The game of Poker itself dates back hundreds of years, but in terms of online poker, we need only drop back to a decade ago. With the introduction of the Internet came the inevitable development of everyday activities that can be done on a computer, and of course, online gambling was one of them.

The first online gambling sites hit the world wide web all the way back in 1994, including online sports betting and online casinos. It’s kind of surprising, actually, that it took another four years for online poker to reach the Internet community in 1998.

The first online poker room was Planet Poker, which maintained a large audience up until other online poker rooms began springing up. The only thing left of Planet Poker, really, is the original rake structure of 5% up to $3. This poker rake continues to be the standard among the online poker industry.

By 2003, online poker became extremely popular all over the world, with exceptional poker sites providing highly detailed poker clients with more features than the original creators had ever dreamed of. In fact, it wasn’t until 2000 that online poker integrated tournaments into the game line-up.

The biggest problem for online poker players, at the turn of the century, was the inability to play online poker on a Macintosh computer. Developers paid little attention to Mac online poker, however, as the Apple company was on a long and winding decline into the abyss of technology. For all intents and purposes, Windows was the dominant leader, and Macintosh was on its way out.

In 2003, however, just as online poker was reaching unimaginable heights of popularity, Macintosh made an enormous comeback. The company released new hardware, software and the OS X, resulting in a resurgence of Mac users. One after another, computer aficionados traded in their Windows PC for a new and revived Macintosh operating system.

But where did this leave online poker fans? For the past five years, playing online poker on a Mac was unheard of. It was obvious to industry innovators that something must be done. Hence, the online poker Java client was born.

It didn’t take long for online poker software builders to introduce Java-based poker clients that were compatible with any operating system, so long as the computer was Flash enabled. While this quenched the thirst of Mac online poker players for the time being, it was apparent that Java poker simply wasn’t as functional as a downloadable, PC-compatible poker client.

Some developers, especially the largest online poker rooms, finally began working on a Mac-compatible download for online poker. However, most online poker sites didn’t deem this very necessary, and to this day maintain a Java-based client for Mac poker players.

Another by-pass solution came as Mac users were encouraged to install Windows on their Macintosh, for the simple ability to run PC-based software, such as online poker clients. It’s not surprising how many Mac poker players declined this option. The fact is, they chose Macintosh over Windows for a reason, and had no desire to run both OS’s on a single computer.

PC Emulators were introduced to run Windows-based software, which was preferable to installing Windows altogether, but again, this was not an acceptable solution for most Mac online poker fans.

In 2007, it was finally announced that a downloadable Mac online poker client was completed, tested and approved for launch. Poker Stars, already the #1 online poker room in the world in regards to active player traffic at that time, was the proud instigator of genuine Mac online poker. Soon after, Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, followed suit, and is often regarded as providing the best Mac online poker software in the business.

While Mac-compatible poker software is still rare in terms of how many online poker rooms there are, compared to how many actually provide this exceptional quality, the future of Mac poker is certain to continue its belated evolution. As Macintosh becomes ever more popular in the computer industry, the online poker industry has no viable option but to develop Mac online poker software for other major sites.