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When did poker become so popular?

I remember hearing poker used to be played in back rooms and in bars, but now it's everywhere. What caused its popularity and when did it happen? Was it ESPN? Hollywood?

Public Comments

1. GETTING RICH
2. right after choppers, its just another fad that caught on
3. Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began, in 1970. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, and Doyle Brunson. It was also during that decade that the first serious strategy books appeared, notably Super/System by Doyle Brunson and The Book of Tells by Mike Caro followed later by The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky Poker’s popularity experienced an unprecedented spike at the beginning of the 21st century, largely because of the introduction of online poker and the invention of the hole-card camera, which turned the game into a spectator sport. and now with the world matches on cable and sat. it just keeps growing
4. Dirty Dan walks into the saloon and says "how about a hand of poker?" They say "We don't play with you Dan, you cheat!" So he says "I'll let everybody cut the cards before the deal!" So they figure why not and all six people cut the cards. Just to make it fair Dirty Dan cuts the cards. So He deals out a typical five card draw hand. They say "we saw you Dirty Dan, you dealt off the bottom of the deck!!" So he says "ok, then I'll take a new hand", and deals himself five cards in a row. All six players have full houses and they say "We got you now Dirty Dan, beat all these full houses!" We says "I've gotta straight flush!!!" (This is a real card trick that can be done with a stacked deck, yes even cut the cards 7 times!!!)
5. The World Series of Poker was the one event that glamorized poker. It did not receive much coverage because that it had a $10,000 buy in just to even enter. So, it didnt get much attention because the "average" guy couldnt afford to enter into the realm of it. That changed about 7 years ago. The World Series of Poker started getting attention because of satellite tournaments that would allow someone to pay $50 and win through a lot of people to have the $10,000 buy in paid for them. So, you invest $50 and take a chance. Well, in 2003 a newbie won the tournament. At the time, it was only $2.5 million, but that burst the bubble and allowed average people a way in. The times of "pro" players having their own little club went to the wayside. The popularity of the game blew up when that newbie named Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, won the main event by making some incredible bold moves. Bluffing the professional players and having his way with them toward the end. Moneymaker spent $2 to get into the tournament, winning that got him into a $40 buy in tournament. Winning that got him sponsorship by an online poker site and an entry into the main event. When he won it, the flood gates opened and everyone saw an opportunity for them to be the champion just like Moneymaker. It is a good thing, and a bad thing. The good - The winning pot has gotten huge. Turning an average guy into a multimillionaire with only a small amount of money, (if any), and the TV cameras have followed those dreams. The popularity has spawned other tournaments and shows to follow the world series. This gives other people even more opportunities to make a lot of money. The bad - Poker is no longer a skill game. There is a way to play it, and a way not to play it. There are a lot of people getting into the tournaments that dont know what they are doing and they get lucky. They spend $50 to get into the tournament and play stupid, but they get lucky and win. Then they face a player that has paid $10,000 to get in the tournament and put them out on a hand that they shouldnt have won. Watching some of the tournaments is saddening. Seeing someone call a huge bet with a 7 2 off suit, and then hitting 7 and 2 on the turn and river to beat someone with pocket aces, is sickening. Yet, they dont think they did anything wrong. Had they invested $10,000 in the first place, instead of the $50 they put in, then they wouldnt have these problems. If they get to the point where they wont allow sponsers to pay the entry fees, (and then have their player sit around the tables wearing advertisements for their site), then we will get back to good poker. Its hard for a person to call a huge pot when they dont have the cards to stay in it in the first place, if they have a large amount of money invested in it. But, there goes the huge cash pots if they do that. Catch 22, I guess. I yearn to see good poker, not seeing who the luckiest person is. Great question.
