POKER IS HERE TO STAY
It would seem that the game of Poker is officially back, and here to stay. Of course many players will quite indignantly inform you that it never left in the first place. Nevertheless a noticeable leap in the popularity of poker worldwide has been witnessed over the past decade or so and it is undeniable that online poker rooms have had a great deal to do with this change in perceptions. Online poker revenues are said to have leaped from over $82 million to just under $2.5 billion between 2001 and 2005, these figures can only hint at the overall popularity of the game across the globe. Gone are the days when the natural habitat of the poker player was the seedy, smoked-filled backroom. Today poker is being marketed as a sexy game of wits, a cursory glance at any of the adverts currently running for online poker rooms would lead you to believe that most poker players today are fit and good-looking young men and women. Of course this is only advertising, but it gives you a clue at just how mainstream the game of poker, online or otherwise, has become in the last decade or so. In fact the leap in popularity that has made the game so playable by so many people online has also translated into a change in he way bricks and mortar casinos also treat the game, which now takes proud place in center stage thanks to the many prestigious poker tournaments out there.
The online poker revolution has also been responsible in changing several other aspects of the game. Poker experience, that hard-earned, intangible trump card that used to be the sole domain of dangerous looking middle-aged men who look like they might be considered for a guest spot on the Sopranos, is rapidly finding its way into the minds of a completely unlikely set of new poker players. If you consider how many poker games and tournaments a hard-nosed poker player of the old school would have the opportunity to enter and gain experience from in a single year, and compare this to the experience that can be racked up by a young poker-nerd from the comfort of his own wireless connection in the same space of time, there is simply no comparison. A lifetime's worth of poker experience can be racked up in the space of a single calender year by an online poker player who has caught the bug badly enough. This and the nature of the online game have also changed the ratios of the game of poker and introduced a new skill sets. Online poker players typically don't rely on reading the body language of their opponents as these cues are unavailable to them (at least at the moment) in the online game. Subsequently they have developed new ways at reading their opponents and figuring out what they have and don't have, thus rendering those old, hard-earned, poker faces almost redundant. Of course this is a double edged sword, many an experienced online poker player has had their ego deflated completely when entering a real life poker tournament, finding themselves utterly unprepared for the other aspects of the game, such as marshaling their own telltale mannerisms in front of an array of hawk-eyed old school poker experts. The first few times a seasoned online poker player enters the world or real high stakes poker can be distressing to say the least. These young wild cards often report nausea, and uncontrollable hand tremors, as well as the experience of having their body language read by their opponents in ways they are not properly accustomed to. Nevertheless many a young online player has walked away from a tournament, to the bemusement of his opponents, with the winnings in tow, due to their experience gained from the sheer number of tournaments they have had the opportunity to enter online.
Another reason for the jump in interest in the game of poker has had to do with changing attitudes towards the game. A decade or so ago the perceptions of most laypersons towards the game of poker would have been strongly in accord with their perceptions of all other card games, namely that poker is a game of random chance. Ask most people today what their opinions of poker are and you'll find most people accept poker as a game of skill rather than total chance. This is also the argument being leveled at those trying to include poker in the blanket ban of all other gambling games. This marrying of the skillful management of chance (after all isn't life like that in general?), coupled with the attractive gambling aspect of the game, has made it an irresistible game that is probably the most popular game of skill of our times. Poker is certainly here to stay, are you in or what?
