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Most of us had an image of poker that wasn’t too pretty. Smoke filled rooms, with shady people, with cheating almost expected. So, let’s see how poker became big business.
This has come about from three main events. These events have change the course of poker in the world, and made it into a huge industry. As this story unfolds you will see how amazing all this has been.
The first step in the evolution of poker is when in 1998 Planet poker became the first online poker room. Online casinos had been around for about four years by then. So, with people starting to play poker from home our story begins.
We have had poker on television all the way back into the 70’s. The coverage was very limited. Small audiences didn’t help inspire more coverage.
This would change dramatically, eventually. The second key factor in changing poker is the hole card camera, or “pocket cam”. Patented way back in 1994, and was used briefly in Europe in 1997. Once used to it’s fullest, this tool revolutionized watching poker on the television.
From these two things, online poker and the pocket cam, things will start to take off. In 2002, in their WSOP coverage, ESPN uses the pocket cam for the first time. Later that year the WPT forms, and will also broadcast taped coverage with the pocket cam.
The 2002 WSOP coverage was more successful than past ratings. Pocket cam seems to make a big difference. ESPN decides it will cover more of the tournament next year.
ESPN decides that they will get coverage from every day. They will have pocket cam on the feature table. They also start profiling the players.
The tournament concludes with unknown Chris Moneymaker beating all the pros to capture the $2.5 million dollar first prize. He is basically just a small time internet player. He won $10,000 entry for $40, by working his way through two levels of qualifying.
When Chris Moneymaker goes from an unknown, small time, internet poker player, to WSOP Main Event Champion, the poker boom accelerates massively. He gives hope to every player that anyone can win the biggie. The rest is history, and the world has gone poker crazy.
The pocket cam got people watching on television. The internet made poker available to everyone. Chris Moneymaker gives us all hope that maybe we can be the world champ.
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