The amount of money is sick!!!

kevin s

kevin s

Tennessee
Silver Member
I work 15 hours a week at our local poolroom. I also run a card game four days a week. I make my living playing,side betting and putting players in the box. I know lots of top players and believe me its a tough way to make a living! With that all in mind, I just was in a online poker tournament with 432 players and first place was $232,000!! One day,one tournament that lasted around ten hours! I have a good friend that devoted a week and years of practice to win his first major 9-ball tournament that paided a nice $12,000! That for the record was the exact prize money in the poker tournament for 9TH PLACE!! Maybe this is old news but I still can't believe this! It has been said that texas-holdem has really hurt pool for some time now at a local level, and most poolrooms have tried to accomadate their customers by adding that. The IPT we all hoped would be the money that would take our game of billiards to the next level!
The question I hope to discuss is;

Are there any players you know of that has pretty much dropped pool in need of the money that poker offers? And do you think it has hurt pool in your area?
 
Well

what do you think your odds are for winning that poker tournament with 432 players? Consider that 200 of them are probably seasoned regular players?
And what do you think your odds of doing that on a regular basis?

And, since internet gambling is more or less illegal now, at least for US banks, how long will it continue before being squelched?
 
Snapshot9 said:
what do you think your odds are for winning that poker tournament with 432 players? Consider that 200 of them are probably seasoned regular players?
And what do you think your odds of doing that on a regular basis?

And, since internet gambling is more or less illegal now, at least for US banks, how long will it continue before being squelched?
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I agree that it may be a long shot to win those big tournaments but cashing in the money for me has been quite good! And since I played in four $11 dollar qualifers to get my seat I like the odds! As to the fact internet net gambling is illegal to the banks, thats correct but these guys have already figured out the way around that! I play two times a week at least and so far no problems! I have cashed out twice recently with cash in hand!
Even so there are card games in every town in america! They are everywhere. Homegames to cardrooms it still is available to go play cards and make money! Maybe not that big but still its available!
 
First came the lottery. Then came the riverboats. Afterwards, the poker boom. Each has taken a bite out of the local pool action.
 
I have spoken to two pool hall owners in my area, central new jersey, and they both are are the brink of closing. People in this country will watch poker on TV because we are in awe of the amount of money being passed around. Look at the success of the show Deal or No Deal. No skill just amazement at the amount of money someone can win. Pool doesn't have that excitement because the sponsors do not want to risk large sums on something that does not pan out. I went to a pool tournement in New York at ESPN. This place has about 20 million people within a short car or train ride. The tournement was free to get in and covered by ESPN. They could not fill the place. People just do not want to watch pool.
 
kaznj said:
I have spoken to two pool hall owners in my area, central new jersey, and they both are are the brink of closing. People in this country will watch poker on TV because we are in awe of the amount of money being passed around. Look at the success of the show Deal or No Deal. No skill just amazement at the amount of money someone can win. Pool doesn't have that excitement because the sponsors do not want to risk large sums on something that does not pan out. I went to a pool tournement in New York at ESPN. This place has about 20 million people within a short car or train ride. The tournement was free to get in and covered by ESPN. They could not fill the place. People just do not want to watch pool.
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Coming from someone that will hopefully own a poolroom someday, it seems to me that poolrooms can only survive if pool is just one of many things to offer customers! Cards,darts,good food , merchandise , megatouch, jukebox , and most importantly alcohol!! I spend some time in the Tampa bay area and believe me when I say pool is alive and well there!! I wish it was that way everywhere!!
 
kevin s

what online sites do you use?? the ones I use to play at still won't take a deposit from a U.S. citizen.

:eek: :eek:
 
rlw said:
what online sites do you use?? the ones I use to play at still won't take a deposit from a U.S. citizen.

:eek: :eek:
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Pokers Stars has ways ! Contact customer service and they will refer you to a third party that can process transactions. I have used them with no problem. I had to go get a greendot prepay visa card at Walgreens in order not to give my credit or debit card numbers over the internet! Also cashing in will be your biggest problem if it is a large sum of money! You will have to invest in an out out country account that you can bank online! I dont think sending money will ever get you in trouble but cashing any check over 10,000 gets the IRS attention! Always cash in at small 2 to 3 thousand dollars incriments!
 
It funny you said that..i know a couple of guys who i would call shotstop speed. They are not completly pro level put can play with pros and can sometimes come out ahead with a ball spot. But most of them have put there cues down and picked up poker..sad..cause some of those guys where just awsome.

Another thing i saw last night was this.. i went to shoot here in richmond va last night ...was jonesing for pool so i went to a nice pool hall here in Richmond..to just bang them around...i played a couple of hours only ordering 1 sprite... I went to go close out my time and when i saw the bill i was a bit surprised ...it was 40.00 dollars, i did get a 8 dollar apa discount..which was cool which took it down to 32 dollars gave the serving gal a 4 dollar tip so all in all 36.00 for about 4 hours. Some people frown at the cost of playing pool now a days. I know owners have to make a living and i support that but i see the cost of playing pool going up and up to make up for the lost of pool players...i generaly go to a pool room that doesnt really gear itself toward pool players but it had 12 brand new gold crowns..the music is so loud its hard to concentrate ..but their prices are really really low.
 
