It has been a decade since I have been playing poker. I love the game. The reasons are simple. A good poker player lives by his/her own skill and effort. Everything he does is based on his understanding of the game, the odds, playing patterns, player psychology, good strategy, bankroll management (among other similar things). Playing poker has also given me a good perspective on my work and my productivity. Hence, I love writing about it too.
Well, poker has been on the scene for a few hundred years now, often shown as being played in saloons and bars in the old cowboy flicks. The dreamy perception of these cowboys riding on their horses from place to place and cleaning up at the poker table occurs in so many popular films. Inadvertently, these cowboys who are “ace card players” also happened to be the fastest gun in town, the best looking and always got the girls. The game of poker has in the past had a reputation for being played by hustlers in the back rooms of pool halls and other comparable places with not so great reputations. The majority of folks these days have played poker in one form or another from the dining table games on a Friday night with the family to the customary ‘just the lads’ nights, weekend garage games and those pocket money games at the University.
The Game of Poker Evolves
It was somewhere around 2003 that the game of poker started gaining popularity globally as the most chic game of the decade. Online Poker and the Tele became the driving force for the quickest growth of a sport ever since the Snooker/pool flare-up in the 80’s. The introduction of televised poker such as the Poker Millions show on Sky Sports, the WSOP and the WPT (World Poker Tour) started gaining a cult audience. Hidden under table cameras and pinhole cameras allowed the viewers to see the players cards. Consequently, viewers could now see how the pros played, how they bluffed and so on. TV producer John Duthie was the first player in the Poker Millions event on television to win a million pounds.
Online or virtual poker exploded as it now let people from all over the globe to play against each other 24/7 and fed the demand of TV poker. Players can now find a game at all levels and stakes at all hours of the day, 7 days a week. Games start as small as 1 cent/1 cent games where the minimum buy in is $1 or $2 and climb up to $100/$200 games where you need a minimum of $1,000 to sit down at a table. Some high stakes games even go for $1000/$2000 online. Online poker software also gave these players the chance to make the grade for the big TV tournaments through online satellite tournaments. There was now the opening for players to win a whole lot of money on TV tournaments via satellites for as little as $10. It was in 2003 that Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and $2,500,000 through a $40 satellite on a popular online poker site.
Online Poker Tournaments
Online poker tournaments and promotions went over the top with hundreds of players taking part in tournaments and creating huge prize pools. All this pointed to the fact that you could play huge tournaments without having to step out of the comfort of your own home. Then, In 2004 the World Series Of Poker saw the impact of online poker players as 2,500
