poker

Poker was already among the most favorite games with movies and series dedicated to it. It had always been a much loved, thrilling and fun activity. Then, the introduction of online gambling or online casinos furthered its fame. And now, promotions through e-magazines, television and other forms of electronic media have made online poker a highly acclaimed sport globally.

Traditionally, Poker had just a few variants – stud poker, draw poker, community card poker (or flop poker) and the most commonly played straight poker. But now, Internet has experimented and invented quite an exhaustive list of poker games that can be played online. Holdem Poker has over 16 varieties online with some interesting names like Pineapple, Manila, Billabong, Shanghai, Psycho and one that’s called ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’. 7 stud poker can also be played in several variants like Chicago and six kick, 5 stud can be played as satan or soko and draw can be played as dogbutt and anaconda.

There are numerous more variants of each of the traditional as well as modern poker types. However, of all varieties available online, there can basically be three broad classifications (according to the bet amount) that one can play poker online in – no limit poker, pot limit poker and the basic limit poker. Irrespective of the bet size, there are 3 main poker variants that are most popular online – Texas Holdem Poker, Omaha Poker and Seven Stud poker.

Instead of visiting the traditional poker rooms, players have now started going online in large numbers to play poker. The world’s poker venue is now the virtual room, and no longer the old brick structured room. In fact, its popularity online can be gauged by the fact that as many as 14.5 million people worldwide play poker online at least once a month for money, according to the most recent research.  The very fact that it can be played online is the biggest reason for its popularity. Poker fans do not need to visit their community or city poker rooms anymore, they can just turn to the Internet to play poker. This is particularly great for the current lifestyle, which does not leave us with enough space to even make it to important occasions sometimes, let alone poker rooms.

Another major reason for the popularity of online poker is that it costs much less in comparison to the traditional room poker. People save on travelling expenses poker and on tips that they would typically have to give the dealer. A major saving is the expense of drinks, or beverages, so encouraged at offline casinos and poker rooms, but hitting hard on the pocket. In addition, it is very time saving because there is no travel time, and there are no slowly shuffling dealers. Some poker sites also offer limiting the players’ time to act.

A large number of people who play poker online are beginners of the game, who exploit the Internet’s poker rooms to learn to play the game and practice strategies. A major attraction for people is also the promotional offers that websites have. Every poker room has bonuses in some form or the other to attract new members and to retain existing members. New members are offered bonuses for signing up, either as the first balance for poker, or as a bonus over the first deposit amount.

Then there are also sites that offer bonuses for subsequent deposits to these new, as well as the old members, in order to retain their business. To make funds for operational expenses, profits and such bonus offers, they generate revenues in the form of rakes or entry fees for random games and for tournaments.

The option of being able to play poker online has really eased the lives of poker enthusiasts as well as opened an entirely new avenue for people who always fancied the game, but could never get to playing one.