As a poker provider for the world’s leading social networking site – Facebook -Zynga Poker is a very valuable commodity. In fact, Zynga is offering a $1 billion initial public offering to investors next week, which could push their overall value from $10 billion to between $15 and $20 billion. And just imagine how large Zynga’s valuation could climb if US poker legalization happens in 2011 as many people are expecting.

As it stands now, Zynga Poker is merely a giant waste of money since they sell people fake chips. And you can spend up to $100 a day just to play free poker against other Facebook junkies.  In short, this site is a safe-haven for those who are too scared to play in real money games – never mind the irony that people are paying for a service that’s usually free. But if online poker is legalized in the US, Zynga Poker could become a dominant force in the internet poker world.

Currently, there are 30 million Zynga Poker users, which is almost 10 million more than PokerStars. And if poker becomes totally legal, it would be very interesting to see how many of Zynga’s users would convert over to real money play. Even better is that this site could become the biggest fish pool in the world! Just imagine all of the social network fiends without poker skills running around Zynga spilling money every step of the way. Can you say pre-2002?

Of course, the biggest piece to this puzzle is Zynga making a serious effort to pursue real money games if/probably when internet poker is legal in the US. As of now, the site claims that they aren’t interested, but it’s a good bet that they’ll at least consider the possibility when it comes time.