The history of poker can be traced back for half a century. Two very early forms of the game were Pochspiel, a game popular in Germany in the sixteenth century and variations of which are still played in modern times and As Nas, a game that originated in Persia in the early eighteenth century. Pochspiel was, and still is, played with a reduced hand that does not contain cards with values of between two and nine. The game has many stages, and only one of these resembles poker as we now know it. The other stages are similar to different card games that we also play nowadays as separate games. The only hands that have value are pairs, prials (three of a kind) and four of a kind, and the most valuable suit is selected from a card that is placed face up in the centre of the table. As all the cards (apart from the face-up card) are dealt, the chances of getting a high value hand are quite high. ‘As Nas' was played with a special pack of cards that contained five suits. Each suit had a lion, a king, a queen, a soldier, and a hunter or low card. There is considerable dispute regarding the precise rules of the game, but it appears that each player would be dealt two cards face down. There would be a round of betting before two further face down cards were dealt, followed by another round of betting. Following this a fifth card would be dealt and a final round of betting would take place. The rankings of the hands would have been similar to those of Pochspiel, that is pairs, prials and four of a kind, but in addition there would be five of a kind, a prial and a pair which is the poker equivalent of a full house, and one card of each value which is the poker equivalent of a straight flush. What is not evident is precise information concerning the rules relating to the placement of bets and winning, though perhaps as in poker today there were several variants. The similarities between these games and modern poker are quite evident.
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