Revolutionary tools are often called game changers. The invention of online poker rooms has created a game changer within the gambling world. Once legalized (and monitored), online poker will facilitate a shifting of poker skills from the standard skills and methods used in brick and mortar poker rooms to new concepts and skill sets used in online poker.

The value of anonymity with online poker has increased what typical players consider ‘risky plays’. Players tend to make plays in online poker hands that they may not normally make in person at a poker table. Things are a little different when you’re sitting there staring at someone or staring at a computer screen. We all have our favorite poker strategy book(s) but these days those concepts are typically violated with online poker plays. Online players are generally considered to be more aggressive and also loose.

Prior to the US Government shutting down most online poker operations offering tables to players in the US there was a boon of sorts, also known as the Moneymaker Effect. Chris Moneymaker was an accountant from Tennessee who won the World Series of Poker in 2003. Moneymaker was an online qualifier through the website Poker Stars. It started the poker wave of people who found that because Poker is a game of skill, they could make money sitting at home in front of a computer screen. A few years later, the US Government took care of all of that by outlawing the processing of debit and credit cards based with banks in the United States. Essentially, online poker was choked out by the inability to deposit and withdraw funds.

The coming months and years will be telling in regards to how online poker will proceed in the future. Not only will the regulations and potential for taxing be very important but the differing of poker strategy will also be interesting. The days of Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson playing in back rooms are over. The online poker revolution started in 2003, now we’re just waiting for it to resume.