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Most people who play video poker either online or at their favorite casino probably don’t know that the game was invented long before Bugsy first put down the foundation for the Flamingo or Al Gore supposedly invented the internet. The first type of “video poker” machine was invented in 1891 by Pitt and Sittman.

The “International Playing Cards” was an invention of 1895, and featured six different suits. Considering how many cards this would add to the deck, it would seem its creators, Hiram Jones, was trying to get under the skin of nineteenth century card counters.

Jonathan Harrington Green took his first breath in Ohio 1813. While there are no records that talk about when he spoke his first words, there is a good chance that first phrase that came from his mouth was “stick em’ up!” At an age when most kids are joining scouts and figuring out that the physics involved between an M80 firecracker and a Hot Wheels car, Jonathan out performing any number of pre-teen criminal acts.

The first place for people to gamble was erected in the city of Venice, Italy back in 1626. Back in those days folks didn’t gamble with chips, they did so with cash or any other valuable that the house would accept. “Chips” showed up a couple of hundred years later in America when people thought better of putting all their cash on the table and trusting folks not to rob them.

So who should we thank for the luxury of playing a hand of poker while scarfing down a club sandwich or a Reuben that is dripping with sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, and Swiss cheese? Well we could thank the cocktail waitress who brought it by tipping her handsomely.

Everything has to start somewhere. Democracy was started in Sparta (Sparta was also the start of the end of the Persians as a power). Playboy was started by Hugh Heffner’s massive problems with self esteem and inadequacy, and if looks are any indication, Al Franken’s origin include a princess (or quite possibly a queen) kissing a frog and having the whole “handsome prince” thing go horribly wrong.

In France the bluffing game of Poque (pronounced “poke”) was fairly popular. Most people would logically conclude that any French game that is pronounced in that particular way would involve folks grabbing their own ankles, but in reality this was an early game that was recognizable as poker.

While Holiday is widely accepted America’s first professional gambler, it was his skills with a gun that gained him lasting fame. While most people are familiar with his exploits alongside his friend, Wyatt Earp, and their little altercation at the O.K. Corral, “Doc” is also credited with perhaps the most sudden and violent enforcement of poker rules in the history of the game.

In 1921, the fastest track to a cabinet position with the Harding administration was to be one of the President’s poker buddies. His group of advisors became known as the “poker cabinet” because they played the game so often. Policies were created while the cards were flying across the table, and money was won and lost. According to popular myth and urban legend, the President lost the White House china to a bad beat.

Considering its history, Las Vegas is one of the most haunted places on the planet. The infamous Bugsy Segal is occasionally seen skulking around the Flamingo Hotels pool in the late hours of the evening. His appearance on the fifth floor has also caused at least one maid to quit. The ghost of Steven Segal is occasionally seen at the Rio. What? Wait? He isn’t dead yet?