depending on the version you're playing), it involves an element of cheating, and it's played for money.

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