In the poker business, we saw a huge increase in activity over the last few years. Business people are making good money during this poker boom. Let's take a look at the ways people are cashing big checks in the poker world.

Before we do that, let's examine why we are seeing this incredible growth. We saw three distinct events that created the expansion in poker activity. Okay, in chronological order, this is what occurred that led to the growth in poker.

The first event was in 1994 when polish poker player, entrepreneur, Henry Orenstein developed, and patented, the know how for the "hole card cam". With this invention the audience gets to know the hole cards that the players have as the hand is played. The first appearance of this invention occurred in 1997 on an English poker telecast.

Poker had been on TV since the 70's, however few people were watching. This was due to fact that not having the knowledge of what the players had, you had no idea what the players tactics were. The hole card camera made watching poker on television incredibly entertaining.

The next thing that contributed to the rapid expansion of poker was the arrival of poker on the world wide web. The initial internet poker room opened its "doors" in 1998. Now, players can play poker in the friendly surroundings of the location of their own choice. The online poker rooms will have consistent growth as players began using these new poker venues.

This sets the stage for the decisive event that caused the boom. When Chris Moneymaker beats some of the top pros in the game to win the world series of poker Main Event in 2003, poker takes off. Getting his seat thru a $40 online poker room satellite, then winning pokers biggest prize, starts the avalanche of poker popularity.

The combination of the pocket cam creating a large audience seeing poker on TV, and the build up of internet poker rooms increasing the player base, positioned the poker industry for poker to take off to incredible levels of popularity. With the world seeing an internet, amateur player, succeed against some of the best players in the world, poker took off.

This growth opens up numerous possibilities for aggressive entrepreneurs. There are a few key ways to become wealthy in poker. The vast majority of these opportunities are online opportunities. Here is a short list of a few of the businesses you could start in this growing industry.

Some poker amateurs have turned themselves into successful professional poker players. Some dedicated marketers have gotten very wealthy finding poker players for the online poker rooms. Books that teach poker strategy have become great money makers.

Businesses are making software tools that allow online players to study their own play from the information gathered from their past play. Some entrepreneurs have started their own online poker rooms. You see live poker leagues being run at bars and meeting rooms across the nation.

These are most, but not all, of the interesting opportunities that business people are using to cash in on the poker explosion. Working a poker opportunity from the internet seems to be the most promising. The future for poker still looks bright, and the potential for making money is there for anyone willing to go for it.