It seems like we are living in truly wondrous times - at least poker-wise. The world of virtual gaming has grown by almost scary percentages over the last three years. with thousands of online poker sites in existence and practically a dozen poker-sites-newborns are uploaded daily. Whether it's all the celeb's showing interest in the pokergame, or all the regular Joe's discovering online poker - or maybe it's a new generation, already Internet friendly, that are joining the online poker forces all around the world - we don't know. What we do know is that this is a force to Be reckoned with.

Although we can definitely see a rise in all the Internet poker scene - there is a rise in the physical poker world too. For example - in the year 2002 a total of 631 poker players signed up for the WSOP (World Series of Poker), a few years later in 2005 a surprising total of 5,619 poker players signed up for the WSOP. A growth that is nothing less than amazing.

How come poker became so popular? well, our not very educated guess is that there's a slow movement from the poker games played at home to the online platform and from there to any poker-pro competition. The winner of the 2005 WSOP Joseph Hatchem came from that exact neighborhood. He was not born a poker pro, nor did he dedicate most of his life to poker - his father is no online gambling genius - he was just like you and I. A poker loving dude - who discovered he's actually good at it. That's the beauty of poker in a nutshell - it allows anyone to become a poker god. All you have to do is to play - and play and play - until you are good enough to play with the poker pros - and who knows maybe you'll be the 2007 WSOP grand winner.

N.S - Online poker editor from major online pokerand casino sites. Mr. Shons publishes content for international quality Casino and poker online sites.