Poker Comeback
Monday, December 8th, 2008
In the 1990s it seemed that pokern was dying, if not already dead. Casinos all over the place were shutting down their live poker rooms as video and online poker was taking the spotlight. But all that changed. About 8 years ago ESPN aired the first WSOP event, and that was, at least in the eyes of many industry analysts, the spark that brought the sport back.
Since that time, poker has become the world’s card game. It’s a little know fact that the World Series of Poker event has been around since the 1970s, but it wasn’t televised, and not really heavily advertised. Basically it was an exclusive thing. If you didn’t know about the circuit, well you didn’t really learn about it unless you frequented the casinos.
Before you knew it, it wasn’t even poker anymore, we all knew it as Texas Hold ‘Em. Then it happened. The amateur breakthrough in the form of Chris Moneymaker, that was the second dose of gasoline on the fire that was already starting to burn brighter again. And this brought with it the 10,000 dollar a seat competitive scene online. Instead of skipping the brick and mortars to play online, players were competing online in order to win seats at the live event. They call this the Moneymaker Effect in retrospect.
And from there, it’s as they say, the rest is history. The game became assessable to anyone with an internet connection and a passion to play. And interest combined with popularity is, as every economist knows, that thing we call popularity. Marketability even.
In the 1990s it seemed that pokern was dying, if not already dead. Casinos all over the place were shutting down their live poker rooms as video and online poker was taking the spotlight. But all that changed. About 8 years ago ESPN aired the first WSOP event, and that was, at least in the eyes of many industry analysts, the spark that brought the sport back.
Since that time, poker has become the world’s card game. It’s a little know fact that the World Series of Poker event has been around since the 1970s, but it wasn’t televised, and not really heavily advertised. Basically it was an exclusive thing. If you didn’t know about the circuit, well you didn’t really learn about it unless you frequented the casinos.
Before you knew it, it wasn’t even poker anymore, we all knew it as Texas Hold ‘Em. Then it happened. The amateur breakthrough in the form of Chris Moneymaker, that was the second dose of gasoline on the fire that was already starting to burn brighter again. And this brought with it the 10,000 dollar a seat competitive scene online. Instead of skipping the brick and mortars to play online, players were competing online in order to win seats at the live event. They call this the Moneymaker Effect in retrospect.
And from there, it’s as they say, the rest is history. The game became assessable to anyone with an internet connection and a passion to play. And interest combined with popularity is, as every economist knows, that thing we call popularity. Marketability even.
