Poker
Poker first appeared in America in the early 19th century, by the 20th century it had become America's national card game, and in the 21st century, as a result of tournament publicity and its success as an online game, it has become popular worldwide. The essence of poker is that players bet on who has the best 5-card hand. It is sometimes possible to win even with bad cards, by convincing the other players to drop out rather than match your bets. The poker pages of pagat.com provide an introduction to poker and its many variants, and to poker resources on the web.