Despite its relatively brief history, much has happened in the 25 years that online poker has been around. There were the early days, a quasi "Wild West" era that brought about the birth of PokerStars – by far one of the most influential forces at play. Chris Moneymaker's journey from an online satellite to WSOP Main Event superstardom sent players across the world racing to their computers, hoping to emulate the new face of the game.
We've seen the heyday of Full Tilt Poker, when the online high stakes cash game arena exploded and etched names like Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom and Tom 'Durrrr' Dwan into the game's fabric.
And we can't forget Black Friday, the day it all came crashing down. The US-facing poker markets have yet to fully recover from the regulatory crackdown, but online poker has endured nonetheless.
Now, with fresh challenges facing the community, it's a good time to remember the roots of the game.
And for that, we turn to Wladimir Taschner and his new book The History of Online Poker: The Players, the Money, and the Making of a Billion Dollar Game.
PokerOrg spoke with Taschner to learn more about his poker background and what motivated him to put the full story of the game's journey across the internet into writing.
Taschner's bona fides
Before we dive into the book, can you give readers a run through your journey in poker?
I started playing like everybody did, with some friends. Somehow I found online poker and played some free rolls. I realized you could, you might, win some money.
I went broke a couple times and then I just got lucky. I realized how soft the games were back then. When I went to university, I could grind more and I made more money. So I decided to skip a semester... and then two, and then three, and then four.
I got lucky through coaching with Krantz [Jay Rosenkrantz] from Deuces Cracked. I started at the micros. Then when I was in Vegas, I was already playing $5/$10. And I went pretty quickly to $10/$20, then $25/$50. $40/$80 on Full Tilt.
And then the games got really tough because people started using CardRunnersEV and all that software. I was more like a feel player and it wasn't working anymore in no-limit hold'em. So, I switched to pot-limit Omaha.
You saw the writing on the wall.
Well, I was losing in six-max games and I didn't know why. And then I realized I was being exploited. People weren't calling when I had it and they were when I didn't. I was very unbalanced.
That was around 2010, 2011. And then Black Friday happened so Full Tilt was dead. I was playing on PokerStars. I remember the games got better because all the American regulars were gone and you had the weaker players for yourself.
Were you going up against any notable names at that time?
I played with anybody. I'm still up on Phil Galfond. I played with Sauce [Ben Sulsky] and Ben86 [Ben Tollerene].
The only guy I never played with was Phil Ivey because the stakes were too high.
'It's like drug dealing'
What was your motivation in writing the book?
I go running every day and I listened to an Arnold Schwarzenegger biography, and then [Roger] Federer, Elon Musk, people like that, and I realized at one point that a biography is just a history of a person and there's probably no biography of online poker.
So I spoke to a friend and we actually started with a podcast, telling stories about online poker.
And then we decided to write a book. We ended up writing two books, he wrote his and I wrote mine.
The other motivation in doing it was that every time I talk about poker to people at work or outside of the game, they're really interested in it. It's like drug dealing or being in the mafia, something like that.
And it's for me, for myself. It was half of my life.
How did you go about doing the research for the book?
The basic idea was that we have one part about the facts – the history of the poker platforms, training sites, key figures, etc.
And then the other part would be stories about what happened beyond the tables.
I've always wondered why Phil Galfond didn't write the book – because he can talk about so much. Maybe he doesn't want to, he's also got so many other projects. Even with my knowledge, I can tell so many funny stories.
For the actual facts, I did research. I wasn't around in the very early days so I had to the research and then incorporate my own knowledge.
Taschner: Scheinberg saved poker
Who do you think is the most influential individual in online poker history?
I think it depends who you're asking. For a lot of players, it's gotta be Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars. The service is just so good and so big and he also saved poker after Black Friday because Full Tilt basically didn't pay out the players.
If you take a broader look, maybe Tom Dwan? When he went to play on High Stakes Poker, he outplayed everybody. It was so simple, he was using the strategies that I was using: I've got a blocker, I'm just gonna bluff. People didn't know what to do and then the world realized that online poker players actually are good.
And then, of course, you have Chris Moneymaker, he was the first guy.
It's Chris Moneymaker, Scheinberg, and 'Durrrr'.
Is there a single moment in your online poker career that changed things for you?
There was a turning point when the games weren't as fun anymore. It became too technical. You had to study way more than you were playing. It turned out to be a completely different game where the tables were only running when you had a weaker player, and there waiting lists, and people trying to rent apartments near the Isle of Man so they can join the tables faster.
It wasn't fun anymore.
I remember there was one day I was playing and I was down like $100K probably and then I was up $10K, but I felt like s**t.
I won $10K but the day was just so stressful.
The History of Online Poker: The Players, the Money, and the Making of a Billion Dollar Game by Wladimir Taschner is available now at Amazon.
Featured image generated using AI.
