How The Term “Poker Tool” Was Coined.

Go to any poker site online and you’ll find a tab or link that says “Poker Tool” on it. Do a search on Google for the term “Poker Tool” and you get 23 million results.

How did the poker tool take over the poker world?

It all started back in 1999 when I was working for Commerce Casino as their Satellite Director (person who oversees and runs the one-table satellites). In that position I was required to wear a suit and tie.

To enhance the players playing experience, to stand out in the crowd of hundreds, and to add a little personality to the tournament experience. I always wore a poker tie. I had dozens. I wore poker cufflinks and poker tie clips.

Players always commented on where they could get them for themselves. Back in 1999, poker hadn’t taken off yet so it was hard finding poker related items. So in 2000 I opened this website to provide poker clothing, poker card guards, and other hard to find poker items and put them all together on one website.

I needed a name for the site so I thought about it. There are plumber tools, there are carpenter tools, architect tools, and mechanic tools. Why can’t poker players have tools to help them in their proffession.

Sunglasses to hide the eyes, clothing to distract your opponent, card guards to protect your hand from being accidently mucked, and even poker books that help you play better. I coined this collection of weapons, as “poker tools” and named this site as such.

As the poker explosion took off, soon every store in the world was selling poker related items so the PokerTools.com website moved towards promoting the online software used for playing poker such as odds calculators, tournament software, player trackers, hand replayers, and more.

Soon other copycats started opening sites promoting online software as “poker tools“. The few poker sites already on the Internet ten years ago added a “poker tool” category.

Today many poker players associate the term to just the different varieties of software, but the original term encompasses all the tools you use for battle on the felt and was started right here, by me, Will Boyett, in May of 2000.