Intro to Casino Games
An Overview of Poker
Poker’s origin is believed to have come from Persia as it closely resembles the Persian game as nas. Poker’s name was said to have been derived from the French poque and the German pochen that means ‘to knock’.
Poker is a popular card game that belongs to the class of vying games wherein players wager on a central pot that is awarded to the player with the best hand. It is believed that Persian sailors brought poker to the US. The game spread through the Mississippi river and became one of America’s favorite pastimes.
Many modifications to poker emerged during the American Civil War such as the introduction of stud poker, draw poker and the straight. It is said that the American military brought poker to Asia.
In 1970 the first ever poker tournament took place. This was the World Series of Poker. In 1998 the first online poker room launched by Planet Poker changed the face of how poker was played. It enabled players to compete at their own home connected only by a computer to other online poker players. It made poker playing faster and saved the players travel time.
Since then many online poker firms emerged. The introduction of online poker tournament by Poker Spot in September of 2000 attracted even more online players. This was especially true after the time an online player named Chris Moneymaker was able to gain entrance into real life poker tournament by playing online tournaments. He was able to win $2.5 million dollars in his first ever live poker tournament. This encouraged more and more poker players to try the new online poker. This also catapulted online poker’s popularity to unprecedented heights.
Playing online poker is fairly easy. All one has to do is download a poker software, install it, register and provide personal information. Online poker players then get to choose which table they want to join in by clicking an empty seat. Poker action is available at the right hand corner of the poker table.
Playing online poker is definitely more convenient and faster than playing offline poker. It enables the players to play multiple hands at the same time. It also saves time because the dealer is the computer thereby eliminating the time spent on shuffling, dealing and collecting the cards. Players also get to track their own records and their opponents as online poker records every win and loss one makes.
Truly poker has developed into a new and better game. Let us hope that poker continues to develop and make poker playing easier for all poker players.