Online poker has become extremely popular, thanks in no part to the tournaments that have been broadcast on television. Celebrity poker got the ball rolling with top celebrities playing to television audiences. The whole experience was amplified as celebrities played with the aim of accumulating as much money as possible which was then to be donated to their favourite charities.
Celebrity poker was replaced by World Poker championship tournaments. These started with games being played in local centers with the winners progressing to regional then national titles. The winners of the national titles would then play off in a world title tournament. With the public’s attention caught, online poker started to bloom and today you can join games for as little as 2 Euros and play for the opportunity to win thousands.
PokerStars is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, online poker site on the web at present. You can play daily 20,000 Euro tournaments which are very popular and fairly competitive. Each week there is a 100,000 Euro tournament which played out on Sundays each week.
One of the big drawcards with PokerStars is its free play option. You don’t have to play for money, you can simply play for the fun of it. It can be a great way to learn all the intricacies of online poker, particularly the two most popular forms, Texas Hold’em and Omaha. You can also play 7 Card Stud , 2-7 Triple Draw etc. for free.
A word of caution when playing for free. Because players are not playing with their own money, they can tend to be less cautious. When you migrate your play to a paid tournament, you will find that players are far more reserved and far more serious. That doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot playing for free. Many of the players, especially towards the end of a game, are still playing a serious style.
If you are looking for excitement and entertainment then consider online poker through PokerStars – they represent good value and when you do decide to play with real money, you can grab matching deposit bonuses up to 500 Euros in value.