Is poker still HOT? or NOT?

I say poker is still hot. With the economy like it is, we have eliminated our multiple trips to Vegas. But the economy doesn't keep us from loading 100.00 in Full Tilt and playing every night. Does the economy cut out your means of recreation?
Oh, we are planning a trip to Vegas in April and it'll be a good one!

I would think Guy is simply looking for something else to do. My guess is that he could loose every hand over the next thirty years and not spend the interest on his account. You may have that inpression but I think that very fact makes him very dangerous to the rest of the so called "non-donks" out there.

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Obv what guy loses at poker (a lot) doesn't dent his net worth, but it definitely increases the net worth of those with whom he plays poker. Pros still make alot of money off "donks" it is just that those "donks" might very well be considered very good players at lower stakes (players taking shots, "good" players that can be spewy/tilty, rich fish, etc.)

Anyways, what we really need is a poker boom in asia...if China and South Korea get the poker bug like they seem to have with computer games could get a whole new player base that aren't very good.

I think that what your are seeing is because of what the goverment of the United States has done to control poker. If you look at all the major sites they, run on Eastern Standard Time. Even though they are base outside the US. What that says is that the biggest market for poker is still the US. The market in the US had cooled the first year that they enacted that law to control credit card payments, but if you look at this years World Series there was an increase in players over last year. So it may be cooler here in the US right now, but it will still keep growing. There are to many people that at this time do not have access to a live casino, so online will continue to grow. When enough people are bringing in to much money from these sites the goverment will change its mind because they want the tax money.

Paw_kit Aces said:

There is no such a think as too many donks. I want to win, it is much harder to win when everybody knows what they are doing. Bring on the donks!

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Thing that suck about too many donks is that you can be playing you're best and get blasted by some jackass who shouldnt have even been playing with you. Especially in tournaments.

Haven't you heard? The government killed online gaming...

With the economy hurting, its definitely leaving people with less disposable income to spend on things like poker. After the poker boom the game was oversaturated, how else can you explain so many WPT events and big tournaments. As Matusow said, in a few years the only people entering tourneys will be those staked by Lindgren, Pokerstars, and Full Tilt. A lot of the money from the poker boom has gone into the pockets of casino owners, now its drying up and some Vegas rooms are even closing.

Its not in the US maybe. But playing poker is hip and trendy even in arab nations - I know because in Saudi Arabia, they offically shun this but is quite popular underground)

Also, investing your $$$ on a poker table has more potential gains than investing on US stocks atm

i guess this was the post that got you into the freerolls. lol. Good local feedback. I live in B.C. and have friends in Florida. We don't have quite as much local tournament interest as you.

i would say that for north america the poker boom is well and truly over. sure there are a ton of players but poker just isnt as big anymore as what it used to be. i read a story during the wsop how the organisers were really worried that they couldn't get a large enough field due to dismal Day 1A signups that they actually blocked the player count on the blinds clock until all the day 1s were over.

however, i can assure you that poker is still hot in other parts of the word. europe is now in its boom period, similar to north america as evidenced by the strong performance of the ept. the wsope means nothing much over there, its the ept that is the really prestigious tournament. asia will be the next hotspot and myself living in an asian country, i can tell you that poker here is starting to get huge. mentioning the names daniel negreanu or phil ivey doesn't produce blank stares and "huh?"s anymore and theres always a game of poker going on around colleges and the coffee shops. it seems like in 5-8 years time, all the big pros will come down to asia to play (think of the massive fields and prize money, asia is huge!) and there will probably be a wsopA

i think poker gets popular once or twice in everyones lifetime. its one of those games that comes and goes with popularity like trend. it might be dying down right now and i think with the decline of the economy it will continue to lose popularity but dont worry my friend it will come back. and i wouldnt neccesarily say it was poker in general that got popular it was one game in particular texas hold em. how many donks do you know that jumped the poker bandwagon that know how to play anything but hold em or refuse to play anything else

i say HOT.


while america is some what over the poker thing the european players are keeping it very juicy at least in the stakes i play

I don't believe poker is in the "boom" stage anymore but has instead come completely mainstream. Finding a game is easy to do, just now people aren't really looking for more people to join into their regular game. I've played a regular home game now for almost 3 years, we have 5 players that have been in since the beginning and about 8-9 others that come and go, but we never fall short of enough to play.

hard to tell by me because i dont have any statistics to as of how many players are joining the poker scene every year...but i can tell you that i`m more into poker today then i was 2 years ago.. also, my poker buddies who i`ve been playing for 2 years now still continue to play every week at home and go to casinos once a month. I play online everyday... So i cant really tell you if its HOT or NOT... it is HOT for me...

p.s. i have 2 friends from work who i`ve hooked up to the poker game about 6 months ago, and they play more then me now..

