17 July 2008
Why Poker Has Triumphed The World
Posted by Robo Harrier under: Entertainment .
Poker used to be a truly game played in private, behind closed. Professional poker players would be thought of as con men, or worse. Wow, has that all changed.
This has come about from three main events. These events have change the course of poker in the world, and made it into a huge industry. As this story unfolds you will see how amazing all this has been.
It begins in 1998 when someone decided to open an online poker room. There were online casinos since 1994. But there were no poker rooms. Now we have people relaxing in front of their computers playing poker.
Poker has been shown on television since the late 70’s. First by CBS, and later taken over by ESPN, a one hour show of the WSOP main event was shown every year. The audience was small and things were going nowhere.
The second key event that happened actually happened first. A camera (pocket cam) is placed so that the audience can see the players’ hole cards. This device would be a major contributor to the poker explosion.
From these two things, online poker and the pocket cam, things will start to take off. In 2002, in their WSOP coverage, ESPN uses the pocket cam for the first time. Later that year the WPT forms, and will also broadcast taped coverage with the pocket cam.
The 2002 WSOP coverage was more successful than past ratings. Pocket cam seems to make a big difference. ESPN decides it will cover more of the tournament next year.
ESPN decides that they will get coverage from every day. They will have pocket cam on the feature table. They also start profiling the players.
With increased coverage the whole world sees Chris Moneymaker fight his way through the field of 839 to win the event. He outplayed many of the best players in the world in the last two tables. But, Chris is just an online player, having earned his $10,000 entry from a $40 satellite event.
When Chris Moneymaker goes from an unknown, small time, internet poker player, to WSOP Main Event Champion, the poker boom accelerates massively. He gives hope to every player that anyone can win the biggie. The rest is history, and the world has gone poker crazy.
The pocket cam got people watching on television. The internet made poker available to everyone. Chris Moneymaker gives us all hope that maybe we can be the world champ.