The poker game that has proven to be the most popular when played at an online casino is Texas Hold’em. Unsurprisingly Texas Hold’em originated in Texas. In fact it was born in a little town called Robstown back in the early 1900s. The game did not become popular in the casinos of Las Vegas for other sixty or so years.
It made its first appearance in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget Casino in the early sixties. Back then the Golden Nugget was nothing like it is now. Now it is a huge luxurious hotel casino with over 2000 rooms and penthouse suites. Back then it was only relatively small. It was considered to be lower class casino than most of its contemporaries and was located in downtown Las Vegas rather than on The Strip. In fact it was just about the oldest casino in town having been built back in 1946.
The game was an exclusive feature of the Golden Nugget for quite a number of years until it was eventually taken up by another famous casino, The Dunes. The Dunes was located on The Strip and was quite popular. Back then The Dunes was almost certainly run by the Mafia. The casino was demolished in 1994 and was replaced by the magnificent and resplendent Bellagio casino with it dancing fountains and Son et Luminaire displays.
Texas Hold’em made its first tournament appearance in 1969 in what is now known as the World Series of Poker. Nnowadays $10,000 no-limit Texas Hold’em is the main feature of the tournament.
1979 saw the first documentation of the game in a publication called Super System. This was a book that detailed strategies for a variety of poker variants. The author was Doyle Brunson, a professional poker player of the time who claimed to have made over $1,000,000 playing poker. The book went on to become a kind of poker players’ bible.
With that publication Texas Hold’em had finally arrived and its popularity increased over the following years. The game found its way to Europe during the 1980s. The turn of the century saw an explosion of interest in the game as it became the most popular form of poker to be played on line. Its popularity continues to increase to this day.
By Dave Saltonstall
Dave Saltonstall has played in the WSOP (World Series of Poker) and regularly enjoys a game of online poker is a key contributor to the http://www.betfred.com/poker/ website!