poker history

The history of poker is about 200 years old but online poker has become popular as the field of the internet flourished. With each passing day new online poker sites keep surfacing and now there are numerous online poker sites available. 1998 was a significant year in the field of online poker. It was in this year first online poker room called Planet Poker came into existence. Since then more and more poker rooms were set up online.

The collect value called rake was fixed from 5% to $3 maximum. Even today the rake value has remained common. Paradise Poker another poker site made its way on internet. In the year 2000, Poker Spot was launched but because of problems in collection with respect to deposits of the players from their credit made it hard to survive. Ultimately it vanished from the scene. Party Poker and Poker Stars, two online poker websites were started in the year 2001.

Poker Stars offered the option of poker tournaments that was the reason for its popularity. Paradise Poker had a dominant existence up to 2003. This same year Party Poker made its presence felt through advertising campaign on television. The various sites gain immense popularity as the time passed since the online poker sites was a great fun for people who were interested in gambling. The online poker sites grew and went high on popularity charts. Party Poker rsquo;s success was attributed to success in marketing.

The network of poker was taken to new heights by Party Poker Million. This network catered about fifty percent of the online poker market. As the popularity of poker games reached new heights there were more and more people curious to know about these games; this lead to creation of websites providing information about poker games. The whole wave of awareness was generated among the people and in the year 2004 online poker games attained its peak.

New players like Full Tilt and Noble Poker were new entrants in the field of poker games. The revenues in this field increased tremendously. The online poker is one of the most popular online gambling options to the people around the globe. However it is advisable to get fully acquainted with the playing rules before you decide to try your hand at it.   

Millions of people all over the world are playing poker nowadays since the advent of the internet. Where you once had to travel to a casino or a poker parlor to play a game, you now have the luxury of being able to play in the comfort of your own home. Even though US legislation may have reduced some of the players in that country, many others have the freedom to play when and where they want. Poker has always had a history with its colorful characters, wild stories, amazing wins and bad beats. There have been many famous poker players throughout the years with famous hands named after them. Here is one of them that in my opinion stand’s out from rest.

Dead Man’s Hand

It was 1874 when gold was discovered in the Black Hills that a settlement quickly formed and was called Deadwood. Over the years this rough and unlawful town of the classic Wild West grew with all sorts of people looking to get rich quick. One such person was James Butler Hickok or better known as the famous Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill was made famous by his shooting skills and was also a professional gambler who traveled from town to town looking for a good game.

Actually drawn to the town for a job as the local sheriff Wild Bill was playing a friendly game of poker in the local saloon on one August 2nd afternoon when he was fatally shot in the head from behind. Ironically enough Wild Bill was normally very careful to always sit with his back against the wall when he played cards as he had more than a few people who would love to take a shot at him. This particular day there was only one seat at the table with a door to rear and Bill decided it was worth the risk which was his downfall. Wild Bill was killed instantly but the hand he was holding when shot was a pair of Aces and a pair of eights (no one is sure what the last card was) thus the hand got the name “The Dead Mans Hand” and even to this day superstitious poker players try to avoid it whenever possible. 

There have been many stories about Wild Bill and his exploits, but among poker players he will always be remembered for this particular hand. Poker books, songs, and movies  have all been made depicting this gunslingers life and adventures and are well worth looking into further.