Planet Google

It all started with Planet Poker--

Actually, let me rephrase that. It all started with IRC Poker back in the 90's. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. That was the very first incarnation of anything poker on the internet. And it wasn't much. You had to type "p fold," "p raise," etc. for any actions you wanted to make. And the graphics were none. Literally, none. The flop looked something like this:

The board is: Ac 4d 9s
It's your turn:
fingaz>p get me the hell outta here

There were only a handful of us diehard and patient enough to deal with that back then. Chris Ferguson, myself and a few others were among them. Who knew back then what a phenomenon online poker would become today?

I actually found this post of mine from 1996 asking, practically begging, for something better. And look at the responses. That's how "big" poker was back in those days.

Of course a couple years later finally came Planet Poker. Actual graphics! I was a beta tester and one of the first real money players back then. [sick brag what a dinosaur I am] Boy, did playing $3/6 for real money get your blood pumping! But unfortunately their lobby left a lot to be desired.

Then came Paradise Poker and things finally started to take off. Everyone wanted to start a poker site then and the competition truly made things exciting.

What is the point of all of this, you ask? "I can read Wikipedia too," you say? Well, I just read an article today that makes me think we may be in for another fun competition spurt.

Apparently Google has invested in a couple interesting companies. On August 6 they invested $150 million in Zynga, a social network game developer that created Facebook's Texas Hold'em. Then a few weeks later they spent $228 million to purchase Slide, a software company that makes apps for Facebook that involve the exchange of virtual money.

Could it be? Could the behemoth company responsible for all good things on the interwebs be creating a poker site? Have I died and gone to online poker heaven? Oh, how I dream.

And let's not dismiss the notion that this may be a very good sign towards the legalization and regulation of online poker in this country.

I've often said that I would be willing to pack up and move to Planet Google if there were such a thing. And this very well could be that first big step for mankind and poker degens like me toward that dream.


Peace sign,

-fingaz

(Original share price: $40; Current share price: $34.05)