Hiya folks. Let me tell you my views on poker today. I am not an expert by any means (unless you wanna talk beer). This is my take on where poker is now in the USA. You can agree or disagree, lol,
 

Ok, long draw on a cool can of 3.2% Beer and here I go:

 

1) Poker is stagnating. Where do I get that? From PokerScout dot com. They rank the poker rooms and track numbers of players. You might have heard that there are MILLIONS of people playing poker on any given night. Not True.

 

On this friday night at 22:15 est, there are 198,949 players at pokerstars, the number #1 site in the world, Full Tilt has 97,050 online, the cash players numbers are lower. The Cereus Network (UB and AP) have 18,634 online. And for smaller USA networks, the numbers are radically smaller. I dont see Millions.

 

A Lot of you play at a Merge Skin, it is ranked at 22nd in the world. Or cake skins ranked at 26th in the world.

 

PokerScount says that internet poker has been declining in numbers of players at about 1% per month since the go go years after Chris Moneymaker sparked online poker. This latest week the decline is 2.3%. A lot seems to be driven by EVENTS, like the Cereus Bad Beat Jackpot that reached $1 million last week. lol, they went from  8th to 5th in worldwide rankings in a few weeks, the BBJ was won, then they dropped back to 8th ( with avg 18,000 players)

 

I guess i could talk about how Pokerstars runs a $Million contest, or FT announces  huge promo. Those promos pick up the numbers, but overall, Online Poker is losing people, Not gaining them.

 

2)Freerolls: lol, we all want them, we all play them, and roflmao, we all bitch about them. I dont know if I can take another person bitching about the donkey play in freerolls. But the fact is, there are a hell whole lot less of them than there used to be. And another fact is freerolls are designed to get new players. They are not there to make u , the player, happy. They are there to influence NEW players to think they have a shot, and to click that all important link to join a poker site,

 

Lets break Freerolls down a little more

 

A) Poker Sites Freerolls and B) Poker Forum Freerolls. They Both offer a chance for you to win money for nothing. The poker sites freerolls are usually bigger $$$, but can have huge player fields. Forum Freerolls are smaller money but a hell of a lot less players.  I would say up to 90% of peeps just look for freerolls, and 87%  for the Big freerolls with Pokerstars, Fulltilt, Merge, Etc.

 

It dont matter if u are a site player or forum player, freerolls are just tools to get you hooked on poker.

 

And thats a good thing, I love poker, so do you, but the fact of the matter is there are less freerolls now from a year ago because overall, the number of new players entering the pool of poker is DECLINING. Hence less freerolls. Cause you know, someone has to pay for the freeroll. lol, and they, forum owners, are just seeing the same names, that have allready signed up to a site, chasing the freeroll.

 

3) Deposit and Withdrawal Options: well they suck now. we used to have more options, but they are dwindling. I guess the UIEGA law is finally starting to bite, as numerous EWallets have been shut down. Its still pretty easy to get money to a poker site with international pre-paid cards or bank transfer with ECheck , getting your winnings back is problematic. The bigger sites offer checks, often times with high fees and you have to wait weeks.

 

The point is its hard and convulted to get your money in or out of a poker room. This is part of why poker is declining, its just to hard to travel the maze of deposit and withdrawal limited options for many peeps, lol, the majority.

 

4) The Game Changer: That would be Rebuys and Add-Ons. I have only been playing for close to 3 years. But I remember when there were no re-buys and add-ons lol, in any game. It was all Freezeout City. I think it has tremendously changed poker, for the worse. Sure, I can see why poker rooms like it, they make more money, or cover their "advertised" GTD's, but for the player, it has changed the game of poker.  lol, some peeps actually wait to register for a game, till the last 10 minutes of a rebuy, just to double up, by paying for it, hope to double up then do a add-on to double up their chip stack. sick, and it works. but its not the poker we all used to play.

 

5) Hell if I know, starting to get seriously drunk, so I will shut it down now. Basically I am pesimistic about the future of online poker. There is some recent movement in congress to legislate it, but its still far of. I hope they legislate it soon, and while online poker in the usa is legal, the funding and paymen of it  is illegal for the parties that facilitate it. Its choking poker, thus why declining new players. I hope for USA legalization of Poker,and we can all celebrate.

 

6) I accept no responsibility for this post, hell, I was drunk, give me a break

While I think your use of the term "stagnating" is certainly applicable, I think witchy points out the cause quite eloquently.  What seems to be stagnation is really "waiting"...for the next stage.  Her observation of the social media poker players is underscored by PokerStars' recent "Home Games" promotion.  Think they aren't waiting to hop into bed with FaceBook before the ink is dry on any online poker deal in the US?

It's going to be like catching walnuts with a fishing net.  Lots will shake out, but hopefully, we'll have our dream situation when it's over...
 

While freerolls are being scaled back, I think you're missing a big part of what freerolls are these days:  a reward.   Look around,  both the sites and forums are using freerolls as a way of saying "thank you" to their loyal players and members...they're no good for bringing in NEW players anymore.  Well, at least, not yet.  When the MILLIONS OF US PLAYERS return to the scene, look out...you think opening up eastern Europe was ugly, as far as donks flooding the freerolls? LOL

 
Again, new players are coming from untapped markets, so they're still there.  The problem is, the savvy players know HOW to look for, and find the freerolls, creating a somewhat skewed view of how many new players are partaking in the freeroll promotions.  So, again, we're looking at freerolls to reward your players, rather than draw them.
 


Absolutely, and the cost of maintaining and creating new shell companies to handle the money transfer is biting into all the online rooms.  Some weeks, my card works, others, it doesn't...this will all change eventually, the sooner the better.


I don't know that they are so bad.  They are just a different form of poker that's been around for years, in live games, as well as online.  They help the poker room keep those overlays small, and keep them in business while they wait for the next step.

Thanks for posting such a thought-provoking topic!

Cheers!