Poker and the Wild Frontier

Poker was a favourite game of the frontiersmen and blossomed around the mid-nineteenth century. Unlike today, where people find variations like video poker on the internet, this was the start to a favourite gambling game worldwide. One form or another of gambling was the principal entertainment for people from all walks of life. It was not just the cowboys who played poker; it was also businessmen, law officers, miners and lumberjacks.
Most frontier settlements had a gambling hall which was the equivalent of a casino and as settlements grew so too did the casinos. They were often ornately decorated and often included a stage, a bar and hotel bedrooms. The prosperity of a town was judged by the quality and quantity of the gambling halls it incorporated.
Many gamblers and poker players were professionals who made a good living from it. The ethos was not one of greed and corruption as has often been promoted in the cinema; rather it was one of professionalism, fairness and trustworthiness. A professional gambler would soon go out of business if he had a reputation for cheating.
The Gold Rush in California was provided a boost in poker and gambling, and San Francisco became its hub. Famous gambling towns were Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead whist playing poker, Silver City and Tombstone. Texas also experienced a huge growth in the popularity of poker as also did cattle towns such a Kansas and Nebraska. There were boom times for many and this helped to fuel the boom.
There were many colourful players. Doc Holliday was a famous gambler and gunman as well as being a dentist and loyal friend to Wyatt Earp. Bat Masterson was also a gambler and gunfighter and Soapy Smith enjoyed a life as a gambler and crook.
Gambling was not a reserve to the men for many women also made a living from it, the mist famous one of whom was probably Poker Alice, real name Alice Ivers, who used the money she won on poker to purchase a bordello. She and her family had emigrated from Devon in the UK.
Eventually public prejudice turned against gambling and laws were brought in to regulate it, however they were not very effective but merely drove it underground. By 1911 gambling was illegal throughout the United States.