When online poker came on the scene during the late 90s, the world never knew what was coming. Within less than a decade, the online poker industry became one of the fastest growing and largest Internet industries to ever hit the World Wide Web. While poker never got its fair chance in land-based casinos because it wasn’t the most profitable casino game, the Internet created a hotbed for poker, allowing it to become every man’s sport, not just a social game played in basements. Furthermore, stuffy poker rooms at many casinos were for the most part intimidating to players, so there was never any room for the game to advance.
Online poker rooms, on the other hand, have relatively no over head and remove the pressure of confronting veteran players face-to-face. As simply as logging into a website, anyone can play online poker, making it virtually stress-free for players to learn and play poker abundantly. Furthermore, online poker rooms afford players the ability to play at limits that anyone can afford.
Another factor that encouraged the advancement of online poker rooms and continues to boost the popularity of online poker is the limitless amount of promoting that goes on to entice players to play online poker. Online poker rooms are constantly coming up with new promotions, new tournaments, new freerolls, new bonuses, new satellites—you name it. If it can be done in an online poker room, it is.
As a result of all of this, online poker has come a long way since the first online poker room to accept bets with real money, Planet Poker, opened its doors in the late 90s. Even prior to that, IRC poker supported free online poker. Before the online poker boom, the only poker players to achieve semi-celebrity status were Doyle Brunson and Mike Caro. Online poker paved the way for professional poker players to be in the limelight and have all the fame and exposure that other sports stars get.
One of the biggest events in online poker that really boosted the reputation of the game, encouraged more players to play online poker, and helped put PokerStars on the map, specifically, was when average-Joe online poker player, Chris Moneymaker, won a seat at the 2003 World Series of Poker at a PokerStars satellite tournament for less than $40. Moneymaker even went on to win the 2003 WSOP Main Event, profiting $2.5 million. By the time the 2004 WSOP rolled around, there was three times the number of registrants as the year before. Furthermore, the 2004 WSOP final table saw four players who had won their seats playing online poker, and the winner was again a PokerStars player, Greg Raymer.
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SportsBook Poker recently made the switch to the Merge Gaming network and brings with them bigger tournaments and unique promotions. The poker room is part of the Sportsbook.com network, which consists of an online sportsbook, full in-house casino offering 3D slots and the online poker room. They provide an excellent level of customer support, have the best processing rate for US deposits and offer a huge $1000 deposit bonus in addition to 10% cash.
The SportsBook software is definitely first class and offers a smooth and easy to use interface, followed up with a number of custom and unique tools for players to use. This includes their animated emoticons, advanced tagging and note taking system along with the built in game features. The poker room supports all of the standard variations of poker in addition to mixed games, such as HORSE, Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw.
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PartyPoker is one of the strongest and well-populated online poker rooms on the Internet today, with more than 100,000 active players online at any given time. Prior to 2006 when the UIGEA was passed, PartyPoker played a major role in the growth of online poker. Even after banning US players, they still have an insane amount of traffic. The PartyGaming brand encompasses PartyCasino, PartyBingo, and other sites in addition to PartyPoker. All PartyGaming sites are connected, so players have the advantage of playing at all sites using only one account.
PartyPoker now offers an updated signup bonus that is more competitive with other online poker sites. The PartyPoker software is a bit outdated when compared to other online poker rooms who have updated their softwares to be more cutting edge, but it is a fast and reliable platform that is simple and user-friendly. PartyPoker is good about keeping their promotions current and fresh, giving out a lot of cash and prizes to winning players. You will also find that PartyPoker offers reload bonuses from time to time, which are not always available at other online poker rooms.
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Carbon Poker, the first online poker room to represent the Merge Gaming Network, now shares skins with PDC Poker, Iron Duke, William Hill, Aced Poker, and other thriving online poker rooms. This highly successful network of online poker rooms makes for healthy traffic and good solid competition, though you can go fishing at the low-limit tables. Carbon Poker was actually formerly known as Poker.com, but a name change worked better for marketing purposes. The poker room opened for business back in 2007 and is now one a leading player in the online poker industry.
Carbon Poker offers cutting edge and up to date promotions that change consistently, plus the innovative ELO ranking system, mad freerolls, and a first class loyalty rewards program. The Carbon software has tons of options including up to eight table multi-tabling, vector graphics, and a wide variety of game and tournament options. Other software features include rabbit hunting, expose one card, and deal it twice. Not to mention, Carbon Poker offers one of the best bonuses in the business, and they accept US players.
