Online Poker Games

The popularity of Texas Hold em poker has grown exponentially in recent years. But where did Texas Hold em come from? Poker itself is derived from a French bluffing game called Poque. The French brought the game to New Orleans, where it became popular and evolved into the game we now call poker. Although there is no clear verification of this, it is said that the Texas Hold em version of poker was first played in the early 1900s in the town of Robstown, Texas.

In 1958, Texas gambler Doyle Brunson joined with two other legends to be, “Sailor” Roberts and “Amarillo Slim,” to become a fearsome poker team. This trio traveled around Texas and the Southwest, finding and crushing poker games wherever they could, often utilizing their skills at No Limit Hold em. During this time, the men, especially Brunson, dealt out thousands of Hold em hands manually, just to determine the frequency of certain holdings winning out over certain others. These data proved invaluable in live games.

In 1971, the first official World Series of Poker Main Event was played. The game was No Limit Hold em, cementing its place as one of the most skillful types of poker. In 1973, Doyle Brunson took his family and moved to Las Vegas, the Mecca of card playing. As Brunson is widely considered to be the greatest ambassador of the game of poker, this was a key event in Hold em poker history. Four years later, Brunson introduced a book on poker “How I made $1,000,000 Playing Poker,” which was later renamed “Super/System, A Course on Power Poker.” The book, which gathered the best poker players in the world to each write a section on the game of their specialty, changed the way people think about and play poker. Doyle authored the section on No Limit Hold em and in it made the case for why Hold em is the “Cadillac” of poker games.

In 1999, a British television program called “Late Night Poker” began using new technology to televise poker, in which viewers could see the hole cards of the players as the hand progressed. This concept revolutionized poker and led to an explosion of both televised poker and poker in general. Shortly thereafter, The World Poker Tour and the Travel Channel used updated technology to bring televised poker to living rooms throughout the United States. The game used to showcase all of this technology? Texas Hold em, of course.

In 2003, an accountant from Tennessee named Chris Moneymaker came from out of nowhere to win the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. He got there for only $40, taking advantage of “satellite” tournaments which award seats to bigger tournaments as their prize. Chris won his seat and the championship, at No Limit Texas Hold em.

Today Texas Hold em is by far the most popular poker game in the United States, if not the world. Thousands of people play in the World Series of Poker’s No Limit Hold em event and millions more play online or watch it on T.V. Doyle Brunson’s prediction has been borne out. Texas Hold em truly is the Cadillac of poker games and everyone wants to get behind the w