[stlip]

I used to make a reasonable living as a grad student playing at B&M card rooms in the late 70s (Oaks Club and Garden City). I constantly wondered how on earth all these bad players could keep bringing their money to lose.

Then I got real jobs, and after four or five years I actually started making more than I could make at poker. Some years after that (probably 1990) I went back to visit the Oaks Club and I could not believe how many people I recognized. They just never left.

Second point, I just started playing online two months ago. With my background and interest I would figure to be one of the earlier people to jump into this, so if I just got here I think it is safe to say that we're not even half way through collecting all the players who are going to try this game.

Yes, huge numbers of them are going to crash and burn. But you may be surprised how long it takes before we get to the peak (another year or two at least, I wager) and what kind of sustainable level we'll settle at after that.

Good luck to all.