The Poker Landscape for 2008

[General Sal]

So, I was reading the main article in Cardplayer for this week... seemed like a pretty upbeat portrayal of poker overall... of course, the obvious highlights were the passage of the UIGEA and the subsequent drop in the number of attendance in the Main Event. The fascinating factoid of the wsop was that there were more entrants in all events than ever before.

A lot of people foresaw the end of poker... this coming with Neteller troubles... and an increase in the quality of play overall. Travel Channel dumps the WPT cable show. (Picked up by GSN though.)

I'm curious what you guys see in poker for 2008. Positive? Negative? Time to take up dominoes or backgammon?

[Felting]

I see a THP'er winning a seat in the Main Event and bubbling 3 from the money

Seriously though, the low limits and small buy in MTT seem to be thriving at every casino I visit. Just wish there was more of an interest in games other than Hold'em.

[exit music]

The poker "boom" ended a couple of years ago. The remaining fish are slowly going broke, break-even players are starting to lose money or they are treading water and paying lots of rake. Good players are fighting against tougher opponents. It's going to be a long time before poker "dies," but less people are making profit by playing poker.

In 2008 and over the next 5 years I can't see things getting better. Perhaps there will be a re-boom of new fishies, but it wont be till all those 12 year olds grow up. Bad news for you is that the future generation of poker players will probably kick your asses to the curb.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

So, I was reading the main article in Cardplayer for this week... seemed like a pretty upbeat portrayal of poker overall... of course, the obvious highlights were the passage of the UIGEA and the subsequent drop in the number of attendance in the Main Event.

The main reason for the drop in Main Event numbers was not due to the UIGEA, but due to Harrah's decision not to accept 3rd party entrants (which I guess you could indirectly attribute to the UIGEA). Without that rule, I think we would have seen over 10k entrants to the Main Event this year, because as you said, overall attendance in the event as a whole was up. The UIGEA has proved to be a joke, and IMO will be overturned by the end of 2009.

The poker "boom" ended a couple of years ago. The remaining fish are slowly going broke, break-even players are starting to lose money or they are treading water and paying lots of rake. Good players are fighting against tougher opponents. It's going to be a long time before poker "dies," but less people are making profit by playing poker.

In 2008 and over the next 5 years I can't see things getting better. Perhaps there will be a re-boom of new fishies, but it wont be till all those 12 year olds grow up. Bad news for you is that the future generation of poker players will probably kick your asses to the curb.

I could not disagree more. Prize pools have remained consistently high, and the major sites are as busy as ever. Don't paint a gloomy picture just because you are mad at Poker.

Just wish there was more of an interest in games other than Hold'em.

There may soon be, since ESPN was nice enough to show all the HORSE games on TV. Omaha is gaining popularity, but to be honest, I wish it were any other game.

I think 2008 will be a great year for Poker. Hopefully I take down my first major title (yeah right... maybe I can win the $3 rebuy...).

[exit music]

I'm not mad at poker.

[General Sal]

The poker "boom" ended a couple of years ago. The remaining fish are slowly going broke, break-even players are starting to lose money or they are treading water and paying lots of rake. Good players are fighting against tougher opponents. It's going to be a long time before poker "dies," but less people are making profit by playing poker.

In 2008 and over the next 5 years I can't see things getting better. Perhaps there will be a re-boom of new fishies, but it wont be till all those 12 year olds grow up. Bad news for you is that the future generation of poker players will probably kick your asses to the curb.

Yeah, you know, I still wonder if it's possible for anyone to really make a living at this thing... and, you know, I think poker is going to move in cycles is what's going to be the case. It's still quite trendy...I think new players are still coming... current players are struggling to improve, although there are more resources available now than ever!

There's still a lot of money to be made.

[Dave B]

What I am seeing at my local casino is some weak players moving up in stakes. It used to be that 6/12, 8/16 was a big jump for 2/4, 3/6 players. Now everyone is pouring into the 15/30 game. It is unreal that in the last 2-3 years we went from having 1 15/30 game going to 4-5. There used to be 2-3 8/16 games, now there are 5-6.

The odd thing, my last 2 trips to LV, bigger limit games are REALLY shrinking. Hell, only one out of 6 days did the Venetian have their promoted $1 rake 8/16 game. Meanwhile, I have seen 2 LV "regulars" from the Bellagio 8/16-15/30 games at Canterbury. That was over a span of 2 1/2 weeks-too long for a regular vacation.

[Jernej Zorec]

poker is booming like crazy both in asia and EU so there is absolutely no fear for poker in 2008,
Pokerstars regulary has more people on the site that it had pre uigea
and those numbers only seem to be growing all around

[Moon_Child]

poker is declining... the games are getting much tougher even at the lower limits.

not to mention without neteller, it's pretty hard to deposit when credit card don't work.

i'm making less and less each year of play when i feel like my skills are getting better and better.
this entire year, i pretty much BROKE EVEN =(

maybe 2008 will get better for me, but i don't plan to play as much. maybe when i'm bored. i do want to learn omaha tho, it seems like a fun game and a lot of people are getting into it. anyways, overall, poker is getting boring for a lot of people, especially my friends who used to play everyday... everyone is starting to lose interest altho i wanna find more live games to play that isn't so far away...

[Felting]

Pokerstars regulary has more people on the site that it had pre uigea
and those numbers only seem to be growing all around

Anybody know if it's more then Party had pre uigea?

[TheSalche]

Pre UIGEA Party was bigger, seeing probably 100K ish on big times, but was pretty consistently busy. At the same time, Pokerstars probably had 60 - 80K.

Poker in 2008 is going to be better than 2007. Full Tilt and Stars are holding strong and if the UIGEA is repealed expect to see many more softer games because currently a lot of people think online poker is illegal.

[Muck]

Party are moving into the on-line Bingo market here (UK). It’s worth a lot of cash because the recent smoking ban has crushed the B&M Bingo halls, something like 1 in 3 are closing.

I wonder if the smoking ban has hurt the B&M casino business at all? Tourney numbers still seem pretty good. I do notice people occasionally leave the table to have a fag, which seems pretty crazy when the blinds get high!

lot of people think online poker is illegal.

Like congress?

[supafrey]

Pokerstars regulary has more people on the site that it had pre uigea
and those numbers only seem to be growing all around

Anybody know if it's more then Party had pre uigea?

Pokerstars' current record highs are greater than party. They claim to have gotten 150k before the new year, which beats Party pre-legis by a bunch.

[Phil14312]

Everybody says limit games are dying online- they may have gotten harder since UIGEA, but the games I play are definitely beatable, as long as you avoid tables with 4 other TAGS.

[kingetje]

i cant speak for yall but over here in the netherlands (and i guess the rest of europe) the pokerboom has just begun... they started airing poker on tv here like a few months ago. casinos picked it up... its thriving like crazy and everyone are donks. also the european parliament is putting pressure on some countries who have a monopoly on gambling and hopefully in the coming year the Holland Casino monopoly will crumble.


its bigger then ever. although the bad side of this growth in popularity of the game is the government is now interfering with everything and making ridiculous plans to go against it, bothering all serious poker players to no end