Texas Hold'em

Why do people play poker?
Poker is not a gambling game and with enaugh practice and knowledge any player can make money from poker. You can either devote few hours every week for poker and earn a couple of bucks as a half time job or you can give poker your full time, become a pro and make poker as your main income, it all depends on you and your determination.
 

The first answer for "why do people play poker?" is money, I agree that this game is fun but let's face the truth - poker is a game which is stirred by money, which draws many people to start playing it. Though a poker player may fold many times in a single game in the end of each poker session a patient player would go home with a pure profit, there's no doubt about it.
Of course that making money from poker is not quite simple and one needs skills and patience as well, but it's achievable if you decide to learn the rules of poker and strategies, which are the foundations for making money from poker.
 

Apart from the intellectual challenge and the money that may be made by playing poker, this game has another attribute and that's the social aspect of it. Poker is a social game - players sit around a card table and play and talk for hours which strengthen their friendship. Poker offers you a chance to meet new people and make friends while playing your favorite game.
In many TV shows you can see the traditional "boys' night" where few guys sit around a table and play poker into the small hours of the night, that is a typical example for a poker game which symbolises the social aspect of poker - not only do you get a chance to earn few bucks but you can talk and get to know other card players in the same time.
All in all I can simply state that above all poker is entertainment, a way to enjoy our time and have some fun – you can play live poker in casinos or play online poker, it really doesn't matter as long as you're enjoying yourself, which is the best reason to play poker.
 

Texas hold 'em (also known as hold'em or holdem) is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three ("the flop") then two additional single cards ("the turn" and "the river"), with players having the option to check, bet, raise or fold after each deal; i.e., betting may occur prior to the flop, "on the flop", "on the turn", and "on the river".
 

After its invention and spread throughout Texas, hold 'em was introduced to Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Crandell Addington, Doyle Brunson, and Amarillo Slim.Addington said the first time he saw the game was in 1959. "They didn't call it Texas hold 'em at the time, they just called it hold 'em.… I thought then that if it were to catch on, it would become the game. Draw poker, you bet only twice; hold 'em, you bet four times. That meant you could play strategically. This was more of a thinking man's game."