I'm a nostalgic dude, so I've always wanted to see an accurate, detailed, wikipedia like history of online poker written out. I suspect many of the regular readers of El D have been around since the beginning, so I'm sure that with our combined knowledge we could do a pretty awesome job.


I've taken 10 minutes and thrown together a real rough draft here. This is all from memory, dates are estimates. It's likely many of the dates are incorrect, and there are tons of omissions. Please edit, add to, and rewrite!

Chronological History of online poker

Pre Moneymaker (1998 – 2003)

-Paradise Poker founded
-Planet Poker founded
-Poker Spot founded
-Party Poker founded
-Poker Stars founded
-Poker Spot goes under, Dutch Boyd loses vast sums of his customers money

2003
-Moneymaker qualifies for WSOP at stars and wins main event
-15/30 limit currently the biggest game at Party Poker, NL is played for small stakes only
-30/60 largest game spread online, at Poker Stars

2004
-Explosion in 2004 WSOP turnout due to online qualifiers
-Stars introduces 100/200 limit tables
-Party opens 30/60 limit
-Party dominates industry
-Rakeback introduced
-zerorake.com opens, fails
-NL still trailing limit in popularity, 10 handed limit holdem still the most popular game online
-Ed Miller writes Small Stakes Holdem
-David Ross documents online poker for a living at two plus two
-Notable online players – Neverwin, magicpitch (benyamine), Thomas keller…
-Notable 2p2ers – davidross, bicyclekick, el Diablo, gonores, schneids, captzeebo

2005
-6 max tables increase in popularity
-NL gaining in popularity and rising in stakes
-big limits introduced online (300/600 limit, 25/50 NL at UB)
-Full Tilt launched
-Notable online players – the Scandinavians (erik123 et al.), Stoxtrader, ???

2006
-UIEGA legislation banning online poker for US players
-Neteller fiasco
-rise of NL superstars such as sbrugby, durr
-Sky limits introduced, 1000/2000 limit, 300/600 NL
-Notable players ???
-WPEX introduces rakefree poker, limited success

2007
-AP + UB merge
-AP cheating scandal
-UB cheating scandal
-Poker coaching sites increase in popularity.
-Notable players ...?

I think you should mention how there were only 2 tables of Party 30/60 and the waiting lists were always ~30 deep.

Somewhat frequent reload bonuses at Party that everyone whored.

Party and its many skins.

Party and most of its skins merge.

Party Steps, 10-Man 15k buy-in SnGs, and Gigabet may be notable enough.

You had to talk to Lee Jones before you could sit at Stars 100/200 FL game.

Some big things I can remember off the top of my head (as in big deals on 2+2):

Party goes from 50BB to 100BB.

Party updates to completely new software, w/ Monster and all that jazz.

Empire/Eurobet/Multipoker get effed.

Party adds 50/100 and up, $5 rake lol.

Party adds 6-max for (nearly? can't remember) all limit games. Only had 1/2 and 5/10 6-max before. This was huge (I guess you mentioned it geo).

paradise 20/40 was the biggest game on the internet for a while, before stars 30/60 imo. then paradise went to 40/80 before anyone else too.

that 20/40 game used to be so huge in my eyes, wow.

also put astroglide in under noted 2p2ers for 04

It was late January 2007 when Neteller froze US accounts and July 2007 when they unfroze them and allowed people to withdraw their money.

Please give dates along with the facts if you know them.

Nice, yes! I remember this.

Also the party monster promo.

also James282, nate tha great

I don't exactly know how to categorize this, but one of the memorable online poker stories of 2005 for me was Prahlad Friedman (SpiritRock/Mahatma) vs KKF123. 50/100 NL was HUGGEEE.

You obv need to talk about Taylor Caby and Prah.

Ok, good stuff. I've always been a limit player, so I may have missed big stuff.

OH damn just remembered - Brandi + newhizzle

Planet poker was founded prior to Paradise poker. I believe there was something before planet (maybe Dragon poker).

erik123 ravaged the highstakes fixed games more then anyone can even remember now, you can ask the people who played back then.


Also could be worth noting TexasLimitKing who seemed to come from nowhere and crush 500/1000 and then 1K/2K for a short period of while and then retiring.

200?- planet poker the first online poker room to allow real money play has there rng cracked by a group of math guys cuz they wanted to prove that they could do it.

2007- planet poker the first online poker room to allow real money play, stops having real money play after years of struggling and begans selling play money chips to there customers.

edit: this is very interesting and I will def. keep track of this thread.

Party eating it's skins was huge. No more 12 tabling on 3 clients :-(.

Late 2005 IIRC, November maybe?

UIGEA, late 2006

9th of october 2005, I just came home from a live tour and got the good news, almost on the balcony crying preparing to jump over that ****

"Empire/Eurobet/Multipoker get effed."

what?

The Monster scam that party pulled after UIGEA, where they stole 8 million from the players.

"paradise 20/40 was the biggest game on the internet for a while, before stars 30/60 imo."

Incorrect use of imo.

DERB (doesn't ever run bad) may be worth mentioning too. Killed the Party 30/60+ games playing in an unorthodox high vpip, high aggro style. Kinda like Hoss now that I think about it. There was a huge thread about him in the High Stakes limit forum. Wonder what happened to that guy.

Not sure about the dates, but other notable events:
-PokerTracker + PokerAce HUD introduction
-ZeeJustin debacle
-Fossilman noted 2+2er
-Bonuswhoring in general (used to be such a big deal for me..played new sites all the time)

200? - Caby starts a poker training site making coaching cheap enough for the micro players and has a stable of great players coaching them.

Party cutting off its skins from its network. great scandal.