The Poker Explosion
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.
Three key things have happened that created the boom. They have caused poker to become a big money maker. It’s an interesting combination of events that led to this happening.
Planet poker, in 1998, becomes the first online poker room. Casinos had been online since 1994. With people playing poker in their living room the evolution starts.
We have had poker on television all the way back into the 70’s. The coverage was very limited. Small audiences didn’t help inspire more coverage.
The next step actually was created first. This is the “pocket cam”, the camera that shows you the cards the players have. This was patented by Henry Orenstein in 1994, and first used in Europe in 1997. This invention would prove to be instrumental in the poker boom.
2002 becomes sort of a stepping stone to the poker explosion. Having picked up the WSOP coverage again, ESPN uses the pocket cam for the first time. Also, the WPT (World Poker Tour) is formed and in 2003 will air the first season of the tour, with the pocket cam.
The use of the pocket cam gets more people watching. The fact that the viewer can see what the players have increases the drama, and exposes the strategies. ESPN decides to show a lot more of the event the following 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.
The tournament concludes with unknown Chris Moneymaker beating all the pros to capture the $2.5 million dollar first prize. He is basically just a small time internet player. He won $10,000 entry for $40, by working his way through two levels of qualifying.
When an unknown internet player turns $40 in $2.5 million, interest in poker explodes. Everyone wants to get involved in poker. The poker industry takes off.
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.
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