First Gay/Lesbian Online Poker Room Launched

With the proliferation of internet poker rooms today, it takes something special for a new one to stand out from the crowd. Almost ever theme, gimmick, hook, and promotion has been tried. Some have worked, some haven’t. This week, a new online poker room opened its doors, and this one differentiates itself in a big way. ComeOutPoker.com is the first online poker room geared exclusively to the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GBLT) community.

Now, that’s not to say that only those in the GBLT community are allowed to play. Not at all. ComeOutPoker welcomes everybody (and how would anyone be able to tell ones sexual preference online, anyway), but has tailored its site and its poker room to meet the specific needs of the GBLT community.

For instance, ComeOutPoker allows players to create their own profiles, along with photos, and offers the ability for players to chat in real-time while logged into the poker room. The company is aiming to not just be a place for people to play poker, but to come together as a community. Gay players on the site have the option of adding a pink triangle icon to their screen name so others know they are open to chatting.

ComeOutPoker, as one might expect, takes player abuse very seriously. The room’s website devotes a lengthy section to different levels of abuse and how they deal with it. Suffice it to say, anyone who decides they are going to engage in personal attacks at the tables will not be playing for very long.

Perhaps the most creative feature of ComeOutPoker also shows that its founders have one heck of sense of humor. In addition to the traditional poker games you might find at any other poker room, they have created a new poker game that cannot be found anywhere else. The game is called ComeOut Hold’em and is billed as the first ever gay poker game. It plays exactly the same as Texas hold’em, with one big exception. Straights are eliminated from the hand rankings. That’s right. No straights in ComeOut Hold’em. So ditch those connectors, because they won’t do you any good.

ComeOutPoker is available for both the PC and the Mac.

Originally published September 14, 2006