Poker was once played with animal bones

A closer look

Before casinos provided neatly stacked, color-coded clay discs, you literally played poker with garbage. In the early 19th century, standard currency was too heavy and varied to use easily on a table. Gamblers instead used whatever small, distinct items they could find to represent money, including jagged pieces of ivory, actual animal bone, and dried clay shaped into crude discs. Calling someone a 'high roller' was a lot more visceral when they were tossing actual skeletal remains into the pot.