The origins of strip poker — that racy variant in which players wager items of clothing rather than chips or money — is as hard to pinpoint as the beginnings of poker, generally speaking. However, most accounts suggest the idea of taking it off while taking a card probably first occurred not long after the game was introduced in early 19th-century America.
Just as New Orleans is often identified as a starting point for poker in the United States, there, too, have some speculated the first strip poker games took place. Others have located the game in 19th-century brothels, introduced as a way to enliven even further the usual negotiations occurring in such establishments.