I wanted to share some of what I'm referring to - popular video games in which poker appears as a kind of 'game within the game.' To me these examples are fascinating, not just because they show in another way how pervasive poker is in our culture, but because often the inclusion of poker in these games implies some sort of commentary about poker's significance, too. That discussion is kind of an 'outtake' from a chapter titled 'Poker on the Computer' that covers early poker-playing programs, the creation of video poker, and of course the rise of online poker as an important part of the game's story and cultural influence.Īlso not quite making it into that chapter were some examples of poker popping up inside of other video games - that is, non-poker video games in which the virtual 'world' the player inhabits also includes either references to poker or even the ability to play poker within the game. Last time I was sharing a discussion of the 1983 film WarGames that didn't quite make it into my book Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America's Favorite Card Game.