All poker, all the time

All poker, all the time by Steven Sekelik for Vail Daily The popularity of poker is rapidly increasing locally as well as nationally. Its popularity is fueled by a combination of television exposure, technology, and the opportunity to win big money and/or prizes. Local bars and restaurants are hosting regularly scheduled free poker tournaments to help draw in more business. Cable channels such as ESPN and the Travel Channel showcase the extremely popular World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. In addition, television advertisements for online poker rooms are on the rise. The most popular flavor of poker is Texas No Limit Hold ''em. In a No Limit Hold ''em, a player can go "all in" and bet all of their chips on any given hand, which adds a great deal of excitement to the game. As opposed to other gambling games such as blackjack, poker is a game that is dictated and controlled by the participants. Poker players can control the game by bluffing, being very aggressive, or by playing a very tight conservative style. Today's cutting-edge technology and high-speed Internet access provide a gateway for millions of diehards to play poker 24-7 at one of the many poker sites on the web such as PartyPoker.com, Pokerstars.com, AbsolutePoker.com, and Fulltiltpoker.com. Most online poker rooms offer free games with play money, as well as real money games. Many online poker rooms feature satellite tournaments that give players an opportunity to win seats at World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events. To put the popularity of online poker in perspective, during peak hours, www.partypoker.com can have over 50,000 participants playing on over 5,000 tables on any given day. All of these online poker sites are based offshore, due to the gambling laws in the United States. Popular poker sites are estimated to be making over $100 million in profits each year.