For a game which was something of a slow-burner for most of the 20th century, Texas 
Hold’em now has something of a stranglehold on whichever competition you may be playing in. Home games feature Texas Hold’em, it dominates poker play in casinos and the biggest prizes are associated with the tournament that take place weekly around the world.
The Texas State Legislature awards Robstown in Texas ownership of Texas Hold’em which it says originated there around the turn of the 2oth century. It appears to have been largely confined to the Southern states for the first few decades of the last century until various rounders and other tournament players brought it north with them. Players associated with spreading the holy word of Texas Hold’em in the early days are famous names such as Doyle Brunson and Amarillo ‘Slim’ Preston who, in the late 1960s, brought it to Las Vegas.
What would later become the World Series of Poker began in 1970 with Texas Hold’em as the game played on the final table. This was hardly surprising as the entry list consisted of a handful of souther players familiar with Hold’em. The WSOP is now the world’s biggest poker tournament, the winner is regarded as the de facto world champion and in not one year has a game other than Texas Hold’em been played at the Main Event table.
While the popularity of the game remained steady until the mid-1990s, the internet boom which brought the world wide web into our homes gave the game a massive boost – it was now possible to play the game online and reputable companies such as 888 casino enabled safe environments where a player in one country could pitch his poker skills against challengers from a different area.
It’s a hugely profitable business now and many players make a living from playing from their homes for a few hours a day. Try it, you never know what might happen; next year you could be playing in the Main Event at the WSOP in Las Vegas.