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Titan Poker came on the scene in 2005 and is now one of the most trusted and reliable online poker rooms. Offering a simple poker software application by PlayTech, Titan Poker is an online poker room that anyone can learn to navigate, and everything runs in real-time. The Titan Poker loyalty program is very rewarding, and the sign up bonus is a rewarding as well.
As a part of the iPoker Network, this highly trafficked site sees up to 50,000 players logged on at times, with more than three fourths of these players playing in online poker tournaments. Titan Poker is a popular spot for online poker tournaments, as they have quite a lot of options available including weekly big-money tournaments, as well as numerous satellites to live poker events that take place globally. Titan Poker feeds into some of the biggest poker championships in the world. Titan Poker is also known for their freerolls and progressive sit & go jackpots. There are lots of loose players at Titan Poker, many seeking qualifier seats to upcoming live tournaments. Titan Poker is also the sponsor of the European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP).
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PokerStars is one of the Net's most popular online poker rooms, with a global player base of hundreds of thousands of online poker players and the official title of the world's largest online poker room. The competition at PokerStars is healthy with lots of tournament action and players from all realms of the spectrum, ranging from beginners to professionals. Team PokerStars Pros include many well-known names like Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, and many others, who often frequent the tables at PokerStars.
The PokerStars software is user-friendly and current, featuring customizable virtual poker tables, image upload avatars, multi-table play on up to eight tables, and accessibility for Mac players. PokerStars also hosts some of the biggest weekly and monthly guaranteed online tournaments like the Sunday Million and the Sunday Warmup with plenty of satellites and freerolls. The PokerStars frequent player program is one of the best loyalty rewards system of any online poker room with lots of cash bonuses and a PokerStars VIP Store. PokerStars is one of the most recognized online poker brands, which explains why they have the player base to sponsor the biggest online poker tournaments on the Internet that pay out millions of dollars to PokerStars players quite frequently.
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Full Tilt Poker is one of the most advertised online poker brands, sponsoring many big-name live tournament poker players, as well as some of the biggest players of high-stakes online poker. Full Tilt is where many online poker pros hang out with chip stacks that get up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to the high-stakes action, Full Tilt offers a wide range of lower limit tables that are always well populated with up to 70,000+ online poker players to compete with.
The Full Tilt online poker software is available to PC and Mac users and offers a vast array of customization options, as well as the import of tournament and cash game data to the Poker Tracker program. In addition, you will find standard setting online poker tournaments, satellites, loyalty rewards specials, and promotional events to keep you busy playing online poker at Full Tilt including a weekly $1.5 million guaranteed tournament. It's obvious why poker pros like Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen all call Full Tilt Poker home.
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Online poker rooms like Full Tilt have taken online poker to the next extreme, breaking record after record with the largest tournaments ever played in online poker and the largest prize pools ever paid. Moreover, the high-stakes players who play online poker win and lose the biggest pots the Internet has ever seen like it’s nothing, while getting paid millions of dollars a year to play online poker. Speaking of, high-stakes online poker has reached phenomenal heights with hundreds of thousands of dollars going back and forth between the biggest online poker players daily. And what is truly remarkable about these high-stakes players like Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius is that they are not famous for their appearances and wins at live event poker tournaments. They are self-made celebrities who have achieved celebrity status based solely on their ability to play online poker.
Despite the drama that has been associated with the US and the UIGEA, online poker has existed as an impenetrable force that refuses to be suppressed by anyone or any government. The minor setbacks that online poker has suffered since the UIGEA was passed when, one after another, online poker rooms dropped US players like the plague, were just that—minor setbacks. The problems with the legalities of US online poker proved only to lull the natural progression of online poker as a whole, as many online poker rooms have since re-welcomed US players to play online poker at their sites. Most reputable online poker websites don’t even bat an eye now at the UIGEA or any other force that threatens the party. If nothing else, the UIGEA did online poker a favor by giving it a chance to take root in other countries and spread globally. Had the problems with the US never transpired, online poker would likely not be the same game that is today. Online poker, like everything else, is what it is because of its history and experiences.
Ultimately, online poker and live-poker co-exist peacefully and sustain each other. Both arenas feed off of each other, and neither would be as strong alone. The game of poker, and online poker especially, is in its glory days, and there are guaranteed to be many, many more to come with a multitude on opportunities for newcomers and poker experts, alike, to play online poker.
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