RiveRxRival said:

i dont really play in casinos that often but i do find myself playing every weekend with friends and having a good time. we all love to play poker and if we are sitting around on the weekends we can always count on each other for a poker game. i jjust cant get enough of poker and neither can they. i mean just playing low stakes poker with friends is a great time.

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I agree, i play with friends every saturday and it is a lot of fun!!!! In our state(Georgia) there is no casinos because gambeling is illegal so i have never played in the casino. I would love to play in actual casino tournament to see how good i am because i find my self winning often against my friends.

As far as online goes, i hate it. It just isnt fun for me to sit in a chair and click click with my mouse. You dont get to talk to anybody, you dont get to see anyones facial expression after they win or lose a big one, you dont get to read people, you dont get to play around with your chips . I cant play serious when i play online because its just not fun for me.

lostcause said:

I will say that right now there is a decline in the number of players that you see playing poker. The reason I blame is the economic state of the world. When people don't have as much disposable income they don't play as much poker. However once the economy turns around you will see a lot more players. Just wait and see.

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Sorry for double post

I agree with you too, me and my friends were actually planing on taking a trip 2.5 hrs away to play online poker in a casino but had to cancel it due to economy. We are young 21-25 year olds and most work in retail jobs which is not doing very well now.

Even the rich people that usually dong mind trowing $2000 -$10 000 into a WSOPT have been affected by the economy because of stocks.

There was still like 9000 people at the wsop this year. that just shows you that poker is still doing great.

Numbers from CardPlayer to back me up.

Pulled, sliced and diced from an article in CardPlayer:

PartyGaming is a publicly traded company that was once the world’s largest poker room.
The company made $553 million from poker in 2004.
Its best poker year was 2005, when the company pulled in $859 million.

But the bottom dropped out in 2006 when the company decided to leave the U.S. market because of the UIGEA. That year, it made $268 million from poker [in 2006].

In 2007, poker revenue rose to $288.8 million.

In the first half of 2008, PartyGaming has made $153.9 million from poker.

Where did these people go? They can't all have gone to Pokerstars, and certainly nowhere else as a group. They either play poker in a non on-line venues or have left the game for something else (imo).

Anyone who wasn't dedicated enough to find a way back to a major on-line poker room is someone we wanted to have around.

Think of how much bigger current poker action would be today if all those U.S. newbies weren't given such a hard time by the government as they were giving us their money. I shudder to think.

ActAsIf said:

Pulled, sliced and diced from an article in CardPlayer:

PartyGaming is a publicly traded company that was once the world’s largest poker room.
The company made $553 million from poker in 2004.
Its best poker year was 2005, when the company pulled in $859 million.

But the bottom dropped out in 2006 when the company decided to leave the U.S. market because of the UIGEA. That year, it made $268 million from poker [in 2006].

In 2007, poker revenue rose to $288.8 million.

In the first half of 2008, PartyGaming has made $153.9 million from poker.

Where did these people go? They can't all have gone to Pokerstars, and certainly nowhere else as a group. They either play poker in a non on-line venues or have left the game for something else (imo).

Anyone who wasn't dedicated enough to find a way back to a major on-line poker room is someone we wanted to have around.

Think of how much bigger current poker action would be today if all those U.S. newbies weren't given such a hard time by the government as they were giving us their money. I shudder to think.

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There is your answer right there
But the bottom dropped out in 2006 when the company decided to leave the U.S. market because of the UIGEA. That year, it made $268 million from poker [in 2006].

in first half of 2008 they made 159million x2 you get 300+ mill which shows it growing from year 2007.......

zachvac said:

Really? Ever heard of/seen Guy Laliberte play?

Also note that the medium players who win and move up will be fish from the perspective of the high-stakes pros.

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I understand, but I was just making a point that the post I was responding to claimed that 95% of people that play on the side make money, which doesn't really make sense.

165,000 Players on PokerStars right now tells me its STILL HOT

and another 70,000 on Full Tilt



I remember not too long ago, people thought it was amazing when Stars broke the 100,000 player mark for the first time