The Current Softness/Toughness Status of Internet Poker.

[El Barto]

I seem to remember that last year in January, a lot of people complained about the tightening up of internet poker. I see similar things being said now. I searched the archives and found an interesting thread, which I link and quote below.

What do you think the near future will bring for us?

Easy games or tougher games?

An increase in good serious players, or tons of more fish?




Enjoy it while it lasts (the thread from last year)

from OP:
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But those of you that are "pros" that haven't been prior to this boom: DON'T BET ON IT continuing.

Maybe that's too drastic, but at least take some precautions:

Even though its profitable in the here and now to play multiple tables at half brain, prepare yourself to beat higher moderately tougher games. No, its stupid now to play these regularly, but if you think you are going to be playing professional for a long time, you MUST be ready for possible changes in the poker world again.


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from Ed Miller:
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...and I hadn't bothered to put it to words. This is 100% correct, IMO. In fact, Divad leaves open a little bit of doubt that I don't have. The boom WILL end, and the games WILL get tougher. The worst players will go broke or lose interest, and the good players will get even better.

I think the games will remain very good for at least a couple of years, but then the easy money will begin to dry up. The main reason I wanted to say anything about this is because I see several of the 18-21 set making what is, in my opinion, a BIG mistake.

DO NOT QUIT OR FORGO GOING TO COLLEGE BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU CAN PLAY POKER FULLTIME.

For people intelligent enough to make a living playing poker, skipping college is a MONUMENTAL financial and social blunder. College will help to prepare you for real jobs after poker (and yes, you will have one, 90%+ of you). It's also fun. And, by the way, you can still play poker in college. Go to !@#$ing college, and if you are already going, for the love of god, do not drop out to get more poker time in. That's the stupidest, most short-sighted idea I've ever heard.

That is all.


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from davidross:
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This is a subject that we all must have thought about at one time or another. I already experienced it once when the games at Paradise ran out of new players, making them much tougher. I don't think anyone can predict how long they will remain good. There seems to be no end to the number of people who want to gamble, as the poularity of casinos has shown, but withn the poker world, who knows? Like anything else, those who can adapt best to changing conditions will do well, and those who can't will suffer.


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from MicroBob:
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<font color="red"> Error - message too long to copy/paste, refer to original thread. </font> [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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[stigmata]

I was thinking about posting some similar questions, so I think I will hijack this thread (apologies El Barto).

To all those veterans out there, with 20+ years of Poker experience:

How much softer are games now, than over the course of your career?
How much has the style of the average player changed?
Could you for example, compare a current $3-6 PartyPoker game with what any standard of play 20 years ago?
How about $10-20?
Is it really that much worse now?
How long before things tighten up?

What is the minimum requirement of a winning player to survive long term, when things toughen up? E.g. will a $5-10 player (winning at 3BB/100) still be able to make a decent profit in 5 years time? Would they have made a profit 20 years ago?

[Overdrive]

One thing if for sure, and that is that poker players just love to complain and whine about game conditions. The games are either too loose so they complain about getting outdrawn and how stupid all the people they are playing against are, or the games are too tight and so they complain about that too. Poker players are always whining about something.......

[IndyCar Dude]

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One thing if for sure, and that is that poker players just love to complain and whine about game conditions. The games are either too loose so they complain about getting outdrawn and how stupid all the people they are playing against are, or the games are too tight and so they complain about that too. Poker players are always whining about something.......

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I only complain about not yet having enough money for the bigger games... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Broken Glass Can]

We must distinguish between a short term cycle and a long term trend.

We are probably in a tightening phase of the cycle right now (lots of bonus clearing tighties relative to the fish), but the big TV and live poker events will be coming soon to pull in another wave of fish.

The long term trend is probably stable for the next year or two (more fish, but also more tighties keeping the games in the "normal looseness" range).