Blog

Today, it seems like everyone knows about online poker. Certainly, anyone who plays poker today is aware that online poker is an option, and many of today’s players get their poker to fix almost exclusively in online video poker games. But how did online poker get started?

The Early Years and IRC

The roots of online poker can be traced to the early ‘90s, when the Internet was barely known about, let alone understood, by the average person. Computer experts were using something called Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, an early version of sg casino 96Ace online instant messaging. It wasn’t long before someone figured out how to use the technology to play poker. IRC poker didn’t have fancy graphics and wasn’t played for real money, but it was engaging enough to catch the interest of future poker greats like Chris Ferguson and Andy Bloch.

Online Poker is Born

Then, in 1998 and 1999, real online poker sites started to appear. Planet Poker was first, and sites like Paradise Poker and Party Poker quickly followed. The technology finally had arrived to create realistic, commercially viable poker software, and online companies did not hesitate, flooding the market with online poker sites. Fortunately for the better sites, there was plenty of traffic for them to take advantage of, and while many of these sites floundered, others amassed huge profits.

Online Poker Peaks

The tipping point came when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event in 2003. Chris, an amateur, had won his seat online, and hundreds of thousands of people knew it, thanks to expanded coverage of the event on ESPN. Players went to online sites in droves, not only Moneymaker’s site, PokerStars, but other sites as well. World Series of Poker fields swelled to record numbers.

The Fall and Rise of Online Poker

In 2006, it looked as if the party might be over. An exiting Republican Congress, responding perhaps to religious lobbyists who objected to poker on moral grounds, slipped the UIGEA into a crucial port security bill. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act made it illegal for U.S. banks to transact with online poker sites. Fearing prosecution, many online poker sites along with online casinos dropped out of the U.S. market, and many players gave up online poker.

Fortunately, some sites stayed with the U.S. market and profited greatly from having done so. International players rose to fill the void left by the exiting U.S. players, and today, online poker is a more popular global game than ever.

Today you can play poker and other casino games from your mobile device and we recommend gaming at the British mobile casino online is easy and convenient, enabling both long-term online gamblers and beginning players to enjoy the opportunities for a fun and exciting experience. The mobile casino pays out generous real money earnings as well as additional bonuses, extra credits, and jackpot prizes.

The subject of win rates is a very complex one with regards to Texas Hold ’em poker and one that could fill an entire encyclopedia in its own right. Let us look at a game like no-limit hold ’em for example. You can look at win rates in all sorts of different ways. If you are using software like PokerTracker then you will be used to looking at rates expressed as ptbb/100.

This stands for “poker tracker big bets per hundred hands”. A big bet is twice the big blind and this dates back to limit hold’em but the term big bet applies to the no-limit Texas Hold’em variation as well. So a big bet at says $0.50-$1.00 isn’t $1 but $2. So when you see something like 5ptbb/100 then this is someone quoting an earn rate based on their tracker program that is showing ten times the big blind of the game that they are playing in.

The ptbb/100 is seen as a more accurate method of looking at earn rates in online poker because game speed differs widely from site to site based on the number of players and site software. Also thinking times are longer on some sites over others and so this leads to fewer hands per hour in games like no-limit Texas Hold ’em. Another way at looking at win online gambling for real money rates is in $/hour.
This is a critical statistic and in many cases more critical than ptbb/100. To give an example then I will do so to highlight what I mean. Imagine if a very good player was playing one table of no-limit Texas Hold ’em at the $100 level and was making 5ptbb/100 over significant sample size. This is an excellent earn rate and is $10/100 at that level. To get to this level then the player was only playing one table.

On the other hand, another player who was playing the same $100 level at no-limit Texas Hold’em was only making 2ptbb/100 because they were playing more tables and six tablings. So at first glance, it seems that the figure of 5ptbb/100 is far superior to the figure of 2ptbb/100 (assuming equal and highly significant sample sizes). But yet the strong player is only playing one table at 60 hands per hour and so it takes him 1hr 40 minutes to play 100 hands.

