Online Poker World Grows as Corporate Entity Boss Media AB Enters Field With TotalPoker.com

Internet poker has been around for only a few years, and more than a few writers have likened its infancy to the “Wild, Wild West” gambling so often portrayed in American movies.

Many of the early Internet poker rooms did not disclose who their ownership was, making it either difficult to solve many problems, and some were also undercapitalized, failing when their operating expenses couldn’t cover their overhead. Without knowing a cardroom’s ownership, it was difficult to know if it could ride out inevitable growing pains.

As 2002 comes to a close, though, it seems that the “Wild, Wild West” days of are drawing to a close. Respected publicly traded corporations are entering the field, giving customers a sense of security they never had before. One of the best examples of this trend is TotalPoker.com, a new site owned by respected Swedish corporation Boss Media AB, best known for its dominant position in the Internet casino software industry.

Currently, TotalPoker is in its beta testing phase, ensuring through public participation in free games that when the site opens for money play in December or January, its versions of limit games in Texas Hold’em and Seven-Card Stud will already be the equal of more established competitors, with a plan to outdistance them as the site shortly thereafter adds tournaments, Omaha, and other games.

Boss Media products have always been admired for their graphic appeal, and TotalPoker has, in addition to a clean graphic look, a unique “point of view” seating approach that gives the player who chooses to “sit” in seat #8 a different visual perspective than he would have had if he had chosen, for example, seat #3.

In addition to the “open book” reporting policy that any publicly traded corporation must have, TotalPoker players will also enjoy the confidence of knowing that parent Boss Media has not only other income-producing products and services supporting it, but also that it has a wealth of experience in handing e-cash transactions.

The security that Boss Media provides doesn’t guarantee player safety, of course. You still have to know how to play well in order to win. TotalPoker will help there by offering a wide range of instructional articles, as well as exclusive Internet access to instructional and entertaining tournament reports by Card Player Magazine’s Tournament Editor (me!).

Especially for those avid players who are not fortunate enough to live near a casino game, the Internet is the wave of the future. Public companies like Boss Media will be surfing that wave for a long time to come.