Texas Hold’em Popularity within Online Poker
By TOI Staff July 11, 2023 Update on : July 11, 2023
Despite starting as a small minority card in the namesake state, texas holdem online for real money is now the primary focus when it comes to online poker, spreading over the US and far beyond. Here we discuss the popularity of the poker variation and some other key attributes.
Texas Hold’em Percentage of Online Poker Share
It’s been reported that the current worldwide online poker player pool is around 100 million people. While exact numbers of how much of the pool Texas Hold’em commands, it’s expected to be a lot. 90-95% or even more. It’s hard to put exact numbers on it as poker sites and data collectors don’t disambiguate between poker players by different variations of the game.
However, the reasoning for it to command such a big percentage makes a logical argument. Firstly, the majority of materials available to read about online poker refer almost exclusively to Texas Hold’em. Sometimes, they don’t even mention the ‘Texas Hold’em’ moniker as it has become the default variation used in online poker.
In general, Texas Hold’em is seen as the default poker style throughout modern media. In contemporary media when poker is mentioned in TV and movies the characters are then often seen playing this style. Furthermore, television coverage of poker tournaments is almost exclusively dedicated to Texas Hold’em when channels broadcast the World Series of Poker (WSOP) events. Related to the TV coverage, this was the variation that saw the United States go crazy for the sport in the early 2000s during the Online Poker Boom as Chris Moneymaker went from rags to riches. If he did this through Pineapple Hold’em, that variation could have been where Texas is now.
One reason why so many players play texas holdem online for real money is that is fundamentally the base game for a lot of variations. The game is by nature very simple and anyone can play. You receive cards and make a judgment call with those cards and the others visible on the table. This simplicity has not only made it very appealing worldwide but also allowed variations to add to the pre-existing rules.
Given that a lot of variation poker games are derived from Texas Hold’em, this means that anyone who knows how to play Omaha Hold’em, Exchange Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, and even Pineapple Hold’em is already fully versed in the original rules from Texas Hold’em. This universal appeal and lack of additional rules have made it the global game and most accessible. These factors have made it the most popular and since created a pile-on effect as it dwarfs other variations.
The betting structure also lends itself to the benefit of Texas Hold’em’s popularity. Unlike some variations, it allows for Limit games, Pot Limit games, and No Limit games which allow for all types of different betting.
Texas Hold’em Investment
Given that Texas Hold’em is by far the most popular variation, the software developers and gambling brands spend the most amount of time and money developing this game on their sites. While other variations don’t particularly lag, the Texas Hold’em games will be the first to have all the bells and whistles with new features and consistently improved functionality.
Texas Hold’em Revenue
In 2022, a market research project concluded that the overall online poker market was worth $86.2 billion and that it could reach as much as $237.5 billion by 2030. Meaning that the game is rapidly being enjoyed as the technology becomes more accessible, laws are relaxed and the gamblers are wagering more. All of these attributes had led to this market valuation going up and up. Given the prior discussion point that Texas Hold’em manages around 90% of all online poker games, it is only fair to attribute them with the same percentage of overall revenue. (However, some variations focus on small stakes so the real number could be much higher.) By this calculation, Texas Hold’em is currently worth around $77.58 billion while it could be as much as $213.75 billion on the current trajectory. Although, this figure could also be short-selling the variation as the pastime grows it’s unlikely that other variations will grow as much and Texas Hold’em should continue to grow its vice-grip on the market share.
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