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That poker raises passions in thousands of people is no secret. That streaming platforms are witnessing an unstoppable and never-before-seen growth in the number of poker fans is a real bombshell.
The truth is that we have to go back a few years ago, when platforms of the magnitude of Twitch witnessed how poker advanced positions to sneak into the top positions of followers, nipping at the heels of entertainment heavyweights such as Fortnite, Call of Duty or GTA.
Poker broke the 100,000 follower’s barrier a couple of years ago and, while some were surprised to see the figures, others had been waiting for some time for the fruits of the hard work of poker rooms and content creators to position one of the most popular card games in the world.
From the experts at Habwin, a true meeting point for players from all over the world and where the best poker rooms meet, we shed light on the resounding success of streaming in our country’s poker rooms.
Poker TV: the beginnings of poker broadcasting
To understand the success of streaming poker, we cannot overlook the first steps of poker in the world of mass media.
“It was CBS who decided to give a television slot to the final tables of each year of the WSOP, the most important and prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world” they tell us from Habwin. “It was the 70’s and, although the proposal was attractive, many viewers had difficulty following the games. They lacked information about what was happening during the hands,” the company explains.
“Everything changed with the arrival of hole cameras, which allowed viewers to see the players’ cards. It was a real revolution. Somehow, from your home, you felt part of what was happening at the table,” add the Habwin experts.
By 2003, the World Poker Tour became the product par excellence for watching poker on television. “Its reception was of such magnitude that countries like ours started broadcasting poker games in the wee hours of the morning,” Habwin tells us.
Chris Moneymaker’s victory and the advent of online poker.
“You could say that Chris Moneymaker changed the course of poker. His victory in the Main Event of the WSOP in 2003, in which he beat 839 players and won a prize of $ 2,500,000, unleashed the furor for poker, turning it into a worldwide phenomenon,” Habwin points out.
As explained by the specialized poker agency, Moneymaker’s victory influenced a whole generation of young people who saw how an unknown player from Tennessee became a millionaire playing cards.
Thus, online poker surpassed live poker in terms of followers, and game broadcasts, through platforms such as YouTube, began to grow like wildfire. Players, poker communities and even the tournament circuits themselves realized the enormous potential of the Internet as a space to learn from the best players in the world, as well as an international window on this card game.
Streaming poker: one of the platforms’ biggest attractions
The growth of streaming, or the transmission of video and audio content to Internet-connected devices, is a growing trend, especially among young people.
Video games are perhaps the type of entertainment that has benefited most from this way of sharing with the world what you do in your day-to-day life. In fact, platforms such as Twitch were created expressly to broadcast video game games.
“Today, poker has become one of the most powerful claims of streaming platforms. This is the case, for example, of Twitch, where players from different corners of the world carry out their live sessions to comment and interact live with their followers”, explained Habwin.
On streaming platforms, we can find authentic poker referents, experts like Martí Roca de Torres, who was champion of the WSOPE 2017 Main Event, or great American referents such as Jordan Drummond.
“Thousands of users from all over the world connect to listen to the experiences of real poker stars, who, in addition, share how they played. The transmissions of the games are very instructive and many players have seen how they have improved in the reading of the game, the analysis of the cards or the study of the probabilities”, explained Habwin.
One of the main reasons why many users visualize the poker games is because it is a real learning tool, a kind of open book where you can learn the best tricks to win a poker game.
In this sense, we recommend the interesting article from TopManzana.com, especially suitable for anyone who wants to achieve victory on the green carpet, which addresses one of the key tools to win an online poker game: poker calculators.
Streaming poker is not only beneficial for those who want to learn from the heavyweights of the poker world, but also for the streamers themselves. “Streaming is a medium through which players make themselves known. They disseminate their work and their image, benefiting from the accessibility and visibility offered by the Internet,” the expert agency concludes.
Poker television broadcasts, which began in the 1970s, were the starting point for the relationship between this fascinating card game and the mass media. Much progress has been made since then in the way poker games are broadcast, attracting thousands of followers to streaming platforms.
What does the future hold for poker? We only hope to continue enjoying the exciting games and tournaments that one of the most fascinating card games in the world has to offer.
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