Do you like to play poker?  If you’re reading this article, chances are you do but have you ever wondered about all the interesting things that make up this age old bluffing game?  Even if you’re not a hardcore card player, you’ll likely find something interesting here.

Here are few facts you probably didn’t know about poker:

• Did you know that the earliest known game of Texas Holdem (said to be the ‘father’ game of poker) was played in Robstown, Texas.  The game them migrated to Las Vegas, Nevada in the late 1900’s.
• Think you’re the only one that really likes poker? In the continental United States alone, there are over 65,000,000 people that play poker on a regular basis.
• Do you ever play at any of the Las Vegas Casinos? You might want to know that neither the state law nor the federal law obligates them to pay off their gambling debts. That means if you win a million dollars from the house…they aren’t required by law to give it to you.
• Thinking about staying in Vegas to spend a few days or a weekend playing the tables? The average cost of a regular hotel or motel room in Las Vegas, Nevada is $130 for a single night’s stay. There are however, approximately 133,186 hotel, motel and lodging rooms for you to choose from, once you get there. You may want to think about getting there early, though. In 2005, there were about 38,600,000 people visiting Las Vegas at one time and it has went up every year since. Also, about 9% of the total number of Las Vegas hotels are booked completely full at any given moment of the year. You also may want to save up a little reserve of cash before you go running to the Nevada casinos. The average amount of money that a single person can anticipate on spending on a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada is around $665.
• Want to enter a World Series of Poker Tournament to try your luck? The ‘rake’ taken from the total pot at the tournament is 10%. The total cash prize amount for the tournament in 2005 was $7,500,000. In 2006, it was up to $10,000,000 and continues going up each year following. Just to give you a little bit of an idea of how much money that really is… MGM Grand Studios in California opened its doors to the public after spending about $3,500,000.

• Phil Hellmuth is the owner of 11 bracelets WSOP, which is the world record amount of the bracelets won by one person. The biggest all time winner is currently Antonio Esfandiari with over $25,000,000 in tournament winnings. Sam Trickett ranks second in the all-time list with over $19.6 million won. Erik Seidel ($18.5 million) and Daniel Negreanu ($18.4 million) are third and fourth.

Poker has a rich and vibrant history as well as varying levels of interest in different modern aspects of the game today.  There are many more facts out there about poker so don’t hesitate to go out and discover new things about this exciting game.