PokerStars.net Vs. Bodog.net

Online Poker Giants Go Heads Up

With the close of the 2006 World Championship of Poker, we continue to see the rise of Poker in popularity as the gambling sport of choice. This years award to the first place winner was 12 million dollars.

The grand prize of the poker championship has increased in direct equivalent to the increase in pokers popularity. In 2003, dubbed the Moneymaker Boom, Chris Moneymaker won a pot of 2.5 million for the World Series Championship. Moneymaker had earned his seat to the WSOP online.

What made his win the more noticeable was that not only was he an unknown poker enthusiast, he played online and won his spot by winning a $40.00 satellite. Since that time, poker players, both online and in live play, have come out of the woodworks making Texas Hold'em a nationwide spectacle.

In 2004, Greg Raymer won the main prize of $5 million, double the pot of the year before. Mr Raymer also won his seat online. In 2005, Australian Joe Hachem won it all for a prize of $75 million. He also won his seat online.

So, as we see that the WSOP grand prize is increasing exponentially with the increase of pokers popularity, what else is common between these three relatively unknown upsurpers of the worlds most extensive poker championship?

They all played online at the same site. They won their seat to the WSOP by putting up a small buy-in on PokerStars.net.

With 4 major online poker sites being consistently represented at the WSOP, how do we know which one is better than the other? Some may say there is no difference. Poker is Poker, right?

On first glance, I would agree. But being an avid poker enthusiast myself, I've downloaded and played 10 different poker platforms. PokerStars.net was the first platform I subscribed to. Not, as many had, when Chris Moneymaker won the big prize and brought the recognition of online players as a prominent contender for live competition. No, I ran to my computer and typed in the web address in a frenzy after seeing Greg Raymer win the following year.