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Vegas at Home

By: Jerry Niles
Submitted: 2007-11-20 11:03:38
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You stare at your opponents intently, watching their every move while you wait for their call.  They’re in.  You look peek down at your pair of nines and with a grin on your face you know you have the advantage and so you click.

Ten years ago if someone mentioned the word poker immediately the words gambling, casino and Vegas would be rushing into your thoughts.  But if you mention the word poker in today’s world, the same words will come rushing in but with an addition.  Online.

Poker has come a long way from the traditional brick and mortar conception to the intrusion of the home of the everyday Joe and Jane. With the computer and internet becoming extremely ever so more popular and common products you can find in any household, online poker is also gaining popularity and becoming a favorite pastime to many users.

But why the sudden shift?  There are a number of reasons that can accredit for this change.  However the most simplistic reason for online poker’s rise in popularity is because it didn’t bring the excess from the traditional poker table.  The abuse, intimidation and negative environmental atmosphere of a normal casino’s poker table is not the kind of place where an average person can feel comfortable at.  However with online poker, you can participate in the game without all that and with the addition of the peace and leisure of staying comfortably at home.

Another reason that may explain the sudden popularity of online poker are the ‘rags to riches’ stories of many online poke participants.  Everyday people like Chris Moneymaker and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer both became instant celebrities and millionaires by starting out in online poker tournaments to soon becoming champions at the World Series of Poker which gave the average person the hope of becoming rich quick.

Though there are some conservatives that say that online poker doesn’t bring the same ambiance of the traditional way the game is played, most poker players don’t seem that it has that much of an impact on the game.  Instead of reading the opponent by their body language you now read them by the reaction time of their move and the history of their past decisions so the game requires a bit more strategy.

But whenever there is gambling, there are to exist people who will try to take advantage of the system and cheat their way to riches.  However, there is little to worry of these kinds of situations as it is easier to find out if people are cheating at online poker than it is at the poker table.  Like a traditional casino, online poker services employ experts who analyze games to make sure no one is using an unfair advantage to play the game such as collusion.  And it’s much easier to do so with online poker because at the traditional table the cards are usually discarded without anyone knowing what the player had while with online poker, each hand is saved and viewable by the security staff.  And the further ensure the safety and fairness of the game, most online poker services are certified by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and other major auditing firms to check the integrity and fairness of how the online poker program functions and the payout from those services.

So without worry you can stay in the comfort of your own home and participate in a pastime where millions have already participated in. Jerry Niles, frequenter of online poker.

Article source: Expert Articles