Online Poker - Its Beginnings, Its Future
Gambling sites were somewhat popular before the first poker room, but the real excitement was just beginning.
In addition to Casinos, bettors could place their wagers with "illegal" bookies throughout the US or in some online Sports books. Then in 1998, Planet Poker was launched, and online poker was born. They didn't hold their exclusivity for long, because others soon caught on to the potential, and the race began.
In 1999, a new leader hit the Internet; Paradise Poker was crowned the new king.
However, today you can find over 1,000 matches if you're looking for online poker sites. In fact, Google will return over 50M matches for anything referencing online poker.
As of this writing, the current "big" poker sites include: Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Party Poker, Bodog Poker, and Pacific Poker.
Many online poker sites offer the ability to play with "fake money" or real money.
For learning the various forms of Poker (including the popular: Texas Holdem'), the various sites offer "Play Money" tournaments, sit n gos, how online poker works, deposits, withdrawals etc.
In addition to winning "play money", you can accumulate points which will allow you to enter "real money" games or to "buy" merchandise that advertises your favorite sites (and the fact that you play poker online).
Do you need a reason to play online as opposed to a land-based casino? Deposit bonuses are among your best incentives. Besides the convenience of playing from your home, most online sites will add to your deposits in many forms and instances.
Whether it's your first deposit, or a deposit during a promotion, you will realize "instant profit" when you deposit your money to play poker. In fact, it's quite common for online poker sites to match your deposits (up to their limit). You might deposit $500 and receive a $500 Bonus from the site making your beginning bankroll $1,000. You won't find that in any Nevada or New Jersey Casino. Even the privately held casinos (Indian) can't do that for you.
You have many experienced, quality sites from which to choose, and I'm not going to recommend one over another. I will warn you however, that there are sites that have been caught cheating their players by using insiders to "see" the hole cards of their competitors... so do your homework before making that first deposit.
Because of the cheating that went on, or coincidental to it, the other sites have fraud detection systems in place to keep the action honest. They even have ways to determine collusion between players that could not be done in a brick and mortar casino.
They can see the history of players' hands and betting patterns. That cannot be done in a Casino, because players can fold their hands and no one will ever know what they threw away. Therefore, collusion cannot be detected in a casino.
Another method for keeping everything honest in an online poker site is noting and recording players' IP addresses and preventing people in the same house from playing at the same table.
Overall, you can be assured that online poker is safe, and you already know it is very fun (and profitable).
Gambling sites were somewhat popular before the first poker room, but the real excitement was just beginning.
In addition to Casinos, bettors could place their wagers with "illegal" bookies throughout the US or in some online Sports books. Then in 1998, Planet Poker was launched, and online poker was born. They didn't hold their exclusivity for long, because others soon caught on to the potential, and the race began.
In 1999, a new leader hit the Internet; Paradise Poker was crowned the new king.
However, today you can find over 1,000 matches if you're looking for online poker sites. In fact, Google will return over 50M matches for anything referencing online poker.
As of this writing, the current "big" poker sites include: Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Party Poker, Bodog Poker, and Pacific Poker.
Many online poker sites offer the ability to play with "fake money" or real money.
For learning the various forms of Poker (including the popular: Texas Holdem'), the various sites offer "Play Money" tournaments, sit n gos, how online poker works, deposits, withdrawals etc.
In addition to winning "play money", you can accumulate points which will allow you to enter "real money" games or to "buy" merchandise that advertises your favorite sites (and the fact that you play poker online).
Do you need a reason to play online as opposed to a land-based casino? Deposit bonuses are among your best incentives. Besides the convenience of playing from your home, most online sites will add to your deposits in many forms and instances.
Whether it's your first deposit, or a deposit during a promotion, you will realize "instant profit" when you deposit your money to play poker. In fact, it's quite common for online poker sites to match your deposits (up to their limit). You might deposit $500 and receive a $500 Bonus from the site making your beginning bankroll $1,000. You won't find that in any Nevada or New Jersey Casino. Even the privately held casinos (Indian) can't do that for you.
You have many experienced, quality sites from which to choose, and I'm not going to recommend one over another. I will warn you however, that there are sites that have been caught cheating their players by using insiders to "see" the hole cards of their competitors... so do your homework before making that first deposit.
Because of the cheating that went on, or coincidental to it, the other sites have fraud detection systems in place to keep the action honest. They even have ways to determine collusion between players that could not be done in a brick and mortar casino.
They can see the history of players' hands and betting patterns. That cannot be done in a Casino, because players can fold their hands and no one will ever know what they threw away. Therefore, collusion cannot be detected in a casino.
Another method for keeping everything honest in an online poker site is noting and recording players' IP addresses and preventing people in the same house from playing at the same table.
Overall, you can be assured that online poker is safe, and you already know it is very fun (and profitable).
No comments:
Post a Comment