Online Poker seems to be going the way of the hula hoop around here. There was a time when two or three guys would be playing on their wireless laptops while the 9-ball tournaments were going on. Not lately, though. Guys are still playing poker, but they're not as obsessive as they were.
 
In our area, we have lost a few young tournament pool players to the poker craze. The players I see switching from pool to poker are basically hard core gamblers to begin with.

Pool is such a precision oriented game to play well. As most of us know, it takes years of dedication and practice just to be competitive on a local or regional level with the payouts at most tourneys mediocre compared to poker tournaments.

Your "average Joe" poker player who play in weekly games or online sees these huge TV pots and has dreams of grandeur. It's hard to resist if you have any gamble in your blood at all.

It all gets back to Paul Newman's line in the COM, "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."
 
I don't play poker, but from observing the experience of others, I think there's definitely more money in it than pool if you devote some time to becoming a decent player. It seems to me poor players are much more likely to be willing to gamble in poker.
 
Yes cards and Indian Casino’s are hurting pool. They seem to have a new casino popping up somewhere every month. There’s only so many gambling dollars to go around. Casinos, both Indian and Internet have just about killed Horse racing and Greyhound racing. Of course the animal rights people have done their share to put Greyhound racing out of business too.

I think one of the main things that made cards so big so fast is everyone wants instant gratification now. No one wants to practice pool for hours to get good at it. No one wants to learn how to handicap horses or dogs, or learn about money management. They want to pull a lever (showing my age) I mean push a button and get it over with.

The betting pools at horse and dog tracks are so small now that the big gambler goes elsewhere with his money. Then add the 20% to 33% state take-out and you have no chance to make money.

Pool purses are the same or less as they were twenty years ago. In the same period the price of motels, travel, food, and everything else has sky rocketed. If you’re not in the top 5% of pro players, it better be just a hobby for you. Johnnyt
 
PKM said:
I don't play poker, but from observing the experience of others, I think there's definitely more money in it than pool if you devote some time to becoming a decent player. It seems to me poor players are much more likely to be willing to gamble in poker.
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I think poor players " or ESPN " experts as a like to call them is the drawing factor! Everyone has to try and bet them! I have this one player who other than watching it on TV had never played cards ever! I have known this guy all my life! I have never seen him bet a nickel on anything , ever!! He bought in my game recently for few bucks and didn't play many hands for a couple of hours and his first night walked away with about the same amont as he would make working two weeks at his job! Needless to say he has bought a dvd and a book on poker and has become a regular now!! All this in a span of two months!
 
acedotcom said:
Online Poker seems to be going the way of the hula hoop around here. There was a time when two or three guys would be playing on their wireless laptops while the 9-ball tournaments were going on. Not lately, though. Guys are still playing poker, but they're not as obsessive as they were.
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Hey Ace ,
Sorry I didn't get to meet you at the Steve Mizarek Florida Pro Event last month although I did try to keep an eye out for you! Did you go?

Anyway I have seen some of the guys with lap tops down there before and thought that was quite amusing!

One thing about your area is that there are so many places to play poker there! The Hard Rock Casino is there and has alot going on! The Tampa Downs horse track has a good card room that in season runs $45 tourneys twice a day at 12:00 and 6:00 that fills up to max entries which pays at least 1800-2000 to win.,everyday!! Also Derby Downs after a short closing is up and running again! These places stay packed! I mean packed! At 3:00 in the morning even! I won't mention all the small card rooms I know of there but there is a couple there in your own town that pays good! Although the internet is some of the topic I think that on a local action level it has the most effect.
 
Agree that it's almost a sin how little the top pool players get compared to poker, golf and bowling. Seems like if big bucks for pool players was going to happen it would have done so by now. What to do?
All that can really be said in fairness though, more power to the poker players. I still hope money will shift pools way for the sake of the champions.
 
I play at Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt. I usually play 2/4 no limit and sometimes 5/10 no limit.
 
Hal said:
I play at Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt. I usually play 2/4 no limit and sometimes 5/10 no limit.
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I played a poker stars 3 / 6 no limit game a few days ago and it was amazing to me how bad they played! I won $700 in about an hour! I would have A K or KK and would raise and they would reraise with bad cards and call me down to the river with nothing! I couldn't believe it! Since then I have played a few more times with about the same results!

Has poker taken away from your pool time or action?
 
I'm currently in 10th place in a 5.00 +.50 tournament. Kevin, you have to raise the stakes if you want to get out of the "garbage" poker. I don't play much pool anymore. Mostly just at home.
 
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There have been lots of posts about poker vs pool and the money.

My feeling is still poker has way way way too much luck in it. Of course there are people that say "the top players are always in there in the end" that's not really true at all. You can look at the major poker tournaments and there will be plenty of names you have never heard of and then you run into a name you recognize from tv.

The people who say that there are people who are the best cash poker players around (Ivey, Brunson, Jett, Greenstein, etc.) don't really consider that not everyone can afford to sit down with $500k to lose. If everyone could there wouldn't be the same 10 people in that list.
 
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