The
resurgence in popularity of live poker, fueled by the cable
television shows, has served as the impetus behind another
forum for the game: the Internet. The number of online poker
sites has increased dramatically in the last several years and
the number of people who play the game on line has increased
proportionately.
Gambling
online occupies a very “gray” area of legality. The sites are
owned and operated in all off shore locations, a majority of
them in the Caribbean. The United States government and its
agencies are addressing the issue, but thus far no resolution
has been reached although it should happen within the next
couple of years.
In the
meantime, people are playing
Texas Holdem
online poker by
the tens of thousands. It creates an entirely different
experience than the
Texas Holdem
poker rooms in
“brick and mortar” casinos. The game may be the same, but the
fact you are not interacting face-to-face with the other
players makes the playing experience and some of the
strategies very different. It can be a far less intimidating
atmosphere playing the game in the comfort of your own home.
If nothing
else, the Internet is creating new legions of poker fans which
ultimately break away from the Internet version and try their
hand in live rooms against players they can see. In this
respect, online poker is a veritable “training ground” for
people who become captivated with the game and wish to take it
to the next level.
Professional
Texas Holdem
poker player
Annie Duke, winner of the $2 million World Series of Poker
Tournament of Champions, addressed the Internet poker
phenomenon when she was in Chicago last month for a special
appearance:
“It (the
Interent) definitely has brought a lot more people into the
game,” she said. “It has opened up a whole world of play.
There are players in live rooms today who have come from the
online world. There’s a fellow named Thomas Keller who plays
on ‘Ultimate Bet’ who happens to be one of the most frequent
players on that site. He actually branched out to live rooms
at 23 years of age having really gotten his training online.
Thomas won the $3,000 No Limit Texas Holdem event at the World
Series.
“So you do
have the online world generating some very good young players,
and that’s really the difference. Poker players for a long
time really didn’t peak until they were in their 30s. And it’s
really a sort of experiential component to poker just sitting
at the table and understanding how cards flow and
understanding how people act and having been there before. It
takes a long time to get that kind of experience when you’re
restricted by the physical limitations of how long it takes to
deal out a hand until it’s over. In the live casino game, you
can only get a certain number of hands out per hour and you
can only play one table at a time.
“You
transfer that to
Texas Holdem
online and all
of a sudden people are playing four tables at a time and not
only that, each table is dealing sometimes quadruple the hands
that you can get in the real world. People can gain experience
so much more quickly that’s it creating some players who are
very good at a very young age. It’s really scary to think how
good these people are going to be when they’re 35 if they’re
this good when they’re 23 years old now. You just never saw
incredibly good 23 year olds. It just didn’t happen because
they just couldn’t get the experience in order to become that
good.