This breaks his $10/100 into about $6/hour. However, the multi-tabling player who is on a far smaller amount per 100 hands is seeing not 60 hands per hour but 360 hands per hour. He is only making $2/100 hands but times this by 3.6 gives his hourly $/hour figure which is $7.20/hour. So it is clear then that playing no-limit Texas Hold em and looking at earn rates isn’t as straightforward as you may think.

A lesser player at Texas Hold ’em in terms of bb/100 could be making more money in $/hour which then assumes its importance. So technically the first player was a better player at NL100 but the second player was amassing more money and so the trade-off between bb/100 and $/hour becomes clear and vitally important.

It is a dream closely nurtured by many aspiring poker players: To ditch the dreary 9-5 job to make a living from a game that thrives on the infinite skill, knowledge, and, above all, wit. What freedom!

Across the world, millions have tried and failed their hands at earning a crust from the infamous game. Ever since the internet revolution, a new evolution of online players has spawned across the globe.

But is a run of Big Slicks enough to give up the day job?

Winning $140,000 (£100,000) might be enough to take a long, well-earned sabbatical – but will not put bread on the table for a lifetime.
The good news for wannabe poker entrepreneurs is that the payouts from many casinos are uncapped, claims Richard Prew, media director of poker association, APAT. He says there are ‘no winning limits’ in licensed UK venues. APAT also advises there is no substitute for vast pots of money and playing experience when it comes to bringing home the bacon from poker.
Having the right psychological makeup and personality is also a trump card when playing for small fortunes. Players must also have the mettle and money to ride out the bad times when suffering streaks of bad luck, he stresses.

So who makes a living from poker? Prew believes the ‘majority of poker players play the game for fun and/or to supplement their income, with a small nucleus of professionals doing so to make a living. Traditionally, online casinos don’t offer much value for money for recreational players, he says. But for high stake players, wanting to gamble on high stake tours, there are enticing yet risky opportunities to make fast and furious bucks.

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, launched in 2007, is a series of poker festivals that take place across venues and online. Each festival features several warm-up events with buy-ins ranging from $140 (£100) to $1400 (£1000) for the four-day main event. The stakes are raised to $4199 (£3000) at the end of the year for the tour’s Grand Final. As with the scale of poker players across the world, its winnings are far from loose change: Prize money for the televised main events in the tour’s first year topped $4.9n (£3.5m).

Professionals, amateurs, and internet qualifiers number those who have pitted their wits for a place in history and life-changing amounts of money.
With one player winning $105,000 (£75,000) for the first event this year, livelihoods can be made – but for how long? Surely the odds of winning such sums over a lifetime are slim? Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the changes, it is vital the player knows the game inside out before he or she endeavors to pay off the mortgage. Again, having a king’s ransom in cash reserves goes without saying!

For online poker players, Prew advises there is no best global region in which to play poker, provided the site is international and properly licensed and governed. Legally above boards sites, he says, are carefully regulated, and display terms and conditions for banking, fraud prevention, and account protection. If you live in the US, you might not be able to play on all Casinos, see topusaonlinecasinos.com for casinos accepting US players.

Those who play online or at casinos every Friday night will not need a maths lesson to realize that poker can be a slippery science to make a living. Likewise. APAT advises that cheap ‘Rebuy’ poker tournaments, which enable players to buy more chips when they lose them, are not recommended as poker gold mines. Organizations such as APAT, Sky Poker, Virgin, and PKR aim to provide recreational players with professional online and poker tours with ‘many starting chips’ and buy-ins for under $140 (£100). Such events sell out within minutes of going on sale. But beginners should play some online tournaments first, freerolls or low tournaments with low buy-in. Full Tilt has many good options, see Full Tilt Poker Download for the client.
Inevitably, these sums are not enough to live on for a year; the art of poker playing demands a seasoned rounder not only to make a living but to cover losses.

Unlike other games, practice makes viable, but not perfect poker. This, of course, is the substance of dreams. Few of us will be lucky enough to take home $8.5m (£5.8m) as won by Peter Eastgate, at last year’s World Series of Poker final. But there’s no harm in dreaming is there?