Was poker invented by the French?

Ooh la la no! While other people may want you to believe otherwise, poker's real origins are still unknown. Poker - mind you - does bear a resemblance to the Persian game ‘As Nas' - which, according to Wikipedia & poker mythology, might have been taught to French settlers in New Orleans, Louisiana by sailors from Persia. Some gambling historians are of the belief that the name poker came from the old French word poque, which came from the medieval German word pochen, meaning to bluff.

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