My father's relatives and friends once gathered in a tiny cabin at Camp Strawberry before the opening of the fishing season to play all sorts of strange poker games.

Cigar smoke filled the room that was lit by a bare light bulb. The language could get a bit coarse, especially when the dealer picked some strange hybrid. I can remember that a game called “no peeky baseball” elicited groans from the poker purists.

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While my brother and cousins took up the game with gusto, it never much interested me. I thought a full house meant a family party and a straight flush was when the toilet worked.

Still, a sudden increase in poker fueled by the Internet and televised poker tournaments is hard to ignore. Suddenly, everyone I know, from nephews to sons to friends, wants to play poker.

A new Utah business, Cards, Chips and More: Your Texas Holdem Headquarters, opened in January in Salt Lake City. It sells felt card tables, poker sets, chips, poker T-shirts (slogan: "I'm not lucky. I'm good”), card shufflers, card guards and instructional books and DVDs, with titles such as “Poker for Dummies” and “Play Poker with the Pros.”

Chris Shilts, who owns the store, said television has fueled interest in the old card game. Six channels broadcast at least one poker show a week.

“I love the game,” he said. “I don't know why. There is a percentage of luck involved. And, in my opinion, there is a much larger percentage of skill involved. You can be lucky or skillful.”

As I discovered so many years ago at Camp Strawberry, there is the social aspect.

“I love hanging out with people,” said Shilts. “There can be male or female at a table and there is always a little bantering back and forth. It is a great way to get out and socialize. To me, it is more than gambling and making money, even though I can do that.”

While playing cards for fun in Utah is not illegal, gambling itself does break the law. Of course, that doesn't stop hundreds of recreational players from competing in penny ante games in their homes or when camping any more than most I-15 drivers pay attention to the 65 mph speed limit.

Utah's conservative and religious culture also does not seem to hurt Shilts' business.

“It doesn't matter whether you are Catholic, Jew or Mormon, people love poker,” he said, adding “I have friends who go to church weekly who play poker and play religiously at least once a week.”

Like many things in modern society, the Internet also helped fuel interest. It allowed novices to learn the game without risking too much money or, perhaps more importantly, without looking foolish in front of their friends.

While I still haven't joined my father's monthly poker games - I guess I'm not a chip off the old block - I became interested in the game's history.

According to the Web site http://www.pokertips.org, the game's origins are unclear. Most historians believe it originated in Persia in the 16th century and was known as As Nas.

“The game played in a similar fashion to modern five-card stud and possessed poker hands rankings, such as three of a kind,” according to the Web site. “When Europeans began to play, they called it 'poque' or 'pochen.' While poker's origins may lie in Europe and Persia, it truly developed in the United States. Poker was first widely played in New Orleans in the early 1800s.”

Count me as a person who still doesn't have the confidence to play poker for money. But, like the old days at Camp Strawberry, the lure of the game to others is totally understandable. And it seems to be increasing in interest all the time.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune