Poker’s Evolution: Five Decades In The Game

I began my poker career 50 years ago (okay 49 years to be exact). I was 21 and young and innocent. Since then, the playing field has changed dramatically!

I was asked to write a column for the ladies issue of Card Player and I had many ideas concerning several topics, but I finally settled on the major changes that have happened in poker over my career.

1. There was no Tournament Director’s Association before I helped to start it in 2001. That meant no standardized tournament rules. That meant no penalty system in place to punish bad behavior at the poker table, and prior to the TDA, there was plenty of bad behavior!

2. The sheer number of players compared to when I first started and now is mind blowing! I entered the WSOP for the first time in 1980, and I came in fifth in the $400 ladies seven-card stud event. (Remember, hold’em wasn’t too popular in 1980.) But they only paid three places! Deby Callihan won $14,880 for first place. The main event had 73 entries that year and Stu Ungar was awarded $365,000 for his victory.

3. It was much harder to learn poker skills in the ‘70s. There were only a handful of books back then, but I have more than 500 books in my poker library today. No one had heard of poker podcasts or online training sessions. There were no vlogs. There were no poker magazines. (Card Player didn’t start until 1988!) You had to learn by discussing poker with friends or actually getting experience at the felt.

4. We could never even fathom the concept of sitting home and playing poker in your underwear on our computers. I didn’t even have a computer! Today, online poker is popular around the world (and in a handful of states in the U.S.)

5. It was rare to see poker on TV when I first started playing. These days, you can watch poker 24/7. There’s a whole channel dedicated to it, plus countless live streams and vlogs.

6. Poker was only legal in a few states back in the ‘70s. If my recollection is correct, it was only legal in Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington. (And if you wanted to play hold’em, it had to be in Nevada. Hold’em didn’t become legal in California until 1987 and would take a bit before spreading elsewhere.)

7. The demographic of the poker playing population has changed. I am delighted to see so many women playing these days. In the ‘70s, it was rare to see more than three women playing in the live games in any cardroom at the same time, and we all knew each other. There were very few players from foreign countries as poker had not yet become an international sport. The average age of players was also much older compared to today.

8. The variety of games these days is amazing. When I first started playing, there wasn’t much to choose from other than stud, razz, and draw poker. Limit hold’em became popular in the ‘80s, and no-limit wasn’t played in Las Vegas cardrooms except during the WSOP. Today there are so many great varieties of poker. I play in a mixed game that has 25 different poker variations, with games like dramaha, badeucey, badacey, 2-7 triple draw, badugi, etc.

9. Game limits are so much higher now. I started my career playing $2-$4 and $3-$6 limit games. (Although with inflation, playing those games in 1975 was like playing $10-$20 and $15-$30 today.) It was very rare to find a game in Las Vegas higher than $15-$30 back in the day (which would have been like $75-$150 today). Now there are high roller tournaments with buy-ins of up to $1 million and live games at “bet your life” stakes. Incredible!

10. Poker technology has vastly improved. For example, we now have big screens we can look at during tournaments to tell us how many players entered, how many remain, current limits, next limits, average chips, how much time is left, etc. When I first started, if we wanted to know how much time was left, we had to hunt down the tournament director who wore a kitchen timer on his lapel!

Since this is a women’s issue, I’ll close by addressing the ladies reading this. Women have it so much better these days than we had it back in the “wild, wild west” days of poker. You will be treated with respect in cardrooms. If you have a problem, call the supervisor and you will be protected.

Today, there are lots of women’s groups: LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) PLON (Poker League of Nations), WPA (Women’s Poker Association), Poker Queens, and many more. In the words of the old Virginia Slims slogan, we’ve come a long way baby! Now, let’s play poker. ♠

Linda Johnson is a WSOP bracelet winner and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and WPT Honors. ‘The First Lady of Poker’ is one of the founders of the TDA, a partner in Card Player Cruises, and the former publisher/owner of Card Player Magazine.