Where did online poker start?

[cianosheehan]

I heard that pokerroom were the first place you could play poker on the internet, and it was all for play money at the start. Is this correct? Anyone know where one can find the history of online poker?
Cheers
-Ciano

[daveymck]

I thought it started in IRC?

[daveymck]

Interesting link History of IRC poker

History

Before the advent of real-money online poker servers, there was the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) poker server. The server was programmed by Todd Mummert, with support code by Greg Reynolds, and other Usenet rec.gambling.poker enthusiasts.

The participants in these games were mostly computer geeks with a passion for poker. Many were serious students of the game, armed with the analytical skills needed to understand the mathematics, and all other aspects of advanced poker strategy.

As a result, the IRC games were probably the best free-money games ever played on the Internet (much better than the free-money games available on the major online servers today). Higher tiered IRC games, such as #holdem2 and #holdem3, required larger bankrolls to qualify, so only players who won consistently in lower games were eligible. Some of these people were regular $20-40 casino players, and used IRC to explore the boundaries of good strategy and further hone their abilities.

One IRC regular, Chris "JESUS" Ferguson, went on to become the World Champion in 2000, and has won six World Series of Poker championship braclets (and counting). Others, including Jay "Sippy" Sipelstein, and "Tiltboy" Perry Friedman, have also won gold braclets, and many others such as Steve Brecher, Paul Phillips, and Greg Raymer are accomplished tournament players.

Sadly, the IRC games are now gone (but might be resurrected one day).