The rise of online poker also coincided with the “poker boom” of the early 2000s, when the popularity of poker exploded thanks to the emergence of televised poker tournaments and the success of players like Chris Moneymaker, who won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event after qualifying through an online satellite tournament. While it was initially slow to catch on, the convenience and accessibility of online poker soon began to attract players in droves, and new online poker sites started to pop up to meet the growing demand.īy the early 2000s, online poker had become a major industry, with hundreds of online poker rooms offering a variety of games and stakes.
The first online poker room, Planet Poker, launched in 1998 and offered players the ability to play real-money games over the internet. Over the past two decades, online poker has grown into a massive industry, with millions of players from all over the world logging in to play poker online every day. Online poker has a relatively short but fascinating history, dating back to the mid-1990s when the first online poker rooms started to appear on the internet.