Shoot Me if You Can

I probably don’t need to tell you that the first decade of the 21st Century was all about online poker.

Well, okay, some other stuff happened too. Perhaps the world didn’t hold its breath when Chris Moneymaker became the first player to go from online anonymity to World Series of Poker champion, but it sure took notice.

Of course, plenty of people jumped on the bandwagon. Players and companies in countless numbers flocked to the Internet to get a taste of the online poker phenomenon. Tournaments were widely-televised on ‘serious’ sports channels, and poker pros were even featured on reality shows (another dubious trend of the first decade of the century).

Well, the peak has passed — a number of the players and companies have gone, but online poker is still huge to the power of ginormous. Oddly enough (actually, it doesn’t surprise me a bit), most of the major online poker companies weathered the best and worst of the last decade and came out stronger and better than ever. Names like Full Tilt and PokerStars are well-known in WSOP circles, and newer pros such as BoDog and Cake Poker offer a perfect online balance of good old-fashioned poker fundamentals backed by the highest of high-tech security and gameplay software.