Joined: Nov '12
Location: Canada
Age: 63 (F)
Posts: 589
From what I heard back when online poker became really popular there was just a FLOOD of fish to all the sites, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on whether or not we will see a repeat of this, if online poker becomes regulated and mainstream again in the US... I'm banking on this happening taking this time now to really dive into the world of online poker and really try to get my skill level up against a pool of better players, so when the gold rush happens ill be there raking in the dough! What do you think?
Don't think so...the sites will have to comply with the regs if they want to open their markets up again to US and other regulated countries. We're now seeing sites pulling out of those countries. The boom you're referring to was when the market was wide open...it's not anymore. Except for maybe a select few hard core players who can absorb 50+% tax rakes on earnings and/or the hard core gambler...don't really see a major influx of new players diving in. Of the ones that do they'll be playing freerolls for quite awhile before they hit the tables. There's also a large array of poker training sites, coaching, literature, and poker software to help newer players these days. Not to mention the get rich quick types that wind up disillusioned and quit altogether. There will always be new players in the game most will go and some will stay. As for regulation, it'll do what most regulation does, drive an underground market that will be expensive to control and they'll be spending more on enforcement than what they're taking in. IMHO it's a different world today.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
Where poker was legal and online access easy the pool of fish should be depleted. If new countries join the poker world, i doubt their player base can replace those fish. So the golden days are over.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
well in the early days we saw a flood of fish mainly because lots of people started playing poker for the first time imo, and naturally they sucked, some even didn't know the rules properly, lots of them had received ndb or sign up bonuses which were far more liberal back in those days- so they were playing with easy money & making lots of bad plays- nowadays majority of players know what's poker all about and it doesn't really matter if they are not allowed to play online they still do play home games, watch youtube, read strategy articles etc.: so i doubt we will get an influx of fish when us market opens
Joined: Sep '12
Location: India
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 335
As per my knowledge not only US , many countries are against all forms of gambling , but most of them are now trying to regulate and legalize them because it has a very big turn over and the government can rake up huge sums in terms of tax !!
So i feel in the next 5 or so years many countries will try to regulate it and we surely can expect a big boom in all streams including poker
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
I think it never stopped. I don’t know how US players are living with that, looks like you wait patiently for the return of the free world, but I really think you’re better that way. Remember US is always one step beyond the rest of the world, so in the future we will all be imitating what you’re doing right now. I think people will keep going to the tables, and some fish will turn into sharks, others will stay as fish for the rest of their online poker lives. I would put this on a ten year time of life. But every days you have 18ers entering and 35ers playing for the last time in their lives. Those moves you talked about only happen in the beginning. That will only happen again if there’s some kind of new difference applied in the concept – some say the real money on Zynga can be that difference, I don’t know, lets wait.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
I think we are so far down the line of online poker tat there will be no gold rush. There may be in US alone but that will only apply to US only sites cos if an established site goes live in US it will take its existing players with it.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Not much of a change, if and when US players come back to the game. You think the number of the players from US will increase so much that there will be a vast field of players that havent ever played poker before? I doubt. Not to mention also that the general online poker population has decreased.
