Current poker boom - how long can it last?

[FeliciaLee]

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will something come along and replace or at least compete with hold em? cause man im sick of hold em. i mean i love having all this money, but i want to play another game.

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Amen. I posted something in the Stud forum last week along the lines of, "If I were a board game fanatic, and suddenly Monopoly was the only game being played, it would get old, fast. That is what HE is to me...old, fast."

I've been playing some oddball games at this new cardroom in Laughlin. The CRM is from the Silver Star in Mississippi, and supposedly spread these games there. The EV is really good, as the locals here have no idea how to play these games.

Felicia [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
www.felicialee.net

[Zeno]

Some fads, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook), have historically ended or dropped rather quickly. Whether this will be true of poker only time will tell. I brought this up in a thread on the Pot-, No-limit forum. The current boom in NL limited buy in poker was being discussed.

As a somewhat side note: The boom appears to be mainly in Hold'em - NL, limit, and in tournaments. Has this affected the Stud and Omaha games? Or is the influx so broad that all games are increasing, with Hold'em simply outpacing the others?

The sustainability of the curve cannot, logically, continue at the current pace indefinitely. When it slows, what will be the deflection? And if the curve plateaus, for how long? And if it starts to fall, at what rate?

-Zeno

[Joe Tall]

I have been anxiously awaiting Sklansky's Poker Challange, which is "soon to appear in casinos" but maybe it has not made it out east yet. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Peace,
Joe Tall

[The Armchair]

It's going to last for a long time. But after a while, online will dry up in favor of B&M.

Poker is a wickedly enticing game. It has the allure of every other game of skill, but without the feeling that you're getting outplayed -- just outdrawn. Because of the odd pockets they wish to play, they tend to have violent bankroll swings to boot. (A board of AJ964 is huge for the guy with A6 when the other guy has been pushing AK through the roof.) The allure of such a hand lends itself, credibly, to the notion that a poor player is actually a great one -- after all, he "outplayed" AK.

Most of the players out there are social, occassional players, who do so mainly with friends and on the odd trip to the casino. When they win, they play more, but I do not think it necessarily follows that they'll play less when they lose.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

The problem with comparing poker to other casino games/gambling is that it lacks the things that make these things so popular. Everybody knows slots are -EV, but their draw is the lottery-like chance to hit it huge with one spin. Add to that their (what I assume is) low cost to the casino and their ability to pack a ton of them into a given space and you have a very popular product. Roulette is very similar, but with a somewhat sofisticated air to it. Craps and blackjack are/can be quite social games that are or at least seem to be a 50/50 proposition if you play them right. They're something you can go play with your buddies and not have to be playing against them and taking their money.

Poker, on the other hand, is scary to a lot of people. Even if you play home games or fool around with your friends, the poker room looks daunting and you're sure there's a shark at every table waiting to gobble you up. How many people have you heard say they like playing poker, but they'd "never play it in a casino"? It's a game where you don't have a set mathematical chance of winning. The skill involved and the wide variety of people who play it provide the possibility that you are so outclassed that you have very little chance of even hitting something lucky and breaking even. What's more, there's very little chance even if you're good of hitting a big payday just walking through the casino and sitting down to a cash game. It's a grind and most people don't get excited at the proposition of maybe grinding out $100 after a few hours in a low/micro limit game.

That being said, once you do sit down and get into the game, that's all turned around. It's not so scary any more and you realize that maybe you are the shark. The increased complexity and subtleties over any other casino game make it so much more fun to sit in a poker game. Hours pass like minutes and all of a suddent, six or eight hours doesn't seem like such a long time any more. I used to count cards and liked playing blackjack. I can't stand it anymore - poker has ruined it for me.

[Paluka]

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Here's one random datapoint. I used to watch most of the poker shows on TV. Now I'm starting to get bored of them and don't watch most of them.

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I'm the same way, but I don't think this is meaningful. The shows are boring to us because we actually play some high limit poker. I've 3 bet Phil Ivey on the turn. I've knocked Eric Seidel out of a tourney. I'm just not that excited to watch these guys on TV anymore. For low limit players and newbies, the big name players are exciting to watch.

[Ed S.]

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will something come along and replace or at least compete with hold em? cause man im sick of hold em. i mean i love having all this money, but i want to play another game.

i think padoogi (or however it's spelled) is the game of the future. it's 4 card triple draw lowball. ive never played it but would like to. do they spread it online anywhere?




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Are you ready for Euchre then? Euchre is not a new card game its been around for some time. But it has been gaining ground and popularity with the advent of the Internet. There currently is a WSO Euchre that has been going on for the past 5 years or so. It's called the Grand Prix Nationals event but I think this year will be its first use of The World Series of Euchre. This will be held in Chicago,IL .

I myself am an avid euchre player. Some would say Im a World Class Euchre Player. But if you are looking for a fast paced game with alot of intuitive and second guessing call playing and all the tricky ness you have in poker well almost all of it, then Euchre is your game.


If you would like more info about the game of euchre and how to get to The Grand Prix National/WSOE event message me here or email me at,

tbolt_65@yahoo.com



Sidenote: Just like in Poker the cash games are usually more lucrative since the current Euchre tourney format IMHO sucks b-a-l-l-z.

Ed S.

[MaxPower]

About an hour ago, I was in a pizza place down the street. When I walked in the 2 counter guys and one of the customers were engaged in a serious conversation about Texas Holdem. It was the typical moronic conversation that you would expect. I had to stop myself from laughing at the stuff they were saying.

They were talking about the ESPN coverage of the World Series. I think this year's WSOP converage will continue to grow the game. We are approacing the peak, but we are not there yet. I give it about 2 more years.

[banditbdl]

The only time I ever play Euchre is when I'm too drunk to play 500.

[Ulysses]

I understand your point, but the point I was trying to make was that for me, someone very interested in poker, poker shows have started to get boring. Of course, I watched a lot more of these than most probably would when they first started coming on. I suspect that it will take even less viewings for the average casual fan/player to start getting bored of these. Since these shows are clearly part of what's driving the popularity of poker, I think it's logical to assume that once people start getting tired of these shows, the growth of poker will start to slow or reverse - at least to some degree.

At a more general level, I have no worries of games getting bad anytime soon up to about the 20-40 level. I'm not sure how long great 40-80 and higher games will last.