The Growth of Texas Hold'em

Texas Hold'em is an example of a community card poker game. In Texas Hold'em, each player is dealt two "hole" or "pocket" cards, that they keep concealed. Players are to complete their hands using five "community" cards that have been dealt to the center of the table and are revealed as the game progresses. It is quite possibly the most popular poker game variant being played today. It has found its way into online poker, featured in gambling-themed movies, and is the main tournament event in the world famous World Series of Poker.

Texas Hold'em does not have an absolutely certain date of inception, but the state of Texas has officially recognized Robstown, Texas as the birthplace of Texas Hold'em. Believed to have been invented during the earliest part of the twentieth century, it spread throughout Texas and the United States' western states, until finally finding its way into the nation's gambling capital, Las Vegas, in 1967. The game was said to have been introduced to Las Vegas by a group of Texan card players and gamblers; notably, Doyle Brunson, Crandell Addington, and Amarillo Slim. Amarillo Slim is said to have called Texas Hold'em "a thinking man's game," because according to him, unlike its poker relative, draw poker, in hold'em, players bet four times, rather than just twice.

Downtown Las Vegas' Golden Nugget Casino was once the only casino in the entire city to offer Texas Hold'em on the gambling floor or cardroom. At the time, the casino was what was called a "sawdust joint," which is to say that it was a relatively small establishment, with the floors covered in nothing more than oiled sawdust. This changed in 1969 though, when professional card players, gamblers, and casino owners decided that they wanted a more prominent venue for their Texas Hold'em games. They were invited to play the game on the Las Vegas Strip, at the entrance of the Dunes Casino, an establishment that is no longer in business today. Texas Hold'em enjoyed a significant boost when it was played as the main event in the World Series of Poker during its first run in 1970. It was also given a significant boost when Doyle Brunson, one of the original card players to bring the game to Las Vegas, published his famous poker strategy guide, Super/System. Other books, such as Al Alvarez's book on the earliest World Series of Poker event, also described and discussed the game, and since then Texas Hold'em has continued to grow in popularity and prominence in the world of poker.