Chris Moneymaker changed the face of poker, both online and at real tables with his 2003 win of the WSOP main event. Moneymaker had entered a satellite tournament for just $40 and ended up taking home $2.5 million. His success became the inspiration for many a novice poker player to go online to seek their fortunes. Almost overnight, online poker became the bandwagon that everyone wanted to jump on. Online poker sites filled with new players looking to make quick money.

With the rise in popularity of online poker and the rising awareness of games other than five card draw and stud, more and more players became interested in playing online poker just for fun. The online poker sites were happy to welcome these players to their free rooms in the hopes of drawing them in to the money rooms. For a lot of players, though, this became an uncomfortable way to socialize and just enjoy a game. They found themselves feeling like second class players. Many online poker sites don't offer support to players who haven't deposited cash, for example. Over time, more focus has been given to just allowing free play on social media sites.

Over twelve million players play Texas holdem monthly on just one Texas holdem application on Facebook. An application called Poker Palace boasts over a million monthly users. The most popular, created by a company called Zynga, boasts many of the features that make a poker room user-friendly, but unlike many of the sites that are popular on the internet, Zynga's Texas holdem game is free, with no option to deposit money. As a result, parents can feel safe letting their teens play Texas holdem poker with friends from around the world. Poker rooms on Facebook function in a totally different manner from classic online poker rooms. Instead of taking a rake from each player, the poker rooms on Facebook profit by selling advertising space to various companies. This enables players to play without any pressure to deposit cash.

Some of the Facebook poker applications even offer cash prizes with no deposit. It's an interesting way of advertising. The application writer makes money based on how many advertisements the players look at. If enough players play enough games, the application writer makes quite a bit of money even without player deposits. If play increases the chance of winning, then players will spend longer in the application, hoping to win cash without ever making a deposit. As a result of options like this on Facebook and in other online venues, more and more online poker sites are offering no-deposit freeroll tournaments. Generally, the players can enter a freeroll for a low prize which can then be used to enter a low-stakes tournament. Winning the low-stakes tournament gives the player enough to enter a higher stakes tournament and so on. As a result, more and more amateurs who are wary to risk their own cash are entering the poker for cash scene.