IRC poker was a form of poker played over the IRC chat network before the surge in popularity of online poker in the early 2000's. A computer program was used to deal and manage the games. Commands could be typed in directly with a standard IRC client but point-and-click graphical clients were soon developed. The ability to message the dealer program directly before one's turn to act made games flow more quickly than face to face games. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. ...

IRC poker was played with imaginary money, but attracted a devoted following of experts. World Series of Poker champion Chris Ferguson got his start playing IRC poker. The WSOP logo The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world. ... Chris Jesus Ferguson (born April 11, 1963, in Los Angeles, CA) is a professional poker player. ...

IRC poker offered limit Texas hold 'em, limit Omaha hold 'em (Hi-Lo), no-limit Texas hold 'em, and tournaments. Each account was limited to "buying" 1000 chips per day, but there were no restrictions on creating new accounts so some players created multiple accounts and "harvested" the chips in fake games. Texas hold em Texas hold em (also holdem, holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. ... Omaha hold em (or Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game (flop game) similar to Texas hold em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. ...

Players in no-limit automatically bought in for the full value of their account; the most successful accumulated over one million chips and joked about selling their accounts.

Tournaments often started with the theoretical maximum of 23 players at one table and could be completed in less than an hour. An amateur poker tournament in progress. ...

A poker playing program, pokibot, was able to maintain a winning record, and provided amusing quotes as well.

External links

• rec.gambling.poker FAQ