Internet Poker History
QqPokerOnline What is Online Poker? Online poker is your game of poker played over the web. It's been partially responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005, though a survey performed by DrKW and Global Betting and Gaming Consultants claimed online poker earnings in 2004 were at $1.4 billion. In a testimony before the United States Senate regarding Internet Gaming, Grant Eve, a Certified Public Accountant representing that the US Enforcement Business Joseph Eve, Certified Public Accountants, estimated that one in every four dollars gambled is gambled online. Difference Between Conventional Poker and Online Poker Traditional (or "brick and mortar", B&M, reside, land-based) venues for playing poker, like casinos and poker rooms, may be intimidating for novice players and are often located in geographically disparate locations. Also, brick and mortar casinos are somewhat hesitant to promote poker because it is difficult for them to gain from it. Although the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos is usually large, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are even greater. Brick and mortar casinos often make much more money by removing poker rooms and adding more slot machines - for example, figures by the Gambling Accounting Firm Joseph Eve estimate that poker accounts for 1% of brick and mortar casino revenues. Online venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. By way of example, adding another table does not take up valuable space like it would for a brick and mortar casino. Online poker rooms also permit the players to play low stakes (as low as 1cents/2pennies) and frequently provide poker freeroll tournaments (where there isn't any entrance fee), attracting novices or less affluent clientele. Online venues may be more vulnerable to particular kinds of fraud, especially collusion between players. But they've collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick and mortar casinos. For example, online poker room security employees can examine the history of the cards previously played by any player on the site, making patterns of behavior easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their hands without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Internet poker rooms also check players' IP addresses so as to prevent players at the exact
same home or at known open proxy servers from playing on the very same tables. Digital device fingerprinting also allows poker sites to recognize and prevent players who create new accounts in attempts to circumvent prior account bans, restrictions and closures. History of Internet Poker Free poker online has been performed as early as the late 1990s in the kind of IRC poker. Planet Poker was the first online card room to offer real cash games from 1998. The first real money poker game was dealt on January 1, 1998. Author Mike Caro became the "face" of Planet Poker in October 1999. The significant internet poker sites offer varying features to entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain access to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such tournament on PokerStars which Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the primary event, causing shock in the poker world, and starting the poker boom. The 2004 World Series featured three times as many players as in 2003. At least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. Like Moneymaker, 2004 winner Greg Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom. Four Ways online poker rooms gain Normally, online poker rooms generate the majority of their earnings via four methods. First, there's the rake. Like the vig paid to a bookie, the rake is a fee paid to the house for hosting the match. Rake is accumulated from most real money ring game pots. The rake is generally calculated as a proportion of the pot based on a sliding scale and capped at a maximum fee. Each online poker room decides its own rake structure. Considering that the expenses for running an online poker table are smaller than those for conducting a live poker table, rake in most internet poker rooms is a lot more compact compared to its brick and mortar counterpart. Secondly, palms played in pre-scheduled multi-table and impromptu sit-and-go championships aren't raked, but instead an entry fee approximately five to ten percent of this tournament buy is added to the entry price of this tournament. These two are generally specified in the championship details as, e.g., $20+$2 ($20 signifies the buy-in which goes into the prize pool and $2 signifies the entry fee, de facto rake). Unlike actual casino tournaments, online tournaments do not deduct dealer tips and other expenses in the prize pool. Third, a few online poker sites also supply side games such as blackjack, roulettes side bets on poker hands in which the player plays against "the house" for real money. The odds are in your house's favor in these types of matches, thus producing a gain for your house. Some websites go so far as becoming affiliated with internet casinos, or even incorporating them in the poker room program. Fourth, like virtually all institutions which hold money, online poker sites invest the money that gamers deposit. Regulations in most jurisdictions exist in a bid to limit the form of dangers sites can take together with their clients' money. However, as the sites don't have to pay attention on gamers' bankrolls even low-risk investments can be a significant source of earnings. Dewa Poker