Watching the poker pros do what they do best is part of the thrill of watching poker. But the best thing you can learn from the pros is how to play Texas Hold’em. Especially from the Texas Hold’em experts who brought the game to Las Vegas.
Although little is actually known about the invention of Texas Hold’em, the Texas State Legislature officially recognizes Robstown, Texas as the game’s birthplace, dating the game to the early 1900s. However, as it spread through Texas, the game was introduced in Las Vegas by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Crandell Addington, Roscoe Weiser, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim.
Addington has said that he first learned how to play the game in 1959, but at the time it wasn’t known as Texas Hold’em, simply hold’em. “In draw poker, you bet only twice; in hold’em, you bet four times. That meant you could play strategically. This was more of a thinking man’s game,” he said.
Addington and his Texas poker contemporaries adapted the game which would soon be known as Texas Hold’em. For several years the Golden Nugget Casino in downtown Las Vegas was the only casino to offer the game. At that time, the Golden Nugget’s poker room was lacking in décor and as a result did not receive many drop-in clients. So poker pros were searching out more prominent locations.
In 1969, the Las Vegas professionals were invited to share their knowledge on how to play Texas Hold’em at the entrance of the now-demolished Dunes Casino on the Las Vegas strip. This prominent casino, and the relative unfamiliarity of poker players with Texas Hold’em, resulted in a very renumerative game for poker pros.
After a disappointing attempt to establish a “Gambling Fraternity Convention,” the first ever poker tournament was added to the Second Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention in 1969. This Convention would eventually be known as the World Series of Poker and, since its first year, no-limit Texas Hold’em has been played at the Main Event.
