Hello friends!
Is The Greatest Community on Steemit!
Why, you may ask? Well, first and foremost, together we are engaged in an activity that isfun! We are playing together! What can be more wonderful and pure than that? Yes, we are often frustrated and tensions have been known to run high, but for the most part we meet up daily and have FUN with each other.
Poker is a Social Game
Of course there are some people who come to the table and don’t talk to anyone. Whether it’s 
Being on a physical, AFK poker table is more obviously social than online games, when so many of us may be playing more than one table at a time or multitasking in other ways. At this point, however, I know these players pretty well. I know about people’s dogs, their kids, their school... and sometimes I remember how to react when 
We’re friends, a community of individuals from every part of this planet, from different religions and political ideologies and we play. It’s magical.
Some History of Online Poker
In 2003, Chris Moneymaker earned a ticket to the World Series of Poker while playing poker online and suddenly, any of us could do the same...or so it seemed. Soon, online poker saw a huge rise in numbers of people playing for a few reasons. First of all, more and more people had access to the online poker sites like Paradise Poker, PokerStars and Full Tilt to name a few. There were more numbers of sites but most importantly, they were seen as ‘valid’ and safe.
Suddenly (to me, anyway) in 2011, the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the biggest and most trusted poker sites effectively halting online poker in the United States. I can tell you from personal experience that this was a crushing blow to those of us who depended on online poker to support our families. Mine wasn’t the only one.
It was difficult for us to recover from this judgement. Financially, but emotionally as well. I hated online poker for years after the DOJ judgement. It wasn’t until my husband mentioned there was a poker community on Steemit that I began to thaw. Once I played and got to know the people, I realized how much I missed the game; the fun involved and the natural, immediate community that forms around the table.
In Conclusion
I love you guys. I love the players I’ve known for months and I love the new people who bring their own amazing stories and game to the tables. Thank you for playing with me, for fighting with me and for teaching me every day how to be a better human. Thank you for sharing yourselves and your stories with me and each other.
Catch you on the felt!
