Growth of Online Poker

When I started playing online poker it was for fake chips and I had to pay by the hour to play. Online poker has changed BIG TIME since those days, 7 years ago. Now when you type "online poker" or "poker sites" into a search engine you get thousands of results. How did online poker becomes so big in the last few years? I would say in 2 words: Chris Moneymaker. Since his 2003 WSOP win, people have flocked to online card rooms to try to be the next big new name in poker.

Online Card Rooms are Growing

I watched my site of choice, PokerStars, go from under 10,000 players (players actually logged in and playing) to over 30,000 in just the last year and a half. They have WSOP satellite tournaments for as little as $2.00 to win your way into the World Series of Poker. These tournaments attract players from all over the world, trying to very inexpensively win their way into the event. They also have ring games of all types: fixed, pot limit and no limit games ranging from $0.01/0.02 to $100/$200 - this wide range of table stakes allows players to comfortably play for whatever amount of money they can afford to gamble.

Online Poker vs. Las Vegas

Besides Chris Moneymaker giving the "little guy" high hopes of being able to win his way into big poker events, live and online, another big reason for the growth in online poker is being able to sit in the comfort of your own living room with casino action right at your fingertips. I live in Las Vegas and have a ton of different casinos I can go to 24 hours a day, but Las Vegas is one of very few cities that offers that. Other people may have Indian casinos within driving distance, but their poker games are usually limited. Playing poker online offers you what places like Las Vegas already have, as well as a lot more.

Poker on Television

Television shows - watching the pros play on various programs - also have a lot to do with online poker growth. You have probably seen the World Poker Tour and Party Poker, on TV. Watching a tournament on TV is a learning experience which can give people more confidence to buy in at online card rooms. I believe that poker on TV brings a lot of new players to online poker. They see all the action on TV and it looks so easy. . . so why not try it out and have some fun?

Losing and Winning at Poker

New poker players may buy in and lose their bankroll right away. The one good thing about losing is that you always learn something from loss and will try to do better next time. On the flipside, the feeling of winning a big pot or making first place in a poker tournament is an amazing feeling of adrenalin rushing through your body.

For experienced players or new players, online poker is a growing pastime. Men and women of all (legal) age log-in to poker rooms 24 hours a day, whether it is to learn the game or to win big. Whatever the true reasons are, people keep coming back and a steady sream of new players are joining poker sites and making the game even more popular online.

When people ask me why I play so much poker online, I always tell them "I'm training". I have thousands of hours of experience when it comes to poker, but the bottom line is that I love the game and will always keep coming back.

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