How many Poker player in the world?

[luckymints]

I am a student doing a report on poker. I heard it was popular but cant find any proof or numbers. My teacher actually disagrees and think it is bridge, I'd love to prove her wrong.
Anyone know just how popular poker is worldwide? any numbers or sources?
Thanks very much!

[Hung]

There is a world series of poker. Isn't that good enough?
You can find poker in a casino, but no bridge.

[brad]

just apologize and tell her you overplayed your hand and then when she agrees with you you have her /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The fact that there are at a minimum 10,000 people playing poker online at any giver time might be enough to demonstrate a lead over other card games.

Bridge has dropped dramatically in popularity over the past 20 years. Part of this was due to the cheating scandals at the world-championship levels. When the federation that governed Contract Bridge realized that the only way to stop cheating was to visually, audibly and phyisically isolate the players from one another, it sort of ruined the normal flow of the game.

[nummerfire]

Bridge has according to the World Bridge Federation homepage around 700.000 members, who plays organized bridge.
I would estimate a lot more, who plays regularly with friends. (Even if non tournaments players often are so bad, that the game do not deserve to be called bridge).

I do not think the twenty year old scandal means much anymore. Rather some prospective bridge players are playing computer games instead.

The argument, that you can find poker in casinos do not mean much. I cannot find poker in bridge clubs.

I think there are more poker players than bridge players. The reason is, that it is more difficult to find out if you stink at poker.

Kim

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Poker is deceptively simple. Bridge is not. Therefore more people play poker.