Is there a relationship between video games and poker? Just ask Ivan Demidov or Bertrand Grospellier, to name two. These are both poker champions who started out playing video games. Grospellier, known as “ElKy” at PokerStars - one of the best online poker sites for us players - was one of the most famous Starcraft champions in South Korea, while Demidov played both Starcraft and Warcraft professionally for several years. Since then, Demidov has made two World Series of Poker main event final tables, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, and Grospellier has collected both World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour titles.

Why Video Game Champions Find Themselves Playing Poker

In most cases, video game enthusiasts find poker when their friends introduce them to the Internet game. Internet poker is a natural relative of multi-player PC video games. Both involve a lot of time in front of the computer clicking buttons to compete with other players across the globe. The video gaming community is a close-knit one, so the popularity of poker becomes viral, as the first few players who get into it end up telling hundreds of friends about the great game of poker.

Why Video Game Champions Are Good at Poker

Video game proficiency suits one particularly well for tournament play. Video gamers tend to play for hours on end without stopping, which is exactly what you need to do to win a poker tournament. They are also used to staying focused and trying to always make the right decisions, which are some key poker tournament skills.

Lack of Popularity of Poker Video Games

Given the relationship between video games and poker, you would expect that poker video games would be very popular, but they are not, unless you consider Internet poker to be a poker video game. Betting is the soul of poker, and a video game played for play money does not quite capture the spirit and intensity provided by actual poker play. Fortunately, there are plenty of other types of video games to keep gamers busy and plenty of real Internet and live poker available for when these players need to get their poker fix.

Is there any connection between internet texas holdem
and video games? It may surprise you to learn that the answer is yes.
If you’re not convinced, look at the facts. Bertrand Grospelier, known as ElKY online,
has won a fortune playing online poker.
He has a World Poker Tour championship and a European Poker Tour
championship. Before 2006, he was famous in certain circles, but not
for playing poker. ElKY was a professional video game player in South
Korea, one of the highest ranked players of a real time strategy game
called Starcraft in the world.

Video Gaming Poker Players

ElKY isn’t the only one who parlayed professional video game
excellence into poker stardom.
Ivan Demidov has been a professional
Starcraft and Warcraft player who regularly made the tournament
circuit. In 2008, he was the runner-up for in the 2008 World Series of
Poker main event and placed 3rd in the WSOP Europe main event. Demidov
is another pro video gamer who is one of the rising stars on the world
poker scene.

What Video Games Bring to Poker

Those who play in video game tournaments are well-equipped for the
poker scene, because video game tournaments, like poker tournaments,
require a tremendous amount of focus. Video gamers play marathon
sessions, and in tournament play, one mistake can be your last. This
parallels poker tournaments, where a big stack can be whittled down to
nothing in a few bad plays, and where the biggest tournaments may take
days to complete.

How Video Gamers Find Poker

Those who like video games will probably first encounter poker on the
Internet. Since you can play poker tournaments and cash games online
with just a computer, an Internet connection and a mouse, just as with
video games, there is a natural progression from one to the other. Once
video game players see how successful they are at online poker, many
are tempted to move to live games. This is not to say that everyone who
is proficient at video games will be good at poker, and it certainly
doesn’t mean that you have to be a good video game player to
be good at poker, but there is some overlap between the two games,
especially where
Internet poker is concerned.

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Capcom’s Captivate 09 event featured a slew of games, but the highlight of the show was undoubtedly Dead Rising 2. The original game was one of the Xbox 360’s early standouts and a knowing homage to American zombie movies, and it’s hard to believe that the game is now almost three years old. Capcom R&D head and Dead Rising 2 producer Keiji Inafune has entrusted development of the sequel to Canadian studio Blue Castle Games, which was on hand at Captivate 09 to walk us through the game.

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2007’s Lost Planet introduced players to the cold, troubled world of E.D.N. III and let them play as a member of a band of snow pirates fighting to make the planet safe for humans to colonize. In the game’s interpretation of the future, humanity has finally had to look for some new digs because the earth has become an inhospitable place. The NEVEC Company helpfully went off to start colonizing E.D.N. III, but it hit a snag when an alien race known as the Akrid appeared and brought humanity’s relocation to a screeching halt.

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