My 2011 State of Poker address

I’ve been following poker seriously since the late 1990’s, and in that time I have seen the game I love go through some major changes. As jaw-dropping as the recent Us-blackout of online poker thanks to the Department of Justice’s actions on Black Friday, the reality is that it seems poker goes through these shifts every so often.

1998-2002

What piqued my interest in poker in the late 90’s were the WSOP telecasts on ESPN and the United States Poker Championship telecasts, and it is almost amazing to think that in those days a $90k tournament win was life-changing money in the poker world. At this time the poker world wasn’t full of millionaires or even people pulling in $100k a year playing the game, since the “big” games in most locales was anything above $10/$20 LIMIT Holdem!

Even more troublesome was the sheer lack of action! There were card-rooms in Connecticut, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and California at this time, as well as underground clubs in major cities and private games in the back of bars (which is where I cut my teeth in poker). Finding a decent game in the morning or mid-afternoon on a weekday was near impossible, and online poker was in its complete infancy at this point –can you say Planet Poker, Paradise Poker, and Ultimate Bet?

2003-2006

I know Moneymaker gets a lot of credit for the online poker boom at the end of 2003, but honestly I think this may have only accelerated the poker boom, since even before Moneymaker’s historic win hit the airwaves poker was already on an uptick; partly from Rounders (which was released in late 1998, hit the DVD shelves in 1999, and became a cult hit by 2003), and partly from heavy competition between upstart online poker sites like Party Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Sportsbook, and so on.

At this point poker rooms were sprouting up all over the US, and casinos that had closed their poker rooms were reopening them as fast as they could. A competent poker player could walk into any Brick & Mortar Card-room or log in to an online poker site and basically print money. 99% of the players were new, and only a small percentage of these players had any interest in learning the game’s nuances; the rest were simply trying to be the next “Mike”, “Worm”, “Teddy KGB”, or “Knish”.

2006

When UIGEA legislation passed in 2006 things instantly changed in the poker world. First the casual players instantly disappeared for two reasons, both being equally important:

1.       The implication that online poker was illegal

2.       The ridiculous hoops that had to be jumped through to deposit and withdraw money

Once the casual players left, it also spelled the end for the lower end of winning players as the sharks started cannibalizing each other. At this same time a number of “software” sites started springing up where players were now playing an information gathering game, as well as online poker training sites, which basically informed any decent player that they were actually clueless as to what the really good players were doing. Now the only players in the online game are the serious players and the absolute degenerates.

2007-2010

Online poker was still profitable during this time period thanks to rakeback and other promotions, but the games were considerably tougher, and if you lived in the US you continually felt the slow squeeze of UIGEA’s hands wrapping around your neck -wait times for withdrawals grew to unreasonably long times and virtually every payment option was shut-down.

2011

Even though online poker (and therefore poker in general) has been on the decline since 2006, there is a slew of players sitting on the sidelines in the US who will cause a second golden age of poker should the game ever be legalized in the US. While I doubt this second Golden Age will be as insanely profitable as the 2003-2006 period, it should cause a resurgence in everything poker, and should see a lot of break-even players suddenly become winners again.