I have a real knack for finding dying activities to get involved in. Running horses, pool, and now poker. The poker boom is over and in many ways the "new" poker will kill poker as a game of skill.
All of these activities were heavily supported by gamblers when they were the easiest gambling activities to find. They weren't the easiest activities to be involved with though. Breeding, training, or handicapping horses are all highly refined skills that take many hours of effort to acquire a decent level of skill. Pool, the same story. Few reach the top so you spend a lifetime honing skills or clubbing baby seals, often some of both. Poker is the same as pool, a simple game on the surface with an underlying complexity that requires endless hours of effort to excel at the traditional games.
As many know, I have faded from pool for many reasons. No decent local hall being one major issue. Every trip to New Orleans to play pool requires careful planning and luck to dodge hours in traffic. A wreck on or near the twelve mile bridge can turn a typical 45 minute run into long hours on the twelve mile parking lot coming or going. No fun at all! Rush hour traffic is almost as bad.
Moving on to poker I find that I am ten years behind the curve there. Money to be made there but the easy pickings are long gone. However there is an interesting look at the evolution of what was once a game of skill that parallels the death of pool as a gambling activity.(for the most part) Looking for live action in the casino world and for the games with minimum variance online I find that while these are available what is popular are the games with the greatest variance(luck) and wildest swings. Some casinos only offer three and four card poker for live play.
I recently took a closer look at the single table super turbo games online. I found people playing short stack games with a $200-$350 plus rake buy-in and fast increases in blinds. The strategy is simple, fold or go all in. You might as well, if you bet less somebody else is almost always going to force you to fold or go all in anyway. Other novelty games are hugely popular also. They all have one thing in common, huge swings. You can go from vastly ahead to vastly behind and back ahead in a few minutes. While skill is an asset longterm it is very possible to simply run lucky long enough to win a table. Some player is often eliminated in the very first hand and is off to another table if they aren't already playing three or four, maybe more.
Our governments and the people running gambling enterprises from casinos to lotteries, former horse tracks that are now casinos with a few horse races being ran outback, the local bar, restaurant, or pool hall, all realize that the true gamblers are there for the thrill. Anything that dilutes that thrill is counterproductive and reduces the business income. 14.1, dead as a gambling game although a stubborn few recognize it as a great game of skill and it seems to be growing as a recreation. Nine ball which was originally a wickedly quick way to win or lose? It became too slow for the action junkies and had to be speeded up. Eightball is the bangers delight and my favorite game to gamble on. Played properly only 14.1 or one pocket may require more skill. Two wily eightball players can make it rival one pocket. Trying to find somebody to gamble on eightball in a local pool hall is a lost cause. Mentioning one pocket, it seems to be bucking the trend. Not really though, it is increasing in popularity for two reasons. One is that it is becoming a run out game with the skills of today's players. The other thing is that it is often played by the game rather than the set. Money moves back and forth fast.
In the end all that the action junkies want is a thrill. A chance to win big and do it fast. Lose and have another chance to win big and do it fast. Repeat ad infinitem. Whatever seems to give them the fastest and easiest way to do that will always be flavor of the week. Deep down most people doubt their skills will win them the pot of gold so they seek methods of winning that rely heavily on luck. The more methods that are offered that rely largely on luck to win and win fast, the less action junkies we will find in activities that allow gambling or wagering and require skills and time to hone those skills. Adios horse racing, pool, and a thinking man's poker. They will be around for many more years as niche activities but they will all remain smaller and smaller niche activities. Poker is in the earliest stage of decline and may have a decade or three to run but there will soon be a select few playing the more traditional games and the rest will be playing video poker or the games that give either very few or very many cards, either of which allows for wild swings.
Gambling that requires a significant level of skill is basically dead. Too easy for gamblers to get their fix in activities that require little or no skill or appear to require little or no skill which amounts to the same thing. Activities that require skills that are heavily dependent on gambling to fund them are in deep trouble with the easy access to gambling in other venues now. Horse racing and pool as a livelihood definitely fit in that category. The poker pro's will soon have to accept huge variance as the price of fleecing the action junkies there too. Like pool, skill always wins in the long term at poker but runs of luck, good or bad, will get longer and longer as games change.
The only real hope for pool is a direct connection between the strong recreational market and the pro players. The middle step of gambling is no longer there or at least not deep or wide enough to represent a legitimate bridge in most areas. Probably a good thing from a moral standpoint but fatal to the dreams of most players hoping to make the transfer to the pro level. Without the underpinning of the players at the intermediate level, largely gamblers, there aren’t people to fill the fields of enough pro events for the pro’s to make a living.
My definition of a professional competitor is someone that makes enough to have a decent living solely from competition. They may do other things but they don't have to in order to live decently. How many full time professionals in the US net more a year from competitions after expenses than they would flipping burgers forty hours a week?
