About Texas Holdem Poker

During the past decade, online Texas Holdem poker has experienced an explosion in popularity that hast truly gained worldwide exposure. The main reason for this surge of Texas Holdem poker players is primarily based on four factors: the availability of online poker games, the recognition of the sport on major television networks like ESPN or NBC running poker tournaments along with commercials for online poker rooms and of course the 2003 World Series of Poker.

Before the popularity of playing Texas Holdem poker really took off, the movie Rounders (1998) which starred Matt Damon and Edward Norton, gave the world a detailed account of a dedicated poker player's way of life. From up big to losing it all, the movie also contained a clip of the 1988 World Series of Poker showdown between Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel.

Then in 1999 on the Late Night Poker TV show in the United Kingdom, lipstick cameras became available which allowed spectators to see the players' hole cards on television making the game a bit more exciting to watch. Texas Holdem poker still didn't gain popularity as a spectator sport in the United States for a few years until the 2003 WSOP championship with online qualifier Chris Moneymaker.

The 2003 WSOP Main Event with a $10,000 buy-in which Moneymaker won had 839 entrants. After all the publicity, a year later the 2004 WSOP Main Event entry field had tripled with 2,576 players. As with Moneymaker, the 2004 WSOP champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer was an amateur online poker player who proved yet again, that anyone who starts playing FREE poker can win really BIG.

After two years of televised million dollar prizes won by amateur online poker players, the 2005 WSOP Main Event, had an unprecedented 5,619 entrants playing No Limit Texas Holdem poker for a whopping first place prize of $7,500,000. The winner of the 2005 WSOP Main Event, was Joe Hachem of Australia, a one time chiropractor who turned semi-pro after a condition prevented him the ability to do his job. Shortly after learning the holdem sequence, he began playing live and online poker and found himself wearing the championship bracelet.

Growth in Texas Holdem poker has steadily grown since 2005, with 8,773 entrants in the 2006 WSOP Main Event and a first place prize of $12,000,000 which was won by online poker player Jamie Gold. After the introduction of the UIEGA, the 2007 WSOP Main Event saw less entrants than the previous years with 6,358 playing for a first place prize of approximately $8,250,000.

The Word Series of Poker televised on ESPN has definitely been a major contributor to the increasing popularity of Texas Holdem poker games but other television shows like the World Poker Tour, EPT and Celebrity Poker have also played important roles.