In the past I have heard sportsmen claim that since they became a professional in their chosen sport they have never really worked a day in their life. To be fair, being so good at anything from soccer to basketball, baseball to hockey and any other sport you can think of takes a lot of hard work. But the point they were trying to make is that doing what you love as a job takes away the feeling that it is actually work in the more mundane, pedestrian, day to day sense of what other professions could be seen as.
In the world of gambling, things have come a long way. Since the hazy days when casinos were seen as iniquitous places, things have changed. Where places like the famous Las Vegas strip casinos were perhaps populated by the more louche, or the notorious, or even the most famous who could afford to play and lose, people like the Rat Pack among them, poker has become mainstream. Poker is no longer the preserve of the few, whoever they were.
Moreover, poker has become big business and televised as a live event, with tournaments such as the World Series of Poker now attracting more players, sponsors, advertisers and audiences. With the global gambling industry now invested, to the tune of billions each year, in the internet, and anyone with access able to enjoy playing online casino games, poker, roulette, slots, and all casino-based games are now ubiquitous.
From Glitzy Gaming To Serious Stakes: Professional Player Numbers Are Growing
With all this going on, the technological evolution that has taken online poker to a global and often brand-new playing audience, the image and landscape of poker has changed beyond recognition, and it is now so much more than a game for some people. With so much money to be made in the world of professional poker, it should come as no surprise to learn that more casual players are now taking the game more seriously, with a view to making it a viable full-time profession.
Of course, with all the glitz and glamour, in comparison to the number of global players both at casinos and online, there are only a relatively small number of professional poker players. This is true of almost every sport, of course, where people can only dream of turning their fun and pastime into a full-time job. As with other professional sports, the rewards are great for those few who do make it into the professional ranks of poker.
As the game has grown, with global player numbers on the rise and televised poker tournaments now commonplace on mainstream sport networks, attracting more sponsorship money alongside that, the stakes have become exponentially higher. Even those who can qualify to play, those who have honed their poker strategies do not necessarily need to win to make their professional career financially viable. Of course it helps the further you can go in each tournament for which you do qualify. Higher stakes, higher numbers, higher interest, poker is big business.
Learning The Ropes Online And Taking Poker To New Heights
Thanks to the almost global accessibility of the online poker platforms, apps, and websites that have attracted millions of players around the world, learning to play poker is now something that is open to more people than ever. Though there are those who have always learned the poker rules, hand rankings and how to play different hands like a full-house, three of a kind or a straight, strategies and methods in the hustle and bustle of casinos, there is an emerging group who do this online.
Some, of course, use online poker to practice and refine their gameplay. You might also be going to live casinos to play in tournaments and for the higher stakes and overall experience. One of the advantages of online poker learning is that it gives people who may not have ready or regular access to a bricks and mortar casino the chance to play poker. More to the point, it offers the chance, however slim, for people to play to the point that they may be able to have a go at making poker a profession that goes beyond a pastime.
With poker professionals now able to make tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions at the very upper echelons of the poker tree, this is one card game that now offers new opportunities. Although it remains a fun pursuit or hobby to the majority who play and enjoy it, the small number who make it onto the professional circuit have well and truly shown that poker is now a genuine full-time career for them. As the subject of this article would suggest, it is fair to say with some confidence that the growing fraternity of poker professionals have indeed taken the game from fun to full time careers.
