The game of poker is vastly popular around the world. As such, it is hard to imagine poker as anything other than an integral and eternal part of the international history of gaming culture. Yet little is actually known about how poker – as we know it – specifically came to be primarily due to the difficulties in determining the categorical parent game or birthplace of this ubiquitous card game. Although there is little in the way of definitive documentation, it is generally accepted that poker has been a part of world culture for more than 200 years. As for its genealogy, no conclusive predecessor has been determined; in an exploration of the prehistory of poker, there are a number of ancestral games that must be considered.