Poker has gone through many changes over the past decades. Texas Hold’em has become the de facto major format that the majority of players try to play and compete in these days, with a few exceptions for those players who have found and embraced their niche.
The game has been recognized as one that takes skill, knowledge, and understanding rather than blind luck. In the meantime, the advancement of the Internet and IT technologies in general have shaped online poker as a worthwhile alternative to land-based poker.
Even the World Series of Poker hosted an online event during the pandemic, as the company wanted to ensure that it continues to deliver on exceptional poker experiences, nevermind the slowdown in global traveling and a virus that had spread all over the world at the time.
Here are the ways that technology has been transforming the poker experience and why we think it’s all for the better. The past 20 years have been exciting, and the game of poker has certainly benefited greatly from the technological leaps of the two decades leading up to 2023.
#1 Poker Has Never Been More Accessible
Poker has indeed never been more accessible than ever before. The fact that you can look up a website and play online is a huge facilitator in not just making is simpler for players to find a game or tournament they want to join in, but also for poker operators to maintain their business.
This is not just happening online. Technology has reached people interested in land-based poker and helped them move over to locations and areas where poker is more popular, such as Las Vegas, Nevada, for example.
Admittedly, the biggest advantage online poker has had is to spur the growth of online card rooms. Online card rooms have appeared in many jurisdictions around the world, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and well beyond, connecting players who live hundreds if not thousands of kilometers from one another and letting them play together, making the game of poker more accessible than ever in the past.
#2 Increasing the Entertainment Value
Technology has certainly increased the entertainment value that we derive from poker these days. Players have the opportunity to not just win real money at the best online poker tournaments, but also enjoy the game in brand new ways. One of the biggest advantages has been the development of a tournament network which invites different players to participate and more importantly – tech has made it possible to broadcast tournaments live.
Sure, the online games are usually fast and a little difficult to track, but land-base events have been so much joy to watch. Technology has been able to create advanced systems that track the entire action, with viewers able to see and track the entire action down to the last card a player is holding along with the likely percentages of an outcome for every possible situation.
This has made poker a game that you do not just sit and watch idly, but a game that is accessible and easily understandable to viewers for one. Having the chance to see why players make decisions and whether they were right (based on the percentages displayed by broadcasts) is definitely satisfying and makes you feel closer to the action. It also gives you the satisfaction of knowing something that the pros maybe do not.
Owing to this high entertainment value, poker has become more popular – once again thanks to the technology that creates the unique conditions in which the game can truly thrive and develop at a rapid clip. Poker is all the better for this particular angle which has allowed tournament organizers and players to leverage technology to make the game so much more fun.
#3 Diving into the Metaverse, Virtual Reality, and More
When we speak about entertainment value, it’s important to mention some of the efforts put in by companies such as PokerStars. The company has come up with a virtual reality setting which is still very experimental, but it has been tested by some of its own ambassadors, and the broader public.
Now, PokerStars VR is far from becoming the norm, but it’s a good preview of what is to follow next. There is a huge push among online poker platforms to make the experience more worthwhile. Of course, for the more cut-and-dry players who are in the game for making a profit, the somewhat dated UI is much better.
The VR is a bit clunky, it may bug out, and it will somewhat depend on the quality of your own VR headset. Well, these are indeed things that can throw a spanner in the works of VR adoption in poker, but companies such as PokerStars feel that this is just a beginning for them, and that the technology is going to be rolled out more broader before long.
PokerStars is definitely a brand that demonstrates how seriously it is committed to this trend, and although it’s not yet “there,” the card room is definitely making some serious strides in this space.
#4 Creating Bigger Prize Pools and Leveling the Playfield
Thanks to technology, poker everywhere has benefited. The interconnectivity of players has made it possible for people to come together and enjoy the game like they have never before. This, however, has had one huge boon to the industry as a whole – it has allowed for the creation of much bigger prize pools.
Technology has made the game of poker more popular, and that has led to more exposure for brands, including advertisement revenue which is a nice way to further consolidate the ecosystem. Because of the money flowing into poker, card rooms have been able to level the playfield by introducing events and games that have a much lower buy-in as well.
What this means is that more players can try and experience poker in a competitive setting without having to spend too much money at all. Whether you play online or at a land-based casino, the fact remains that poker has become increasingly accessible. We all this and much more to the technological breakthroughs that made it a possibility.
