Both backgammon and poker are exciting games filled with the thrill and drama alike. Backgammon, as opposed to poker, is also a legally recognized game of skill, that is the game where the player's skill (as opposed to chance) is a predominant factor in the game's outcome. Backgammon players have a greater variety of choices to make and calculate their moves based on the mathematical probabilities of each position.

Some of the greatest poker players were also great backgammon players, for example Paul Magriel, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, and even the omnipresent Stu Ungar.

Stu Ungar is better known for his unmatched poker and gin-rummy accomplishments. In 1984, Ungar made the finals of the Las Vegas backgammon tournament losing to Leslie Stone. Tom McEvoy, a 1983 poker champion, plays competitive backgammon in tournaments to this day.

In the 1970s, backgammon was spreading like wildfire in this country and around the world. Backgammon games were played at discos and restaurants and celebrities like Hugh Hefner and Don Adams were showing off at backgammon clubs. Don Adams was frequenting Cavendish West backgammon club in West Hollywood, and he also played poker at Hollywood Park Casino.

Tobey "Spiderman" Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio are among many current Hollywood celebrities who enjoy competitive backgammon. Nicole Kidman was heard asking for backgammon playing tips as she was interested in how to improve her backgammon game

As opposed to poke players who rarely show emotion and look bland on TV, backgammon players tend to be much more passionate which should make backgammon more exciting for television viewers. Backgammon can have a significant increase in popularity once it captures its fair share of the TV audience and shares TV limelight with poker. The passion of competitive backgammon players should appeal to the TV viewers more than poker.

Backgammon can be played on the Internet at any time of day, 7 days a week. There are many sites to play either for free or for money prizes. You can see how good backgammon players play online at PlayJava Backgammon and you can play there for free or to play competitively for money prizes.

The biggest fatal flaw of online poker (and other games that involve more than 2 players) is that poker easily falls victim to player collusion. Poker sites claim that they have some unnamed 'proprietary' measures that are supposed to fight such collusion. Any such measures, however, are bound to fail -- a bunch of 'friends' can collude against unsuspecting opponent(s) by periodically creating different player identities with different financing methods. They can have different IP addresses and they will use external instant message communications or telephone to share their cards and crush their opponents in high-stakes games. You can rest assured that this is being done at most online poker sites today.

The same fatal flaw of player collusion affects any online sites where four or more players (partners or not) play card games or games like mahjong. 2-player online games for money like online backgammon, gin rummy, cribbage, on the other hand, are flourishing more & more on the Internet now -- as they are totally collusion-proof.

Two-player traditional card and board games offered by sites like PlayJava.com should eventually beat poker hands down.