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School of Poker » Future of Poker

To put it mildly, on and offline poker are booming. A beloved pastime enjoyed by millions of keen players all over the world, poker is experiencing an incredible surge in popularity, only now the game’s sweeping up TV and Internet passerby’s with the dawn of televised world poker tournaments, celebs and all.

The game’s thriving popularity is largely attributed to the seemingly overnight proliferation of poker sites all over the World Wide Web, and further compounded by the advent of those ever-creative TV sports channels positioning cameras under the card tables in order that viewers – or rather spectators – may sneak peeks at card players’ hole cards.

The world’s largest poker tournaments, the World Series of Poker (WSP) and the World Poker Tour, along with endless others, are not just major draws for celebrity players, but fast introducing a whole new line of poker pros to the spot-lit tables as well. Poker’s romantic allure has already garnered huge media exposure, of which, in turn, has resulted in a major wave of renewed public awareness and interest. The game – or sport, as it is now called – has thus earned its due place in today’s mainstream world of entertainment.

Poker on the Web
With its foray onto the online gambling stage as recently as the late nineties, poker has become the online gaming market’s fastest-growing sector. The annual revenue is estimated to have increased from around $90 million in 2002 to more than a billion dollars in 2004. Figures for 2005 reveal revenues of over $2.5 billion, swallowing up some 20% of the total online gambling industry’s take.

Marriage Made in Gambling Heaven
However unplanned, the poker surge has also resulted in a surprising marriage of convenience, coupling the web-based poker world with their new significant land-based other in holy matrimoney. Although initially opposed to any form of infringement on their territory by those once evil online forces savagely luring traditional poker players away from real to virtual tables, the honeymoon, it seems, has not only just begun, but is expected to carry on happily ever after.

This trend could very well pave the way for the future legitimacy of online wagering in general as the casino and other web-based betting enterprises fight for their business lives in the face of state-sponsored competition from national lotteries and other politically shielded monopolies. Today, online poker players are invited to also qualify for the major land-based poker events including the rapidly multiplying on-line satellite tournaments. Internet poker’s overall image has greatly benefited as well due to so many online poker aficionados winning major brick and mortar tournaments.

It’s Anyone’s Game
Before online poker’s birth, would-be poker enthusiasts either had very limited access to professional poker rooms, or were possibly too intimidated to pull up a seat at a live poker table in a Vegas-type casino, especially with real cash at stake. But those days are gone. Today, poker is not only available on the Internet, but it’s burning it up.