Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, you know about the incredible growth that poker has undergone. Most people who care to analyze these things (and you’ll notice that anal is the root word in analyze!) credit the explosion in the popularity of poker to a few things.
Among them are the broadcasts of major poker tournaments that can now be seen on television, the fact that in 2004 an amateur player (Chris Moneymaker) took the Big Prize in the World Series of Poker, and of course the birth of online poker rooms.
Online poker rooms are not something that has just come into existence in the past few years, in fact poker has been played on the internet since the web has been around in its current incarnation. Most of the time, though, poker took a backseat (the backseat in an extended station wagon, really) to other forms of gambling, particularly casino games.
People still continued to play poker in their kitchens and garages in informal get togethers, but it wasn’t until poker really started to take off as a sport that online poker rooms really started to thrive in cyber space.
Today, of course, you can find online poker rooms on dozens of different websites, and almost all of them can boast a huge number of regular members. What this means for the poker enthusiast is that you don’t have to wait until Friday or Saturday night, when all of your buddies (or enough of them to make a good game) are available to play. You can log into a web site on cyber space that has an online poker room or several online poker rooms, and there will be people ready to play.
The great thing about this is that you can play poker for as long a period or as short a period of time you want. Just have a half hour at the office? Log onto a poker site on the web, find a good room, and play a couple of hands. Are you one of those incurable insomniacs who can’t get to sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning? Most online poker rooms have an international membership, so you can not only find other insomniac poker players, but people from other time zones as well; you never have to stay up bored again!
There are online poker rooms for fans of any type of poker game, from Hold ’em (and that’s the most popular version out there) to seven card stud and Omaha, in all their many variations. You can choose to play for free or play for real money in an online poker room and many offer tournaments with some great prizes, such as trips to the World Series of Poker and other great non-cash prizes in addition to the big jackpots available.
Online poker rooms are great for anyone with even a passing interest in the game. They are less intimidating than playing people face to face for the first time, so beginners can learn the ropes. That’s not to say that the skill needed to win consistently isn’t present at an online poker room, because it most assuredly is.