Poker in the 19th Century:
By the early 19th century, poker had firmly taken root in North America, evolving into a popular pastime on riverboats along the Mississippi. The classic 52-card deck became standard, and variants like Five-Card Draw and Stud emerged, quickly becoming favorites among gamblers in saloons and frontier towns. With the rise of the American West, poker became synonymous with risk, adventure, and the rugged individualism of the era, eventually leading to its status as a staple of Western culture.