As it is with most popular card games, the origins of Poker and the history of 7 Card Stud Poker are shrouded in mystery. No one is entirely sure how or where the game began. Further, when considering the history of 7 Card Stud Poker, you should first know how Poker is thought to have come about.
There are many theories about the history of Poker and the history of 7 Card Stud Poker. The most commonly held belief is the name Poker came from the French card game Poque (from the German word pochen, which means to knock). However, the game itself more closely resembles a Persian game called Nas, which was played with a five-suit deck. Likely the game of Poker as we know it resulted from some combination of Poque and as Nas. The concept of bluffing in Poker came from still another source: the English game brag (first spelled Bragg), which is very similar to Poker but played using only three cards.
The first recorded instance of Poker in the United States was an 1829 game in New Orleans, played with a 20-card deck consisting of all cards with values of 10 and higher (four tens, four jacks, four queens, four kings and four aces). The game was not named, but the object...