One of the more enduring cultural reflections on 19th-century poker is the short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by the American poet and fiction writer Bret Harte. First appearing in the California-based magazine Overland Monthly in January 1869, the story helped make Harte famous and was later the basis for several films and an even an opera.
Rather than depict a poker game or exploit the inherent drama produced by the conflict of a poker hand, Harte's story instead uses poker in a thematic way, presenting the game as one of several activities deemed morally objectionable and deserving of punishment by those with authority in a mid-century California town.