Gambling on poker is one of the most popular online gambling activities

The introduction of online gambling has dramatically increased our gambling options for both sports gambling and what we now generally refer to as casino gambling. The first online gambling sites were all set up by the big bookmakers and were initially targeted solely at their existing sports gambling customer base, but it wasn’t long before they decided that it might be a good idea to capitalise on the investments they had made in their online sports gambling facilities by adding a few gambling games. We now know of course that this decision would prove to be not only the start of the online casino gambling sector as we know it today, but the beginning of a whole new form of online gambling with far more widespread appeal than anything which had come before. There are now as many if not more people playing gambling games online than there are gambling on sporting events. In the same way that the online sports gambling sites provided access to a much wider range of sports and sporting events than ever before, the range of gambling games featured on those sites also quickly grew so that there were very few if any forms of gambling game not available online. It was of course this extremely broad range of online gambling games which made the whole idea of playing gambling games online so successful across such a wide audience. There were a whole series of numbers games based on the ever popular game of bingo, plus a vast array of dice games, lottery games and slots games all designed to attract a whole new online gambling fan base. Existing traditional casino gambling enthusiasts were also well catered for and were not only able to play their favourite casino games of roulette and blackjack online, they were suddenly provided with the opportunity to play other traditional casino games such as baccarat, backgammon and even craps. The variety of gambling games featured within the casino gambling sections of the big online gambling sites covered just about every type of gambling game you could think of, including of course what turned out to be one of the most popular of all, the game of poker. Of all the traditional casino gambling games which were revived as a result of their availability online, the game of poker was undoubtedly the most popular and playing online poker has now become a leisure activity enjoyed by a very wide range of people in Ireland and elsewhere across the world. The game of poker is clearly not new and has a long well documented history, but in Ireland and probably in many other countries in Europe it had fallen out of favour and was not a regular feature in many real casinos. Since the advent of online casino gambling however poker has become the gambling game of choice for a whole new group of enthusiasts, many of whom now even claim to be semi-professional poker players and regularly enter poker tournaments where they are likely to meet full time professionals. The online casino gambling sites clearly offer a wide range of different poker formats, all of which can be played against the house for fixed odds, but for the serious poker players there is only one form of poker and that is Texas Hold’em poker. This is also the poker format played at almost every big poker tournament around the world, including of course the Irish Open. It is also the version of poker played on almost every one of the new online poker platforms which have been created online to enable serious poker fans to compete with other enthusiasts almost 24 hours a day.

The reason Texas Hold’em has become so popular among serious poker enthusiasts is primarily because the use of community cards usually swells the pot far more than other versions of the game, so that a winning hand is likely to bring substantial rewards. Conversely of course a losing hand will inevitably be considerably more expensive. Texas Hold’em poker is played using five community cards which are dealt one at a time face up in the middle of the table, and can be used in conjunction with the two hole cards which have already been dealt face down in front of each player to formulate the best 5-card showdown hands. The first betting round takes place after each player has been dealt their hole cards, and when every remaining player has committed the same stake the first community card is then dealt. After each of the five community cards has been dealt there is also a further betting round so that any player wishing to reach the showdown hand will have already faced five betting rounds before the fifth and last community card is dealt. This is why the Texas Hold’em pots are generally bigger than is normal for most other versions of poker, and also why inexperienced players should be wary of getting involved in games which could see them being tempted to exceed their budget just to stay in the game. Texas Hold’em poker is a fabulous gambling game but it is also a game in which it is generally recognised that the more experienced player is likely to come out on top in the long run. Anyone wishing to play poker online or at a tournament would be well advised to learn the skills necessary to be successful at each poker format by playing against the house at a regular online casino gambling site before trying one of the many specialist poker rooms now available online. Playing 5-card draw poker or one of the many versions of stud poker featured on the normal online casino gambling sites can be just as rewarding as playing against other players, and most of these sites also feature Texas Hold’em against the house if that is what you want to do. It is certainly better to learn the game playing for small stakes against the house than blowing your budget against more experienced players.