As some of you might know, Poker has reached an all time high in popularity. It gained popularity in the French areas of North America (Around the Mississippi, New Orleans area); under the name Poque, an early game that involved betting and bluffing - which then over time with southern accents migrated to the modern name Poker. Some people might tell you the reason that poker has become so popular is because of TV. In 1998 writers David Levien & Brian Koppelman wrote a magnificent movie called Rounders. Oscar nominee Matt Damon & Edward Nortin stared in this heart pounding drama movie. The movie was about a young man (Damon) as a reformed gambler who must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off a loan shark. Poker Players and Non Poker players watched this movie become a cult classic in the poker world. It gave the impression that it is possible for a person to make a living playing a game. I have heard some people tell me that this movie was the sole reason for them to start playing poker. They also said that immediately after watching the film they went to the nearest convenience store to pick up a new pack of bicycle playing cards. The other reason for the poker explosion is due to ESPN and the Travel Chanel. They air all of the Big Stake poker tournaments from around the country. People finally got to watch the worlds best poker pro's play a live event on TV. They also got to see the players Whole Cards, by using a camera under the cards that where dealt. This brought much controversy to the poker pro's. They had played there whole lives with out anyone seeing how they played there cards. In having this Card Cam, everyone could see how a player reacts to a certain poker situation, thus giving away his or her tells. For the average TV viewer, this was great. It brought some entertainment to them.
In the late 90's, poker made its way to the internet, starting a Billion Dollar industry. People could log on to a poker site, where they could compete and play against poker players around the word. Most sites offer free online play, but the money came from the cash games and tournaments. These sites use a random number generator to shuffle and deal the cards. Exactly the way you would see cards shuffled in a real live poker game. They use a number generator involving a 52 card deck. Some specialism accrued when this development happened. No single person has been able to prove this system wrong. It has been reported that more than 100 Million people around the world have played online poker. They say this number will grow by more than 20% in the next few years.
In 2007 the House of Representatives passed a law to make online gambling Illegal. Of course it only took about 2 months before these Million dollar business owners to find a loop hole. It has been said that the industry took a 50 million dollar hit over the 16 months following this lawsuit. These sites quickly rebounded after people where informed that these sites would allow US players again. Now there is more than 120 million people world wide that play online poker.
I have recently been searching the internet for information on this craze. Simply search "poker" in Google search. You will find about 192,000,000 results with those criteria. It is simply mind boggling how many people start sites on poker. For instance, if you where to type in "stocks" in Google search, you would only find 160,000,000 results. We can see now that the world is turning to investing in poker, and not stocks.
Recently I visited Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas. There I talked to a guy at a bar outside the Poker Room. I asked him if he was here to play poker. He told me that he was. I asked him how often he played, and if he made money doing so. He told me that he stopped playing poker. I laughed and said...you just told me that you did. He then said...I put my money on poker, but not on myself. He finds established poker players that have success playing the game, and then he approaches them and tells them that he is going to buy him into a tournament (Bankrolling them). He makes an agreement before the tournament that they would split the profits 60-40. This meaning that he would receive 60% and the player would receive 40% of the total winnings. This man was a psychologist, and said that people play better when there money is not on the line. Leaving out the stress of losing there hard earned money. I asked him how long he has been doing this. This guy has been searching the city of Vegas for 5 years, finding 17 men and 4 women to play tournaments with his money. He told me that trust is never a problem. These players know that if he is going to buy him into a game that he would do so for as long as I would make him money. I also asked him how much money he has made buying in these poker players into tournaments. He said with out a breath, Nine Hundred and sixty four thousand dollars. He also told me that the best is ahead of him, and that he plans on "Bankrolling" 60 more players both online and live. Before I left that night, he told me about a site that he created about "bankrolling" online poker players. They where trying to find the worlds best online poker players. So he and other people could sponsor online Pro Poker players. The site is called http://www.bankrollapro.com He assured me that this would be the new way of investing. That this someday could be more profitable that investing in stocks. With the current market, he may be right!
I still can't believe how far we have come in the poker world. We went from betting Nickels and Dimes to winning multi million dollar tournaments. Now we don't even invest our money in our own play, we invest on others. I can honestly say that I am stunned on how the game of poker has changed since I was a kid, to where it is now. We can give credit to both Hollywood and the internet for making poker the most popular past time in America.
