Poker online

Alongside Blackjack, online poker is one of the most popular games you can find. The term online poker simply refers to poker games on the Internet. There are many online poker rooms, all of which offer a variety of poker variations and variations in all stakes imaginable (including completely free games and tournaments!)

As we can read about poker history at firstclassonlinecasinos.com, the online version of this game was seen in chat rooms before 2000, and it wasn’t about money at all. That changed suddenly when Chris Moneymaker qualified for around $ 60 online on PokerStars in 2003 for the WSOP Main Event – the most important live tournament in the world – and in the end took home the win with a $2.5 million bonus.

This fairytale story sparked a never-before-seen poker boom. Hundreds of thousands that later became millions began playing online poker. With Chris Moneymaker’s victory, poker suddenly became accessible to the masses. The impact of this event was so great that it has entered the history books. Even today, experts speak of the “moneymaker effect”.

When the online poker software was further developed and made much more secure so that players could deposit and withdraw money without any problems, there was another boost. A year later, the World Poker Tour revolutionized poker on television, because for the first time viewers could see the players’ hole cards using the newly developed cameras. In the period that followed, poker developed into the third most popular TV sport after football and Formula One.

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Poker Online vs. Live Poker

While the rules are basically the same, there are big differences between online and live poker. Online poker is a lot faster and you play a lot more hands in the same amount of time than you do live. The risk is lower, as you can play for very small amounts, and it is much more convenient because you can access it from anywhere and at any time.

On the other hand, you play against the “invisible”. The social component of live poker is significantly higher as you can play it with friends or meet new people. This is rarely the case online. In addition, live poker has a strong psychological component and you can see a lot in the body language and behaviour of your opponents, which is completely eliminated online. Nevertheless, there are also ways and means online to recognize so-called tells.

Which poker variants are offered?

There are many different variations of this popular game, but only about a handful are actively played online. By far the most popular variant is No-Limit Holdem, which poker legend Doyle Brunson once referred to as “The Cadillac of Poker”.

In this version of Texas Hold’em you are dealt two cards and have to combine them with up to five community cards to form the best possible 5-card poker hand. A well-known saying goes, “It only takes a few minutes to learn the game, but a lifetime to master it.”

Online poker tournaments

In a poker tournament, you get a certain number of chips for your buy-in (entry fee). If you have lost all of your chips, you are eliminated. Whoever has all the chips in play at the end is the winner of the tournament. Poker tournaments became popular thanks to major televised tournament series such as the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and the European Poker Tour.

In online tournaments, you have the chance to make a big profit with a small stake. There are some £ 10 tournaments where the winner gets more than £200,000! This is because the starting fields in online tournaments are usually much larger than in live tournaments.

Thousands of players from all over the world compete in the big Sunday tournaments. The most famous of these is the Sunday Million on PokerStars, where you can play for a million prize pool with a buy-in of $ 215!