Poker is increasingly the most popular traditional online gambling game

It is now approximately twenty years since the leading bookmakers first gave their customers the opportunity to do their sports gambling online. Soon after that they also began to introduce a few gambling games on their sports gambling sites and in doing so created what we now know as online casino gambling. The convenience of being able to follow and bet on their favourite sports and sporting events online from home clearly appealed to a large number of sports gambling fans who had previously had to travel to their nearest betting shop to place their bets, but it did not necessarily increase the number of people actively involved in sports gambling. On the other hand there is very little doubt that the introduction of online casino gambling definitely appealed to a much wider audience, and resulted in a huge increase in the number of people regularly playing gambling games. It also led to a resurgence of interest in many of the traditional gambling games, most notably the game of poker. In Ireland the opportunity to play any of the traditional casino gambling games had always been extremely limited, so when the most common casino gambling games such as roulette and blackjack became available online they immediately proved extremely popular alternatives to the huge number of slots and video slots which formed the majority of the gambling games available on almost every online casino gambling site. The rise in popularity of online poker however was and still is truly astonishing. Most observers now agree that poker is probably the most popular of all the traditional casino gambling games available online, and there are now hundreds if not thousands of poker enthusiasts in Ireland who play online poker on a regular basis. There are now even specialist online poker platforms for every level of competence and experience, ranging from absolute beginners to an increasing number of serious semi-professional poker players. The increasing popularity of poker is such that most of the big poker tournaments being staged throughout the world, including the Irish Open are now often oversubscribed as more and more serious amateur poker fans want to test their luck and skill against the professionals who used to dominate those events. Although some would argue that the resurgence in interest in playing poker actually began when a satellite television channel began to broadcast a few poker tournaments, but there is very little doubt that it was the opportunity to play poker online that really kick started growth in the number of people actually playing the game.

There are of course a number of different versions of poker, ranging from 5-card draw poker which is probably the oldest format of the games, and was the game we all remember being played in every saloon scene in every western we ever watched at the cinema. Until relatively recently 5-card draw poker was also the version of poker played by most professional poker players, but it has now been replaced by a very different version of the game called Texas Hold’em poker. Almost every poker tournament around the world now uses the Texas Hold’em format of the game, and most serious online poker enthusiasts also concentrate on Texas Hold’em nowadays rather than 5-card draw. Although the ranking of the hands is the same in both 5-card draw poker and Texas Hold’em, most people would agree that that is where the similarities end. The major difference between these two different versions of poker is that Texas Hold’em poker uses what are called community cards which results in far more betting rounds than the 5-card draw version of the game. Each player is first dealt two cards face down in front of them, followed by the first betting round. Five community cards are then dealt one at a time face up into the middle of the table, with a further betting round taking place after each one has been dealt. That means that every player still in the game at the showdown stage has already had to go through five betting rounds even to get to that stage, and six in total to have a chance of winning the pot. Each player must form their best final five card poker hand from their two hole cards and the five community cards which are available to every player. It is the fact that every player must use at least three of the community cards in their final hand that makes this version of poker quite different in terms of what you may consider to be a good hand during the early stages of the game. We don’t propose to go into any detail as to what those differences are, but we would advise anyone considering playing the Texas Hold’em format of poker for the first time to gain experience before playing for serious money. Every online casino gambling site features Texas Hold’em poker where it can be played against the house for fixed odds, and this is undoubtedly the best way to learn the nuances of the game. Clearly the primary reason why the Texas Hold’em format of poker has become such a firm favourite among serious poker players is that the final pot is usually substantially bigger than that found in 5-card draw poker because of the multiple betting rounds associated with the game. Many also believe that the hands are also marginally better because each player is selecting their best five card hand from seven cards rather than five.

Once again however we need to stress that Texas Hold’em poker is definite a game in which experience is often as important as luck. The lure of a big pot is of course very tempting but remember that the multiple betting rounds which contribute to the size of the pot also require each player to commit a much bigger stake to even reach the showdown stage of each hand. It is also important where possible to check out the level of experience of the other players when playing poker on one of the online poker platforms.