It was only a matter of time before Poker became an online game. The social aspects of poker, combined with it's casino flavour and popularity ensured that the game would be played online, and today it's available for playing against national and international players at thousands and thousands of sites.

Since online poker began, thousands, if not millions more people have been introduced to the game worldwide, prompting the industry to run into the billions of dollars per year - Wikipedia claims that for 2005 alone ".. revenues from online poker were estimated at US$200 million per month..". A huge sum,and althoughthis is perhaps less than the amounts made in traditional physical casinos, it is has the benefit of the exponential growth trends that comes with Internet adoption.

Online poker is quite different to offline poker because no one can actually see your face or know your identity, and hence it offers both an advantage and disadvantage to playing the game normally. For instance, you cannot see the subtle (or blatant for the beginning player) changes in an opponents mood or body language that can be crucial in winning. For that matter, your opponent cannot see you sweating over your low hand either.

Online poker venues often have poker rooms that have incredibly low stakes (often as low as 1 US cent, or even have "freerolls", where there is no entry fee at all), which doesn't exist in most physical casino settings.

For more information on Online Poker, visit Wikipedia's Online Poker article

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