Just by sheer entertainment factor alone, online gaming is unparalleled. However, there are more reasons why online gaming is increasingly becoming popular. Apart from giving players the chance to access games and resume their progress from anywhere in the world as long as they are connected to the internet, the social aspect introduced to the games that made games like PUBG, Fortnite and League of Legends (LOL) irresistible.
The online gaming market has since evolved to allow players to earn real-world money simply by completing in-game tasks. The success of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity has paved the way for the dawn of metaverse gaming. As a testament to its potential, Facebook invested $50 million in global metaverse research, which gave other existing metaverse projects the chance to partner up and create better gaming options for old and new players alike. As cryptocurrency became more stable and more widely accepted as a way to fund casino accounts, it didn’t take long before the metaverse gaming technology found its way to the most popular game being played online – poker!
What is metaverse poker?
What do you get when you mix popular poker app Zynga and the poster-child for P2E Axie Infinity? You get Polker – the world’s first blockchain-oriented poker NFT with an interactive poker gaming experience. Since its release, the free poker game by Decentral Games called “ICE Poker” has also joined the metaverse.
Metaverse poker takes the in-person and online poker’s inherently social nature and brings it into new gaming territories. It gives the players the chance to take an active part in the growing crypto market and own bits of the poker history through NFTs. These collectible NFTs can either be equipped to other players for a passive revenue share or traded with other players in the games’ own secondary marketplace.
Getting Started
Before you dive right into it, make sure you already know how to play Texas Hold’em poker. Much like in-person and online, there are several other poker variations. Since metaverse poker aims to mimic in-person poker, players cannot depend on the same beginner-friendly HUD that popular online poker sites have. Knowing which type of poker is played in the metaverse helps you come better prepared and boosts your chance of winning the pot. Let’s take a quick look at how to navigate the two most played metaverse poker platforms Polker and ICE Poker.
Funding your bankroll
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Both metaverse poker platforms begin with an initial buy-in in the form of tokens. For Polker, it’s a cryptocurrency called PKX, while ICE Poker is called ICE. For starters, we suggest investing in a bankroll that is at least 30x the size of stakes you’re playing for. For example, if you’re playing a $0.50 or $1 cash game with a maximum buy-in of $100, you should have 30x that amount – $3,000. For cash games, aim for 50-100 buy-ins. For tournaments or MTTs where income is less stable, you should have enough for 100-200 buy-ins. Since the value of each token differs depending on the crypto market, make sure you’re keeping tabs on your chosen token’s daily valuation.
Increasing your in-game bonuses and collecting NFTs
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Winning rewards the players with the games’ respective in-game currencies – Scraps for Polker and ICE for ICE Poker. For Polker, Scraps are forged into Keys which allow access to tournaments and open chests with collectible NFTs. In ICE Poker, you burn ICE or existing wearables to get rare wearables which, once equipped, give higher in-game bonuses or the chance to collect a passive revenue share.
The Marketplace
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As players go through the cycle of playing poker and forging resources, they will find themselves with a surplus of NFTs that may not necessarily fit into their gaming strategy or duplicates of the ones they currently possess. They can opt to trade these NFTs with other players for rarer ones in the games’ secondary marketplace.
The main challenge of the metaverse is bringing people into it, but it seems like poker is changing that. Three months after its launch, ICE Poker was reported to have made over $7.5 million in revenue by bringing 6,000 users logging on every single day. There are plenty of naysayers in the emerging metaverse space, yet the digital asset market has exploded. NFT sales hit $926 million earlier this year and is projected to reach $7390.8 million by 2028. After everything that’s said and done, only one question remains: Are you ready to dive into metaverse poker?
