Cryptocurrency is finally starting to gain traction in the mainstream, but one sector that is seeing particularly rapid growth is in online poker. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, poker players can actually use cryptocurrencies to play online. It affords them anonymity, assures ultimate security, and has unlocked the potential for new online poker platforms. Secondly, poker players love to game.
Investing in cryptocurrency when it was still a leap of faith has enabled a few players to make real profits. It seems that poker and cryptocurrency were made for each other, let’s explore this phenomenon in a little more detail.
Poker Players as Cryptocurrency Investors
Poker players make great investors, because they have learned to take the rough with the smooth. Just like sometimes you lose at poker, sometimes you lose on an investment. However, they also aren’t afraid of doing some research to get the results that they desire. Poker takes a while to master and so too does investing.
Greco Bautista is a mean poker player. He’s one of this year’s PSPC Platinum Pass winners and also, a savvy investor. During Bitcoin’s infancy, he bought himself a handful of the cryptocurrency, which as it turned out, happened to be one of his most successful investments. Before buying he read up on the benefits of cryptocurrency and rightly decided that it would be a good investment for him.
Another poker-playing investor that is more widely known is Doug Polk. Polk began his poker career seriously in 2011 and just 2 years later was considered one of the best players in the world. However, Polk was not happy with his poker success alone. After playing professional poker for a while, Polk announced his next project back in 2017 – a cryptocurrency website.
Back when Bitcoins cost just $100 a piece, Polk had invested in quite a few of them and made himself some serious cash. He felt that it was time to gather all of his knowledge into one place and so his website was born. So it turns out that poker players have certainly provided a boost to cryptocurrencies through investing, but what about through actually playing?
Using Cryptocurrency to Play Online Poker
Whilst cryptocurrency is still in its infancy in many respects, one area where it has really taken off is in the online gaming sphere. Owing to increased security thanks to blockchain technology, crypto-poker sites have been springing up all over the place. Security and fairness are at the core of all of these enterprises, making them an attractive prospect for online poker players.
Another way that cryptocurrency perfectly lends itself to online poker is in its anonymity. No bank details are required for people to play. Not only does this speed up the process, it also levels the playing field. Where in some countries it can be difficult to set up a bank account, or access traditional online poker sites, cryptocurrency poker sites remove the need for all of that. Anyone can set up and play, with confidence and confidentiality.
Of course, as we know poker players often enjoy investing and can be quite good at it. With a cryptocurrency website, players could potentially buy just one coin and see themselves multiply that through playing poker alone. This provides the potential for lucrative rewards, without having to pay enormous amounts of cash.
The final benefit for poker players using cryptocurrency to play online is speed. As cryptocurrencies are decentralised, there is no need for transactions to be approved by a central bank. Not only does this mean that withdrawals and deposits can be made instantaneously, it also means that providers won’t have to be charged a fee to process the transaction.
This leads to fewer costs to the provider and better service for the player. As poker players will well know, it’s not often that there’s a winning outcome for everyone, but in the case of cryptocurrency poker sites, that certainly appears to be the case.
