After a four year absence, poker will return to Adelaide's Skycity Casino, riding a wave of renewed popularity around the world.

On Wednesday the casino opened its new Poker Zone with a Texas Holdem tournament scheduled to host 60 players.

It plans to run games on four nights a week, Wednesday to Saturday, featuring Holdem, Omaha and Manila variations of the game.

Skycity said it closed down the last of its dedicated poker tables in 2001 due to dwindling public interest.

But since then the king of card games - said to be as much about psychology as luck - has enjoyed a worldwide resurgence with regular television coverage for tournaments and extensive internet sites devoted to on-line competition.

Its popularity in Australia is also expected to increase after Melbourne father of four, Joseph Hachem, last weekend won the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and a $10 million prize.

Prior to their demise four years ago, the poker tables at Skycity were also home to the Australian Poker Championships for 13 years.

"We have observed the new poker phenomenon that has swept the US in recent times and we're very excited to be reintroducing the game here - back to where it used to have such a great following," said Skycity communications manager Alice Bowran.

"Poker's popularity has now reached a whole new generation of players because of the internet and popular television coverage."

Ms Bowran said poker's traditional image dated back to the 1800s in the United States where opponents did battle in smoke-filled saloons.

"Gone are the smoke-filled rooms and predominantly mature players - poker is now played in a smoke-free environment and appeals to people of all ages and backgrounds," she said.

In the Texas Holdem variation players use a full deck and are dealt two cards each.

They then use any combination of the five community cards and their two cards to make their best possible hand.