Hu
All of these activities were heavily supported by gamblers when they were the easiest gambling activities to find. They weren't the easiest activities to be involved with though. Breeding, training, or handicapping horses are all highly refined skills that take many hours of effort to acquire a decent level of skill. Pool, the same story. Few reach the top so you spend a lifetime honing skills or clubbing baby seals, often some of both. Poker is the same as pool, a simple game on the surface with an underlying complexity that requires endless hours of effort to excel at the traditional games.
As many know, I have faded from pool for many reasons. No decent local hall being one major issue. Every trip to New Orleans to play pool requires careful planning and luck to dodge hours in traffic. A wreck on or near the twelve mile bridge can turn a typical 45 minute run into long hours on the twelve mile parking lot coming or going. No fun at all! Rush hour traffic is almost as bad.
Moving on to poker I find that I am ten years behind the curve there. Money to be made there but the easy pickings are long gone. However there is an interesting look at the evolution of what was once a game of skill that parallels the death of pool as a gambling activity.(for the most part) Looking for live action in the casino world and for the games with minimum variance online I find that while these are available what is popular are the games with the greatest variance(luck) and wildest swings. Some casinos only offer three and four card poker for live play.
I recently took a closer look at the single table super turbo games online. I found people playing short stack games with a $200-$350 plus rake buy-in and fast increases in blinds. The strategy is simple, fold or go all in. You might as well, if you bet less somebody else is almost always going to force you to fold or go all in anyway. Other novelty games are hugely popular also. They all have one thing in common, huge swings. You can go from vastly ahead to vastly behind and back ahead in a few minutes. While skill is an asset longterm it is very possible to simply run lucky long enough to win a table. Some player is often eliminated in the very first hand and is off to another table if they aren't already playing three or four, maybe more.
Our governments and the people running gambling enterprises from casinos to lotteries, former horse tracks that are now casinos with a few horse races being ran outback, the local bar, restaurant, or pool hall, all realize that the true gamblers are there for the thrill. Anything that dilutes that thrill is counterproductive and reduces the business income. 14.1, dead as a gambling game although a stubborn few recognize it as a great game of skill and it seems to be growing as a recreation. Nine ball which was originally a wickedly quick way to win or lose? It became too slow for the action junkies and had to be speeded up. Eightball is the bangers delight and my favorite game to gamble on. Played properly only 14.1 or one pocket may require more skill. Two wily eightball players can make it rival one pocket. Trying to find somebody to gamble on eightball in a local pool hall is a lost cause. Mentioning one pocket, it seems to be bucking the trend. Not really though, it is increasing in popularity for two reasons. One is that it is becoming a run out game with the skills of today's players. The other thing is that it is often played by the game rather than the set. Money moves back and forth fast.
In the end all that the action junkies want is a thrill. A chance to win big and do it fast. Lose and have another chance to win big and do it fast. Repeat ad infinitem. Whatever seems to give them the fastest and easiest way to do that will always be flavor of the week. Deep down most people doubt their skills will win them the pot of gold so they seek methods of winning that rely heavily on luck. The more methods that are offered that rely largely on luck to win and win fast, the less action junkies we will find in activities that allow gambling or wagering and require skills and time to hone those skills. Adios horse racing, pool, and a thinking man's poker. They will be around for many more years as niche activities but they will all remain smaller and smaller niche activities. Poker is in the earliest stage of decline and may have a decade or three to run but there will soon be a select few playing the more traditional games and the rest will be playing video poker or the games that give either very few or very many cards, either of which allows for wild swings.
Gambling that requires a significant level of skill is basically dead. Too easy for gamblers to get their fix in activities that require little or no skill or appear to require little or no skill which amounts to the same thing. Activities that require skills that are heavily dependent on gambling to fund them are in deep trouble with the easy access to gambling in other venues now. Horse racing and pool as a livelihood definitely fit in that category. The poker pro's will soon have to accept huge variance as the price of fleecing the action junkies there too. Like pool, skill always wins in the long term at poker but runs of luck, good or bad, will get longer and longer as games change.
The only real hope for pool is a direct connection between the strong recreational market and the pro players. The middle step of gambling is no longer there or at least not deep or wide enough to represent a legitimate bridge in most areas. Probably a good thing from a moral standpoint but fatal to the dreams of most players hoping to make the transfer to the pro level. Without the underpinning of the players at the intermediate level, largely gamblers, there aren’t people to fill the fields of enough pro events for the pro’s to make a living.
My definition of a professional competitor is someone that makes enough to have a decent living solely from competition. They may do other things but they don't have to in order to live decently. How many full time professionals in the US net more a year from competitions after expenses than they would flipping burgers forty hours a week?
Hu
