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organizers, tournament director kits)
* Texas holdem poker rule and starting
hand cards
* Poker schools and training courses
* Poker books and strategy e-books
* Poker hats, shirts and clothing items
* Local poker clubs
* Free Texas Holdem poker stuff of every
kind imaginable.
To give you an idea of how many people
are now playing with real-money online, have a look at PokerPulse.com.
PokerPulse keeps tabs on the top online poker rooms and tracks how many
real-money poker games are running at any point in time. Some estimates
based upon these statistics suggest that online poker room companies are
turning over in excess of $110 million U.S. every 24 hours, with hundreds
of thousands of online players active any given evening.
So, with the worldwide inertia that poker
has today, how far can it go? Will it be like the CB Radio - a brief flash
in the pan and then suddenly - poof! Will it be just another fad and
memory, with occasional reminders like Smokey and the Bandit? Hard to say
for sure, but with the momentum, advertising and so many young people,
including many teenagers and children playing across the Internet, it
could be that the poker big bang has occured and its expansion has only
really begun...
As with many new, controversial
phenomenon such as poker, there's the social morality aspect and question:
Is playing poker gambling? Is it really just a game of skill? The question
of whether online poker rooms are just as much about gambling as
traditional casino games and online ... » read more |
