Poker is back: Nation's first legal, real-money site goes live in Las Vegas

Poker devotees will soon be able to skip the smoky casino and legally gamble their dollars away on the couch — at least in the state of Nevada.

A Las Vegas-based social gambling company is expected to launch the first legal, real-money poker website in the United States on Tuesday morning.

The site, run by Ultimate Gaming, will accept wagers only from players in Nevada for now, but likely represents the shape of things to come for gamblers across the country.

Internet poker, never fully legal, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the largest offshore sites catering to U.S. customers and blacked them out.

More recently, the federal government softened its stance on Internet betting, and three states — New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada— have legalized some form of online wagering within their borders.

With Tuesday's launch, Nevada wins the race to bring Texas Hold 'em back to the Internet.

They have Antonio Esfandiari as their face and anyone who plays poker knows who that is. You will need to be in Las Vegas to log in so you can't use any sort of proxy. No mobile app is available but they promise "big things to come" on their Facebook page.

Take a look at www.ultimatepoker.com

We wait patiently for the day to play real cash games again.