This is a surprising story that not too many people know about: the first people to play online poker games were mathematicians, engineers and programmers. These people created the online world that we know today.The reason they did this is that they found themselves on IRC, which was a haven for anyone who was even slightly inclined towards technology. This program was available to use in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This allowed people to create their own chat rooms and a few of these people decided that they were interested in playing poker. This eventually, over the years, evolved into the industry that we know today.
None of the people who played the earliest online poker games played for real money; this only started once various governments allowed their citizens to gamble online. This means that the people who played the earliest online poker games were able, same as with some of the more highly esteemed poker sites today, to play for free and hone their skills in poker.
The people who played there were proud of their ability to play online poker games with a wide variety of people, some of whom they’d never met. This was the precursor to the types of sites that we have become familiar with since the early 2000s. The main difference, however, is that the type of games they played was not played for financial gain; they played for the love of the game and no money was ever involved in any of the games in any of the channels in the 1980s and 1990s.
The people who were interested in playing poker on one of these channels needed few things to be able to do so – a connection to the internet and a membership to one of the channels. An interest in the game also helped.
The beginnings of playing online poker games for real money became a reality in the early 1990s when one site stepped up to the challenge. This eventually became de facto and many of us have come to expect to play in this manner whenever we contemplate playing poker.
The big online poker surge happened because of a couple of people who wanted to find a way for more people to enjoy the good game without having too many things stand in their way – travelling costs being chief among them.