The poker boom was a period between 2003 and 2006, during which

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

, primarily no-limit

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, communit ...

, but also other variations, became considerably more popular around the world. During the boom years, the

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

player pool at least doubled in size every year.

Causes

The seeds of the boom began in 1998, with the release of the film ''

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'' and the introduction of

Planet Poker A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

. These events built on the occasional telecasts of the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

(WSOP) Main Events that were recorded each summer and broadcast later in the year. Two specific 2003 triggers completed the launch of the poker boom. In the spring of 2003, the

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

's inaugural season debuted on the

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American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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. The impact of the boom was escalated in May 2003, when amateur

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a worl ...

won the 2003 WSOP Main Event. Moneymaker won his seat via a $86

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on the

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...

online poker room. Moneymaker was one of 839 entrants in the 2003 event, an increase of roughly 200 players from 2002 and almost doubling the 393 competitors that played in 1999. By the next year, the field in the 2004 Main Event more than tripled to 2576 players. By the 2006 Main Event, there were 8773 competitors, some 14 times as many as had entered the last 2002 pre-boom Main Event. It is also believed that the NHL lockout of 2004-05, and the subsequent filling of ESPN air time with poker programming influenced the poker boom. Another view holds that the poker boom was a classic

speculative bubble An economic bubble (also called a speculative bubble or a financial bubble) is a period when current asset prices greatly exceed their intrinsic valuation, being the valuation that the underlying long-term fundamentals justify. Bubbles can be c ...

Decline

The end of the boom is generally considered to be October 2006, when the

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act (found at ) which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits gam ...

(UIGEA) became law in the United States, and several online poker sites, including the industry leader at the time,

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, left the United States. In the first WSOP following the passage of UIGEA, attendance in the WSOP Main Event dropped nearly 28%, from 8773 in 2006 to 6358 at the 2007 Main Event. The game today remains much more popular than the pre-boom period, with WSOP Main Event attendance having stabilized near the 2007 level, in part due to higher growth levels internationally. Based on the 6685 entries to the July 2011 launch of the 2011 Main Event, it appears that the "Black Friday" indictments, on April 15, 2011, have not reduced the recent level of poker activity. Three of the biggest online poker sites serving players in the United States had their

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s seized and shut down by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which alleged they were in violation of federal bank fraud and

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laws. Nevertheless, two of them continue to serve the international player pool, and numerous smaller sites continue to allow U.S. players.

References

{{Poker footer Poker and society

Causes

Decline

See also

References