OT: Few reasons why I think poker's popularity is here to stay

I've heard from many people over the last few years that this is just a short term explosion caused by Moneymaker, and to a lesser extent, Raymer being unknowns and winning the world championship.

I do believe that Moneymaker helped start this poker boom, many people before he won might have liked playing poker with friends once a week, but never really got serious about it til they saw someone who had never read from a poker book and never went to a tournament event win a few million.

But thats not really the point I am trying to get at here, what I am trying to say is that even though they started this poker "boom", I don't think it's as much of a phase as alot of people assume it to be.

I flipped thru the channels this morning, and saw commercials for Yu Gi Oh and Duel Monsters, and similar games like that that children as young as 7 are addicted to.

When I worked at Wal-Mart a few years back, one of the things that Loss Prevention had alot of shrinkage with was the Yu Gi Oh cards. And that was a few years ago, and those types of games are still very popular to our youth.

Even before Yu Gi Oh and the like came about, there was a game called Magic: The Gathering that alot of teens and young adults were into. Granted, I never got into any of these games, so I really don't know much about them outside of them being a strategy card game, but I think there is a direct correlation between games like Magic and Yu Gi Oh and Poker.

I think a good example of someone who came to poker from one of these card games would be Poker Pro David Williams, who before poker played Magic: The Gathering, and even keeps a Magic: The Gathering card as his image on pokerstars.

I believe that once these young children start growing up, they will eventually migrate from games such as Yu Gi Oh and move onto games like Hold Em. Perhaps by the time they get older, Pineapple is the new hot thing, or some other variation of poker, but I have no doubt in my mind that for years to come, there will be a steady influx of new players coming into the game. And when there are new players coming in, there is a good mix of sharks and fish, which makes me assume that the waters are not going to be as sharky as some people believe they might be. Will the games be more challenging? Perhaps, but I think that a good player will still be able to feast on the chummy waters 10 years from now.

Thoughts, comments, flames?

Good post mate.

Another thing worth mentioning is that todays youth, lets say ages 15-18, is playing ALOT of home game poker but haven't really made it to the internet games because of age or that they simply don't have cash for it, since they are still in school. When they age and become legal to open an account they sure will give it a try just aswell as they will deposit when they get their first job. I am sure there are tons of 15-18 in any city/town playing in home games at least once a week. I live in a small town with 2000 inhabitants and I can say we have over 100 youths here playing poker. Some quite good at it just playing in home games that sure will try internet poker a try when they can.

So, as time flies by, todays youth will move up to internet poker and most of the regulars will stay so yea, I'm thinking it will increase aswell.

[tek]

I have nephews in junior high that play amongst their friends. Recently I was talking about poker with one of my cousins (without older kids) and one of the nephews would finish some of my sentences...

Their will continue to be an influx of new pokerplayers.

My question is will games like magic and yu gi still attract players with poker being an alternative for them?

[Doc]

IMHO, I think that Magic: The Gathering has played a great role in the rise of poker popularity. A lot of teenage boys play Magic, but eventually are put off by the constant cash infusions required to stay competitive. In addition, several of the new young pros...David Williams being the most famous...were once on the Magic Pro Tour. To me, it seems to be a pretty natural progression from teenagger to 20something/collge student and Magic to Poker.

Doc

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My question is will games like magic and yu gi still attract players with poker being an alternative for them?

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My hypothesis on this is that kids that get into competetive games like this will eventually want to find other competetive games, maybe playing both, maybe moving on to just poker, or maybe moving onto other newer magic-like games.

When I was a kid, I played competetive games like monopoly and 5 card draw and Gin, I also had a gambling nature even when I was younger making side bets on lots of things with friends, I think that with so many kids into these competetive card shows and card games, they will eventually progress to other competetive games. Maybe they won't all move onto poker, but I bet alot of them move onto something competetive, and I'd bet at least 20% of todays youth that are into games like Yu Gi Oh try their hand at poker when they get of age.

[Dave D]

Zee Justin talks about being big into magic before poker. He traveled around in tournaments and things iirc. Not quite as well known as David Williams, but another big name.

[ansky451]

The wcoop ME winner, Panella86, played magic. And we all know how cool he is.

[private joker]

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Zee Justin talks about being big into magic before poker. He traveled around in tournaments and things iirc. Not quite as well known as David Williams, but another big name.

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Eric Froelich too, the fat bearded guy who won the WSOP bracelet in limit at age 21. He'd made a nice little income off Magic until poker.

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I've heard from many people over the last few years that this is just a short term explosion caused by Moneymaker, and to a lesser extent, Raymer being unknowns and winning the world championship.

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Respectfully, I think it was well underway before this. Consider these other factors:

1. Legalization of forms of stud poker in California in the late 1980's. Before that most California cardrooms were little more than draw poker clubs. When California poker started to expand, Vegas had to match and exceed.

2. Once poker began expanding in LV and CA, then AC was mandated to keep up with the Jones'. I was covering AC for Blackjack Forum magazine at the time poker was legalized there in the early 90's. The east coast went from having only underground and quasi-legal clubs (Maryland firehouses) to having several hundred legal tables within the space of about 6 months.

3. Similarly, around this time the Indian casinos were starting to take off, and of course, they had to keep up with the Smith's and the Jones'. Hence Foxwoods and the rest.

4. Then, after all this was taking place, and all the other things like WSOP-TV, the internet boom came along. But even with the internet boom, internet poker didn't happen right away because the technology was not mature enough (server horsepower, multi-casting, broadband to the home, etc.). It was only after these technologies matured that internet poker became a possibility.

5. Now at this point, circa late 90's, your points kick in. This is not to say that your points aren't valid. They certainly are. But there were many more precursors.

Further, I think the boom will sustain so long as there is expendable cash available in the US and elsewhere. By and large people don't spend the rent and food money on online poker. They spend extra cash that they don't miss if they lose. As long as this scenario remains, the boom will at worst level off.

IMHO, I don't see a rapid fall-off within the next 5-10 years unless something drastic happens (e.g., laws, taxes, etc.)