How Online Poker Changed the Game Forever

Poker has had a long history, stretching back through the years, appearing in all kinds of places and formats. Smoky bars, the backroom of inns, high-end clubs, and people’s living rooms: it has been everywhere for hundreds of years. First cropping up on the scene in New Orleans sometime between 1810 and 1825, poker has had time to evolve and grow.

Catapulting into the mainstream, this widely known game is now something of a spectacle across the world, and the game of choice when heading to the casino. It’s played by millions around the globe, and thanks to the internet, people don’t even need to leave their couches anymore.

As an ode to what it once was, we’re going to break down exactly how the digital world changed the way we play poker forever. Here at Poker Team Effect, we know a thing or two about the workings of poker, so sit back, relax, and get ready for a walk down memory lane!

Table of Contents

1. Poker Used to Be a Private Club

Before the internet brought everything much closer, poker was, for the most part, limited to two particular groups of people:

High rollers who played in the lavish, luxury Hollywood casinos

Dedicated enthusiasts who played low-stakes games at home or in small, underground clubs.

It wasn’t the most accessible game unless you lived near a casino or knew the right people to play with.

It was the mystery of poker that was part of its charm, but it also kept a lot of potential players out. It wasn’t easy to find a regular game — and even harder to find one you could actually win. Fortunately for those of us living in today’s world, things have changed a little!

2. The Online Poker Boom

Poker stayed somewhat niche for a very, very long time, partly due to accessibility issues. However, when the early 2000s brought more mainstream internet usage, everything changed for the better.

Online poker rooms started popping up all over the scene, letting anyone play from their home computers. Suddenly, you didn’t have to drive three hours to find a decent game of poker or a person who knew the rules – and you didn’t even need to put on pants (major win).

Gambling sites opened the door for players from all over the world. No matter if you were a university student in your dorm, a business executive taking a break from emails, or a retiree looking for a new hobby, online poker made the game accessible 24/7 because of the various gambling sites all over the internet. These gambling sites offered up the game in ways never experienced before.

The best bit?

Finally, you could jump into a $5 tournament, win a couple of games, and actually have fun. For the first time, anyone with enough skill and time could climb the poker ladder.

3. The Impact of Chris Moneymaker

If you’re partial to a bit of poker, then we just know that you’ve heard of Chris Moneymaker.

In 2003, Chris was just a regular guy from Georgia who won a bit of money in an online satellite tournament — and then went on to win one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world, cashing out in the millions.

That moment sent shockwaves through the poker world and generated a whole lot of excitement among people who had never even thought about playing poker before. It triggered what people now call the “Moneymaker Effect” — a massive boom in online poker players across the world.

Thousands of new players flooded into gambling sites, trying to pick up the same skills as Chris – and changing the world of poker at the same time.

4. New Skills and New Strategies

Online poker being churned out all over the internet didn’t just make the game more accessible: it made it more technical too. In part, that’s thanks to technology.

Poker books and training sites became hugely popular.
Players started studying hand histories and tracking statistics.
Concepts like Game Theory Optimal and range balancing grew massively.

In live poker, you can always rely on reading physical tells — nervous hands, shaky voices, obvious hesitation, or stalling… But online? You need to be at the top of your game.

In short: The introduction of online poker made the entire game smarter. It pushed players to either evolve or get left behind – and we owe many of our advances in ability to this very concept.

A New Poker Community

Online poker has massively impacted the community feeling too. It used to be hard to meet like-minded people who loved a game of poker, especially when we were still limited to the brick-and-mortar world.

Now, though, there are massive online forums, Discord groups, and even Twitch streams where poker players share strategies and celebrate their wins. And if you’re missing the wining and dining element that real-world casinos offer, just check out all the casino recipes you can make from home below. From casino-worthy cocktails to cheese-packed delights to garlic bread – everything you might enjoy at the casino can easily be made at home. The casino content out there is living up to the casino buffets we all know and love, and making online gaming one step closer to the physical experience.