ONLINE POKER, THE CHESS OF OUR AGE.
The game of poker has certainly come a long way since its early days as a frontier saloon favorite. Not only can it count itself as one of the quintessential card games, blending as it does, chance and skill in such a unique and complicated manner. It has also, in many ways, been invaluable in the development of all forms of online gambling. In the early days of the online gambling revolution, online poker became a sort of test case, and its overwhelming success has led to an explosion in the popularity of gambling online.
The game of poker has even spread its tentacles into many other areas of modern life. Many phrases we routinely use, such as ace in the sleeve, all in, poker face and many others, are routinely used by adults and children alike, without even thinking of where they originated from. Beyond this, poker has become the chess of our age. It is just as complex and requires, like chess, careful consideration by players of more than one aspect of the game simultaneously. Unlike chess, however, poker is also a game of chance, and it is this brilliant mixture of chance and skill that has led to poker's popularity with such diverse people all across the world.
Online poker has managed to become one of the biggest Internet activities ever, with people logging in for a few hands of online poker in the way they used to log in to check their emails. This phenomenon has led to a development in the game that nobody could foresee. Over the years a new breed of poker player has come to the fore, a breed that has fundamentally changed the game itself. Online poker players have picked up their knowledge and experience quickly, by playing hands more often and quicker than their live competitors, they have managed to use technology to bypass a lengthy poker apprenticeship and have now led to a situation where the ability of the average poker player is far higher than it used to be. They have also become experts in game-reading seeing as opponents' moves are the only cues online poker players really have access to.
It is hard to predict where the situation will go, but the popularity of poker, online and live, shows no signs of abating.
