Poker has made amazing strides in gaining popularity worldwide. It is almost impossible to turn on the television and not be able to find a poker game of some sort that you can watch. There are the celebrity tournaments that seem to be growing every day, the World Series of Poker and even tournaments for amateurs that are now aired on ESPN, Bravo and TNT to name a few. Another indication of the incredible popularity poker has gained in the last five years is those steel case poker sets that are sold in nearly every single store across America. The increased interest in poker on TV is not limited to the United States, in fact it seems to be nearly everywhere across the world.

Poker first gained a greater public awareness when the World Series of Poker began in 1970. This was an event that drew a lot of interest from people around the world and also inspired several strategy books about poker playing to be written in that same decade. A few of the most popular books were: The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky, Super System by Doyle Brunson and The Book of Tells by Mike Caro. The popularity of poker seemed to grow more as television began covering more tournaments. The tournament style of play is what seemed to grab peoples interest and more importantly, could hold their attention even during commercial breaks. Cabel televsion latched onto the audiences desire to see more poker and along with the World Series of Poker, the Poker Tour also began to get coverage. It helped considerably when cameras improved and the hole-card camera was developed to allow poker ot become a spectator sport. Now the audience could actually play along and understand the game as it was being played.

Now a lot of the fascination seems to be based in the incredible amount of celebrities who have joined the poker craze. There are Battle of the Sexes tournaments or Celebrity Texas-Hold-Em Championships that draw large audiences to the actual event as well as pack all of the couches across America with eager poker enthusiasts, awaiting the dramatic poker playing that will inevitably occur. It can be surprising to see the outcome of certain games, played between two very unlikely opponents, actors or actresses that are seen on the big screen or TV shows, now are across the table from each other and showing what they are really made of when it comes to poker. Some of the celebrities get so into the game that they are shocked when it is all over and they explain to reporters that it was such a rush and many of them want to play again in another tournament. In fact, James Woods, a well-known actor has recently declared to the press that he is not going to act any more because he wants to compete in the World Series of Poker. He actually intends to dedicate his time and energy into poker as a career now, rather than acting in Hollywood!

No matter what the individual reasons are for viewers that tune into televised poker, it is clear that the popularity of poker has grown tremendously throughout the last decade and with the internet poker playing that is available now, the trend will continue to rise.