A history lesson on Poker

Poker has been around so long, that nobody knows exactly when or where it started. What we do know is that it has been around for Centuries and today it has evolved into a lifestyle for people all over the world. A hobby, a game and even for some a living. Poker has become so popular, that there are individuals that are able to make a fortune from playing this game. It is now a multi billion dollar industry. But how did it get there? Where did it all start?

Well, like mentioned above, nobody knows exactly where or when it started. It has been going on since the 1800’s here in the United States. There is some proof of betting card games related to poker in China before 969 AD. So we know it has been around for some time. More importantly, how did it get from just a friendly game to an all out war at a card table? When did people start to take pleasure in watching the World Series of Poker on a television?

The Poker Boom

Before the late 90’s through early 2000’s poker was definitely a popular game. There where a lot of people all over the world playing the game. The World Series of Poker was on ESPN every year. In fact, since the late 1970s, poker was being aired on television to a certain extent. It wasn’t until 1997 that poker really started to show up on television. This was the point where the hole card cams started to come into the picture. In Europe is where they first showed up. From there, poker never stopped growing.

The World Poker Tour, which has a huge impact on why poker is so big now, aired their first show in June of 2002. From there, poker just got bigger every single year. Before the WPT had aired and started doing some heavy marketing, poker never had a very big audience or viewer base. Nobody had any interest to watch poker on television. Soon after, in 2003 poker got even more popular after the WSOP aired and everyone saw the regular guy named Chris Moneymaker win $2.5 million playing poker.

As you could imagine, watching a regular guy win that much money playing such a fascinating game would get anyone interested very quickly. In fact, there is a good chance that a situation similar has a lot to do with why you are reading this right now. After that the World Series of Poker main event got bigger and bigger every year. In 2006 a man named Jamie Gold won $12 Million in the main event of the World Series of Poker. As you can see, the future of the poker industry shows no signs of slowing down.

Filed Under: Poker Lessons


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