Poker Boom at its Zenith?

[Michael Davis]

I'm glad I can still get a decent backgammon and rummy game whenever I'm looking for it....

-Michael

[Shoe]

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I'm glad I can still get a decent backgammon and rummy game whenever I'm looking for it....

-Michael

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There are lots of backgammon and rummy games on ESPN too....

What people fail to realize is that poker is an addictive game. I'm not saying everyone who plays it becomes a compulsive, degenerate scumbag, however, most people will come back to it after taking a few months to give it "another shot", in a cycle which will repeat for most people for the rest of their lives. After all, that's how vegas survives.

[MicroBob]

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Except for the fact that the open tournament with the largest prize pool ever will be happening in Minnesota in two weeks. Yep, totally dead.

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That's terrific.
I've been out of chess for a couple of years and admit that I have no clue what's been going on of late with the tourney scene and what sort of sillyness the USCF has been up to lately.

I'm a sucky player anyway (USCF rating 1400) but enjoy the live tournaments and was at one time a regular on ICC.


I do hope that chess popularity continues to grow...and once I get my income more stable so that I don't feel guilty when I'm playing a game other than poker (where I can't make an income so am obviously just doing it for recreation) I would love to try a couple of chess tournaments again.


The 'chess is all but dead' feeling possibly comes from the situation at the top of the heap.

There isn't much world-championship or major-tournament buzz like there should be. Just not much promotion as far as i know (I could be missing it though).

Kasparov is retired and fischer belongs in a loony-bin but chose Iceland instead.
That's about everything that is happening at the top of the chess-world as far as I know.


We need something of interest at the top. Doesn't even need to be a charismatic player like Kasparov.
A Karpov type will do.
Just something to inject some interest and publicity for the top players that seems to be significantly less than it has ever been.


Chess doesn't need the Cold War back-drop of Fischer-Spasky to be bigger than it is currently.

The interest in the Kasparov-Karpov matches was still much bigger than anything that we have today.

[TGoldman]

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If online poker will get big in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and perhaps even more Asia, there will be much growth still.

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I've always felt this type of argument is a red herring. It would be nice if European or Asian countries eventually arrive to fuel the growth of online poker, however, it does nothing to address the question of whether the online poker economy is self-sustainable without continually adding new markets.

[Shoe]

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If online poker will get big in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and perhaps even more Asia, there will be much growth still.

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I've always felt this type of argument is a red herring. It would be nice if European or Asian countries eventually arrive to fuel the growth of online poker, however, it does nothing to address the question of whether the online poker economy is self-sustainable without continually adding new markets.

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The growth is not sustainable at it's current rate forever. However, it could still continue to grow at it's current rate for the next few years.

However, that does not mean there will ever be a decline in poker. The growth might just slow to a more sustainable rate.

[OrangeKing]

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Except for the fact that the open tournament with the largest prize pool ever will be happening in Minnesota in two weeks. Yep, totally dead.

[/ QUOTE ]


That's terrific.
I've been out of chess for a couple of years and admit that I have no clue what's been going on of late with the tourney scene and what sort of sillyness the USCF has been up to lately.

I'm a sucky player anyway (USCF rating 1400) but enjoy the live tournaments and was at one time a regular on ICC.


I do hope that chess popularity continues to grow...and once I get my income more stable so that I don't feel guilty when I'm playing a game other than poker (where I can't make an income so am obviously just doing it for recreation) I would love to try a couple of chess tournaments again.


The 'chess is all but dead' feeling possibly comes from the situation at the top of the heap.

There isn't much world-championship or major-tournament buzz like there should be. Just not much promotion as far as i know (I could be missing it though).

Kasparov is retired and fischer belongs in a loony-bin but chose Iceland instead.
That's about everything that is happening at the top of the chess-world as far as I know.


We need something of interest at the top. Doesn't even need to be a charismatic player like Kasparov.
A Karpov type will do.
Just something to inject some interest and publicity for the top players that seems to be significantly less than it has ever been.


Chess doesn't need the Cold War back-drop of Fischer-Spasky to be bigger than it is currently.

The interest in the Kasparov-Karpov matches was still much bigger than anything that we have today.

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You're right, there most certainly isn't much to get the public excited right now at the top of chess.

Our best hope? Probably Hikaru Nakamura, the 17-year-old US Champion who is already in the top 50 in the world, and still rising. A young American threat to win the world championship would generate a lot of interest in chess.

And yes, the USCF sillyness is a bit disconcerting. It's not the player base, or even the workers at the USCF that are the problem - it's the leadership that has been struggling. Kind of like FIDE, which has its own problems on an even larger scale.

PS: I'm a not-much-better USCF 1630. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[vindikation]

Poker is an AMAZING form of gambling. Besides counting cards at blackjack, it's really the only form of legal gambling that I know of that you can have a +EV if your are disciplined and educated on how to play the game. I don't know of any other hobbies or passtimes that are like this.

This in turn makes it VERY addictive. It bugged the HELL out of me that I was a losing player the first 6 months I learned to play poker because I KNEW that it was a +EV game for educated players. Happily I have recouped and doubled up everything I lost in my first 6 months and really love this game.

The craziest thought in my mind (after only playing 1 year) is "will/can I ever quit this game?"

As long as I am a winning player, I just can't see how I can stop. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[Camajan]

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If online poker will get big in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and perhaps even more Asia, there will be much growth still.

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My 50cents, from a german player.:

most of the german online players i know read one or two books before they started playing for real money.
they take the game seriously and want to fish in the us-market.
Normally we must play against a tougher competition, when it´s daytime in US and the fish have to work to gain the money for gambling.
this year started the 2 first Poker shows on TV.
I hope that will help the game and the market, but I´m not sure yet. Other card games played for cash are more popular.
Poker is normally played in home games. From all online players I know only 1 went broke.

[NateDog]

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Why can't you make this about yr argument and not people? Seriously, it irks me when someone calls someone else an "idiot" when "I think your opinion is wrong" works just fine. Ad hominem attacks are pointless and immature.

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This board is nothing but ad hom attacks. I do not like to do it but I lose patients

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Dude, you are a doctor too?

[AncientPC]

Poker has not peaked yet, NBC just showed a tournament today during tghe afternoon. This is the first time I've seen a public station broadcast poker during semi-prime time hours. Usually I see them showing poker really late at night . . .