Glic
One of the oldest recorded European vying games, dating to at least 1454 — its French name is considered the most direct linguistic root of 'Poque,' and by extension 'poker.'
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Glic is documented from as early as 1454, making it one of the earliest identifiable card games resembling modern poker's core structure: players are dealt private cards and bet in rounds on whose hand is best, with the option to bluff rather than reveal a weak hand.
Surviving accounts describe Glic as closely resembling the German game Pochen (also in this library) but without Pochen's trick-taking round layered on top — Glic was purely a betting-and-comparison game from deal to showdown.
Historical note: gaming historians and etymologists consider "Glic" the most direct known linguistic ancestor of the French word "Poque," which was in turn carried to Louisiana by French colonists and evolved into the American word "poker." In this sense, Glic sits at the very root of poker's name, even more directly than Poque itself.
Strategy notes: Because so little detailed rules documentation survives from the 15th century, Glic is included here primarily as a historical and etymological touchstone — the interesting part is tracing poker's name back nearly 600 years, not reconstructing an exact modern ruleset.
Common house rules
Treat as etymology, not a fixed ruleset
Surviving documentation of Glic's exact rules is thin compared to later games like Primero or Bouillotte — most tables interested in 'trying' it simplify to a basic private-hand betting round rather than chasing period-accurate specifics.
Simplify to Poque or Pochen instead
For a more playable modern approximation of this branch of poker's family tree, most tables default to Poque or Pochen (both also in this library), which have somewhat better-documented mechanics.
The name is the headline
Glic's main value at a dealer's-choice table is conversational — few games in this library trace poker's actual name this far back.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Bouillotte
A high-stakes French vying game that emerged during the Revolutionary era, played with a stripped 20-card deck and believed to have shaped the early French form of Poque.
Learn the rules →Poque
The 17th-18th century French bluffing and betting game most often credited as the direct namesake and ancestor of the English word 'poker.'
Learn the rules →Gilet
An even older ancestor than Primero, referenced by Rabelais in 1534 — a three-card vying game that evolved into Brelan under the reign of Charles IX.
Learn the rules →Pochen
A German bluffing and betting game — the Pochspiel — whose name is another leading candidate for the direct linguistic root of the word 'poker.'
Learn the rules →