6. Poker has of course been around for many years, but in the past few it has become huge, world wide. It's called the Moneymaker effect. In 1998 a movie called Rounders came out staring Matt Damon is a talented young poker player, who pays his way though half of law school by playing poker. His dream is to build a big enough bank roll to enter the world's most prestigious poker tournament, the main event of the World Series of Poker. A poker tournament held each year in Las Vegas since 1970. The event costs $10,000 to enter, and back then the winner would get a million dollars. As hype for the movie Matt Damon actually played in the WSOP main event the year the movie came out. The movie was a classic, and really made poker seem incredibly interesting. Among its fans was a young accountant from Tennessee, called Chris Moneymaker (his real name). Chris saw the movie and decided he wanted to learn the game. Living in Bible belt it was not easy to find a card room, so Chris began playing online poker, which was in its infancy back in 2000. Chris continued to hone his game and in 2003 he played in a $40 tournament online, winning as his prize, a trip to the World Series of Poker and a buy in the to main event. ESPN had started to push poker a little bit more. There was also a new show in town called the World Poker Tour. They had found ways to make the games more interesting by hiding mini cameras on the table allowing commentators to see the cards held by the players. This way the viewer at home could now see what the players were doing. Every great lay down, every bluff, every monster hand could be seen and admired. For the first time it was possible to really understand the skill behind the plays. Chris Moneymaker ended up winning the main event, taking for his prize $2.5 million dollars. Thus began the Moneymaker effect. Viewers at home and players on the Internet began to wonder if they could achieve the same thing. The following year a patent clerk, who was also not a professional player, won the event. Interest in the main event had boosted the prize pool so much that the main prize was $5 million. By 2006 the jack pot reached $12m. In the past few years the Moneymaker effect has brought poker out of the smoky back rooms. All the major casinos have opened nice comfortable poker rooms. You can find a tournament either online or in a casino every minute of every day. Magazines, books, TV shows, bad movies, accessories, web sites, online poker rooms, amateur poker leagues. You name it. The poker industry is now worth billions of dollars. It seems like Hollywood was the catalyst for glamorizing the game. Online poker gave people access to learn the game in the comfort of their own homes. And then the producers of the World Poker Tour and WSOP managed to make the game interesting with the development of pocket card cameras. All of these developments, along with the belief that anyone can learn the game and win millions, is a very exciting concept. The massive influx of new players is also making the professional players even richer. Many new players make all kinds of mistakes and these mistakes can be exploited by good players. Lucrative sponsorship deals are handed out like candy to top professional players, who become heroes among the new players. Students from highly prestigious universities are taking a year or two off from their studies to try their hand on the poker circuit. There are million dollar tournaments all over the world, almost all the time these days. In the 80s young people would dream of becoming a stock broker and making millions. These days professional poker player is a dream for many. Winning a million dollars on TV for playing a game for a few days, having won a satellite online for a few bucks. Who wouldn’t want that? I believe that this is pretty much the recent history of poker. Of course it’s not all smooth sailing. The Bush administration decided to clamp down on online gambling (way to read public opinion). While they have not outlawed it, they have shut American companies out, which has resulted in many international companies giving up on America and preventing Americans from accessing the sites. So despite the fact that America invented poker in its modern form, many Americans are now excluded from playing online, which was a huge source of new players. Let that freedom bell ring! In a few days the World Series of Poker main event will begin. Thanks to the new restrictions, it is as yet unclear just how big the event will be. There is talk about reducing the top prize to give more to the runners up. In 2006 the prize was $12m for first place. There were over 8,500 players in the main event alone. This year, the number could be less. We’ll know very soon. TV coverage will begin in the next few weeks. You can follow the news at Card Player’s web site.
7. I remember it well in 1969 a little known game went on to be the Talk of the town and just snowballed
8. Poker did became popular with C. MONEYMAKER winning the MAIN EVENT 2003. He was a nobody, and won millions (2.5M) with only infesting ...$40, playing a satellites.
9. Poker got a push from the movie Rounders but really blew up in 2003 when ESPN started boradcasting the World Series of Poker. Now you cannot get away from it.
10. it started a little bit when matt damon made the rounders movie, and then exploded when moneymaker won the main event, as previous answerers have said...however, another key push before moneymaker's world series win was the beginning of the world poker tour, which had the first hole card cameras and revolutionized the way poker could be shown on tv...this is the suit espn followed, and when moneymaker won people began to see that they, too, could parlay $40 into $2.5 million just like he did, and so the craze began
11. If you're talking about this latest craze, it was 2003, when an ameture on-line player turned $40 into $2,000,000 at the World Series of Poker He proved to all the other ametures that it could be done, and the rest is history.