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Online poker brings the excitement of this highly-exciting game on the green felt over the Internet. Industry experts and observers attribute the phenomenal rise in the popularity of the poker game worldwide to the introduction of the online versions of the card game. The latest industry reports expect online poker revenues to breach the $2-billion mark this year.
Online Poker Historical Timeline
As early as during the latter part of the 1990s, free online poker was already being played through the IRC chat protocol. It was Planet Poker that trail-blazed the online poker game business. It initiated the first ever real-money poker game on January 1, 1998. Major stakeholders in mainstream online poker games developed a retinue of features and entitlements to attract online poker players. It was in October 1999 when Mike Caro became the “poster boy” of Planet Poker.
Leading poker sites offer a diverse set of features to entice online poker aficionados. Among its centerpiece features are the online poker tournaments known in online gaming circles as “satellites.” These special online poker events serve as the entry point of poker players to brick-and-mortar poker tournaments. For instance, Chris Moneymaker used his triumphal run during a PokerStar tournament to gain entry to the 2003 edition of the World Series of Poker. He took the mainstream poker scene by a storm as he went on to win the WSOP main event. His phenomenal success during the 2003 WSOP event ushered the participation of more marquee players of online poker and immediately the following year, the number of entries went up by three fold.
It was in October 2004 when SportingBet, the largest online gaming company which was publicly listed then, completed a megabuck buyout of Paradise Poker, which is one of the first and leading poker card rooms during that time. It was the first online poker card room that went public, and it paved the way for other card room companies to go public.
In 2005, Party Gaming went public on the London SX and generated an IPO offering valued at more than $8 billion. At the time of the initial offering, 92 percent of Party Gaming’s business is accounted for by its poker operations.
It was during the early part of 2006 when Party Gaming acquired Empire Poker from Empire Online. It was also during that year when BWIN, an online gambling company that is based in Austria, took the majority control of Poker Room. In 2008, there were no more than 40 stand-alone poker card rooms that were maintaining a decent level of traffic. However, there were over 600 skins or independent doorways in the existing network of sites during the same year.
Since the start of 2009, most of the traffic within the online gambling niche was focused on just a small number of poker sites, and these included the iPoker Network, Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars. As of the first quarter of 2010, there were some 550 online poker networks and from this number, there were about 2 dozen stand-alone poker sites.
The Unique Appeal of Online Poker
Brick and mortar venues for this card game, such as poker rooms and casinos, are sometimes perceived as intimidating by novice card players. Some poker players also raise the issue of accessibility of some of the poker game venues. In addition to this, some casinos are not actively promoting poker events primarily because it is difficult to profit from such card games. While the time charge or rake-in of brick and mortar casinos is relatively higher, casino operators cite the higher opportunity cost of running poker rooms. For instance, most casino operators enjoy higher margins if they utilize floor spaces for slot machines instead of poker rooms.
By contrast, online poker is a better business proposition for stakeholders as it has lower overhead costs. Unlike its live counterpart in land-based casinos, online poker would not take up valuable floor space. Online poker is also a more attractive option for newbie poker players and low-stake poker players since it is not an intimidating gaming experience for most people. You can actually have a diverse range of options when looking for low-stakes online poker games. In fact you can start playing online poker for stakes as low as 1 or 2 cents. Beginners and low-stake poker players can also join free-roll poker tournaments, where one is not required to pay an entry fee. These poker events usually boast of strong participation of beginners and less-moneyed clientele.
A new high in the effort to level the playing field has been achieved by online poker games and attempts to influence the game got even harder. Fraud, through the possible collusion of players can now be easily detected in online poker games. Poker games in land-based casinos allow colluding players to simply fold their hands to conceal the real strength of their holdings and there is no way for anyone to detect any collusion or conspiracy that is being committed.
On the other hand, security staff of online poker games can track down the hand history of players and detect any unusual patterns or behavior that may indicate possible collusion. In addition to this, online poker operators check the IP addresses of their players and flag down those who come from the same household as well as prevent those who use known proxy servers from playing the game.
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