Is poker getting harder?

maxstell · Aug 18, 2025

It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

R.Melnyk77 · Aug 18, 2025

You should always keep learning if you want to be a pro or a leader in your field. Just always. As soon as you stop learning, you're giving your opponents, who keep learning and growing, a head start.

nelomec · Aug 18, 2025

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

yes, today poker is getting much more harder to win than a few years ago, to be good and win, we need to study a lot

hobojim1247 · Aug 18, 2025

Poker is constantly evolving and if you don't evolve with it you become as extinct as a
dodo bird. Just think of the hotshots of 10, 15, 20 years ago that you no longer hear about? Some retired or burned out but many got left in the dust.

CaioRJ · Aug 18, 2025

Yes, after GTO Wizard, the game changed completely, but still a profitable game.

pentazepam · Aug 18, 2025

It's much harder. Especially online.

And almost no traffic at the other game variants than NLH and a little PLO. And on most sites, there is not much action over 100NLH.

The problem with people who think the solution is to just study harder is that, because of the rake, it's not enough to be a little better than your opponents - you must be a lot better. And it's hard to find players who consistently make big mistakes, except at the lowest levels. So you reach a point of diminishing returns, no matter how much you study. Poker is not like chess.

PLO is a little less solved than NLH and has a lot of gamblers, but the variance is ****ing brutal.

TulasMoreno · Aug 18, 2025

ive been playing poker since 2008, and my answer is yes, nowadays you need to study to be a profitable player, even if you see poker as a second income, poker from today is much harder than 10 years ago, because nowadays we have better tools to improve our game.

ch1r4q · Aug 18, 2025

I believe if we are talking about low-mid stakes, considering the big amount of new players, that don't really put that much effort in learning/exploring, in most cases, it hasn't changed much. While for mid-high stakes the toughness and the competition has signifacntly increased, thanks to all the available software/studying materials that we can access online.

Robertobm · Aug 18, 2025

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

Sim o jogo mudou bastante, e sempre continua mudando né, antigamente as contas eram bem mais básicas.

Pabloro10321 · Aug 18, 2025

Nowadays there are many players who live and study poker, although there is always the luck factor, I think you should study and practice to be at your level.

GrannySmit77 · Aug 18, 2025

I think more players have access to ressources to learn and get better faster. There's so much more information easily available, what hands to shove under 10 BBs from what position. It has probably gotten more difficult to beat the games- live or online since everybody has access to the same information.

R.Holynskyi · Aug 18, 2025

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

I have been playing poker for over 5 years, and I feel that it is becoming easier for me to play with each passing year. Perhaps this feeling arises from the experience I have gained and the gradual improvement of my skills. However, learning is undoubtedly very important.

Toruk Makto · Aug 18, 2025

More cautious I would say...

phuchoidey1 · Aug 18, 2025

I think it all depend your ability and how you improve

Snake2007 · Aug 18, 2025

I never found poker difficult. I understood it very quickly from the beginning.

Rosylly · Aug 18, 2025

I donlt really think it's getting harder at this point, i believe it's more or less the same compared to 2-3 years ago and will be more or less the same in the future.

Compared to 10-15 years ago, ofc it's a different world

SPANKYSN · Aug 18, 2025

A

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

Absolutely. There is so much more information available online with respect to strategy now than years ago, and there are more people playing.

Poison91 · Aug 18, 2025

nelomec said:
yes, today poker is getting much more harder to win than a few years ago, to be good and win, we need to study a lot

I believe there are specialists in long tournaments and others in short ones. It happens to me that in tournaments where there are more people I get further and where there are fewer I don't. For me, in short tournaments your individual skill as a player is more valuable, and in long ones being patient is more important.

margmilo44 · Aug 19, 2025

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

Big time harder. you used to be profitable just understanding pre flop

Deluded1 · Aug 19, 2025

maxstell said:
It's always interesting to see how poker changes over time, between new online tournaments and evolving strategies. Do you think that today you need to study much more than 10 years ago to be a winner?

100% you do its much tougher than it used to be but theres loads of tools available online some are free aswell

RodrigoMartins · Aug 19, 2025

Definitely. The overall skill level has gone way up compared to 10 years ago. Back then you could get away with just playing solid ABC poker and still be a winner. Today, with solvers, training sites, and so much shared knowledge, you really need to study consistently if you want to stay ahead. The edge is smaller, but there’s still room for players who put in the work

Claudiunm · Aug 19, 2025

It's undoubtedly harder to play poker today. Poker has evolved. Players study more. Many of today's strategies are common knowledge. Playing styles that worked 10 years ago are now being surpassed or overtaken by other styles. This is good, as it makes the game more dynamic and balanced.

Cooking · Aug 19, 2025

I've started to play around 18 years ago and I can say that definitely online poker is more difficult now. But the main reason for me is the lack of options we have now and way less players than it used to be. A lot of countries can't play in the big rooms anymore, specially US players, which were the biggest market for online poker. After Black Friday in 2011, almost all poker rooms have closed. We only have like 4-5 poker rooms that we can trust, so, all players have to play in one of them, so, the competition is tougher.
In the past, we had like 15 (or more) good rooms. So, I remember that most of the good (and professionals) players used to play on PS or Full Tilt. But if you were not that good (like me..lol), you would still have a lot of good rooms with weaker players to choose. That time you could easily win a decent amount of money, nowadays I think only the very good players can win.

odonob · Aug 19, 2025

Yes, it seems to be. Seemed a bit softer up until recently. Maybe Gto etc is being used more often.

Pablo8 · Aug 19, 2025

I believe that studying is necessary for any career, especially in tournament finals that require technical quality.

Is poker getting harder?

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