Online Poker Growing

Here is an interesting article from www.cardplayer.com on the growth of online poker.

Sexton Talks About the Online Impact

I don’t think there is any question that the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and the expanded coverage of the World Series of Poker by ESPN have been the major reasons for the tremendous influx of new players into poker over the last year. Television is powerful. However, don’t underestimate the impact of a guy by the name of Chris Moneymaker winning an online tournament for $40 and parlaying it into $2.5 million and the title of the 2003 world champion. Moneymaker not only reached out to try to grab the brass ring, he did it. He represents the millions of players who have a job and a family, and could never put up $10,000 to play in a poker tournament. He is the guy who showed everyone that it can be done. Because of his fairy-tale story, he is a hero in the poker world, and rightfully so. He struck oil because he played in a small online tournament.

Online poker has grown in leaps and bounds over the past year. Numerous sites continue to appear, and I’m sure many more will be trying to enter an ever-growing market. The industry leader is PartyPoker.com. It has more than 40,000 players on its site at any one time every night. This includes more than 1,100 real-money games and thousands of tournament players (as well as thousands who play for free). By comparison, a brick-and-mortar casino with 30 tables is considered a large poker room.

People play poker online because it’s fun, convenient, and easy to play. Most people don’t live near a poker room, yet they still want to play. The Internet provides them that opportunity. And the sensation that’s now grabbed everyone is tournament poker. Players love tournaments, especially big payday tournaments. Everyone wants to hit the lottery.

The latest trend is for players to play satellites online and win seats into mega championship events, such as the WPTChampionship and the WSOP. Look for this trend to continue to grow substantially. Moneymaker is a big reason why it will.

There were 912 players in the main event at the 2004 WSOP who qualified online. That’s more players than have ever played in the event in the past! Qualifying players online and sending them to brick-and-mortar casinos is good for everyone. It brings players to the online sites and obviously was a major factor in enabling the championship event as the WSOP to become the largest event in the history of poker, by far.

Yes, I know, I know. Brick-and-mortar casinos are not associated with online poker sites in any way. The online sites simply give the winner the money to enter. But, casinos want the entries and certainly benefit by having online sites put players into their events. To me, it’s like the NFL publicly condemning betting on football, yet both they and the networks know that if people didn’t bet on the games, the ratings would plummet. How many people do you think would watch a San Diego versus Seattle football game if no one had a bet on the game?

Online poker is having a major impact on the growth of poker in brick-and-mortar casinos — and look for both to continue to grow.

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