Poker, in its many variations, is undoubtedly the world's most popular card game. Face to face poker room games are as popular today as they were when played in turn of the century saloons and riverboats plying the Old Mississippi. World championship poker tournaments and the more recent celebrity poker tournaments are followed internationally and have helped to popularize the game even more.



Online poker is no exception and is played by more gamblers around the world than any other games of chance. Poker online is closer to face to face table games than video poker which is an equally popular game played at land-based casinos. The difference between the two is that in casino video poker, you are playing against the machine's internal computer which is a so-called “random numbers generator” that, as the name suggests, picks a poker hand randomly.

In online poker, you are playing against opponents around the world. Although you cannot see them, with experience you will learn to recognize other player's strategies. In fact, many highly-regarded poker players and world poker championship winners, have honed their skills playing poker at online casinos.

Almost everyone knows what an online casino is but how they came into being and what fueled their growth is not general knowledge.

In the United States, as in the rest of the world, literally billions upon billions of dollars are spent on gambling, legally and illegally. You can find legalized gambling of one form or another in almost every state in the US. Land-based casinos, particularly Indian gaming, have proliferated nearly everywhere in recent years as have riverboat gambling casinos. And of course there are the gambling cities of Reno and the inimitable Las Vegas.

But what about the man or woman in Hopscotch, Minnesota who wants to play a few hands of poker but does not have a casino nearby? Even if there was a conveniently-located casino, not everyone enjoys the noise and smoke of a casino poker room. The answer to all of that is the online casino.

Even the people who enjoy the excitement of a live casino, the free drinks and entertainment, know that the convenience of having the availability of an online casino in your living room or bedroom cannot be matched by a brick and mortar establishment.

If you feel like a few hands of poker and want to play online, you do not have to shave, you can play in your pajamas or bathrobe, you can take a break whenever you please and your favorite seat will be waiting for you, you do not have to gas up the car and maybe drive across town. Bad weather? No problem. Turn up the heat or the air conditioning and log on to your favorite online casino.