Steve Zeal, who is retired and an avid card player on multiple levels, got involved with Zoom poker when a card-playing group asked him to join their poker sessions on Zoom. One of the main benefits is it is safe,” he told TechNewsWorld. “But I wasn’t comfortable sitting around in a screened porch wearing face masks. His other card-playing friends wanted to get together to continue their weekly live games. That scenario comes close to describing the recreational card playing attraction that Barry Cohen, a senior sales executive at TechNewsWorld’s parent company ECT News Network, misses since the pandemic curtailed his poker playing with a group of friends once a month. I enjoy the conversation,” he bemoaned.Ī friend later invited Madick to a poker game on Zoom. Without the missing component of social interaction, there was no way to banter with his friends while playing. It was no better than playing computer poker alone. Others in his card-playing group of friends started playing on the PokerStars website, but that experience fell short for him. I stumbled on Zoom but couldn’t figure it out on my own,” Madick added. “During COVID-19 I was looking for a way to play cards with some of my friends. They would talk about the world and play cards.

Madick used to play cards on a once or twice-monthly basis with a small group of friends at somebody’s house. I do it strictly to have a good time with people that I know,” he told TechNewsWorld.

I don’t do this as a hobby, as a habit, or for a living. “I’m just a casual for-fun poker player by nature. Playing Zoom poker is not something Los Angeles-based insurance agent Kenneth Madick would have done on his own. It adds a missing element of banter and social interactions that playing cards and other table games alone on a computer just cannot provide. The Zoom video platform has become a popular solution for friends who miss their regular in-person poker games. It is a novel idea that is catching on as the pandemic continues. Welcome to the new phenomenon of playing Zoom poker. Mandatory stay-at-home restrictions and bans on small-group gatherings indoors are easing in some locales, but social distancing and face coverings are still a reality that makes card playing among friends a bit risky.

Host virtual poker game