The idea of a game where the players’ clothes are on the line has been known for centuries. In the case of strip poker, historians believe it spread through bars and brothels in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. The expression "strip poker" first appeared in 1916 in a joke published by “The Technology Monthly and Harvard Engineering Journal”:
“Say, Bill how did the game come out?”
“It ended in a tie”
“Oh, you were playing strip poker.”
Adult entertainment in literature
Strip poker then began appearing in various literary works, such as Eric Linklater’s 1931 novel “Juan in America”. The author tells the story of a woman who, during a game, loses all of her clothes. In 1939, the first mention of strip poker appeared in literature outside the USA. In the novel “A Coffin for Dimitrios”, we read about a game of strip poker taking place in Istanbul.
Since then, strip poker in many variations has spread all over the world. Nowadays, practically everyone is aware this game exists and roughly knows what it’s about.
Adult games take the world by storm
The rapidly developing personal computer market immediately saw the potential of stripping beautiful girls naked while playing poker. When, in 1982, Artworx produced the game Strip Poker for Apple II computers, it was ported to many other platforms and kick-started the genre’s growth.
In the mid-1980s, Samantha Fox, a singer and model popular worldwide at the time, appeared in the title role in the computer game Samantha Fox Strip Poker, helping popularize the whole pastime.
It was only after nearly 20 years that the computer version of strip poker reached a satisfactory technical level. Until the end of the 20th century, computer strip poker either offered photos of models or video footage in small windows, where barely visible models undressed with little connection to the current situation in the game. This changed in 2002, when Torquemada Games presented its game Video Strip Poker. The fascinating story of Torquemada Games and the Video Strip Poker family of games has been going on for decades. We invite you to learn about it in a separate article.
Strip poker becomes popular because it isn’t a porn game
Strip poker quickly found a permanent place in pop culture, and its popularity began to be used, for example, in films and computer games not thematically related to strip poker. In the movie "Nobody's Fool", strip poker is played by one of the main characters, portrayed by Hollywood star Bruce Willis. In the popular game "Dead Rising 2", the main character plays a game of strip poker with friends he rescued from a zombie attack.
No wonder, then, that strip poker became truly widespread, popular entertainment—officially played even by widely known people. For many celebrities, strip poker became a way to spend free time, as well as to earn substantial amounts of money.
Carmen Electra, one of the icons of femininity at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, was the host of the film Strip Poker Invitational, in which sexy professional nude models play—of course—strip poker. In this production, one of the players was professional poker player, former professional model, and volleyball player Erica Schoenberg.
One of the computer games still available features several actresses known from popular TV series. These are Neriah Davis and Carrie Stevens—American models and actresses known from the series Rock Star and Beverly Hills 90210—as well as Kelly Monaco, an actress known from Baywatch and from participating in the American version of Dancing with the Stars. In 2013, Naya Rivera, an actress appearing in one of the most popular teen series, Glee, took part in an exceptionally atmospheric Strip Poker themed session. The subject of strip poker is also not unfamiliar to one of the biggest scandal-makers of recent years, Lady Gaga. In her erotic-charged music video for Poker Face, she takes part in a thrilling game of strip poker.
Strip poker: popular adult entertainment for those who don’t want to play extreme, vulgar porn games
Thanks to the successes achieved by computer versions of strip poker—led by excellent games from the Video Strip Poker family—as well as celebrity interest in strip poker, strip poker definitively stopped being a taboo topic in public space. In the first decade of the 21st century, official strip poker tournaments began to be organized, with hundreds of players participating at a time. The biggest and best-known mass strip poker tournaments held so far are described in a separate article.