Poker boom nearing it's end

[AZK]

Thought this might be interesting...

LA Times Article (http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/qtakes/cl-fi-poker23dec23,0,4350964.story?coll=cl-mreport)

[whiskeytown]

not to be mean to a mod but TT covered this right down here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4260451&an=0&page=0# Post4260451)

RB

[mike l.]

whatever. the people i make my money off of have been around before the poker boom, and theyll be around long after. they are called gambling addicts and they are a lovely, generous people.

merry christmas,
mike l.

[Reef]

The amount of people watching Poker shows and buying merchandise is very different from the amount of players playing online/live and the juicyness of games.

[Python49]

So I guess it's over?

Was fun while it lasted folks, time to close up shop and say our good byes.

/rollseyes

[henrikrh]

Poker won't die out like a regular fad, it is an addactive activity to most people, the popularity won't simply plummet, it will slowly decline over time. And IMO the best measure of the bubble bursting will be WSOP ME entries in 2006 and the WPT prize pools over the year.

Edit: From the article:

"Ratings for poker shows and tournaments, which mainstream sports networks such as ESPN rushed to televise in recent years, are no longer growing as fast."

So the growth is slowing? No biggie, there's still 30 times more online card rooms now than there were 5 years ago.

[checkmate36]

It would be growing if online poker wasn't rigged. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
The amount of people watching Poker shows and buying merchandise is very different from the amount of players playing online/live and the juicyness of games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to mention the market is probably sickeningly saturated with crappy poker products as it is.

[MikeSmith]

I dont watch poker tv like i used to or buy chips or crap like that because i already have it all, but i play more than i ever had. Looking at tv and merchandise is a hard way to judge the popularity of poker.

[SMB]

[ QUOTE ]
I dont watch poker tv like i used to or buy chips or crap like that because i already have it all, but i play more than i ever had. Looking at tv and merchandise is a hard way to judge the popularity of poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. I barely watched WSOP 2005 and don't catch many WPT shows.

Part of this might be b/c I play limit HE and get tired of watching preflop all-in fests on TV, where we aren't getting relevant information usually (stack sizes, blinds, table image).

[voltron.]

i hate it when these people who dont know what the [censored] they are talking about write these articles. and its not just that they dont know the ins and outs of poker, from the conclusions they draw and their "methods" they just seem like not very bright people period. where is their common sense, even if you aren't familiar with the dynamics of poker its pretty obvious that the article is BS.

edit- i mean if you just looked at graphs of online action, membership and those things is is obvious that poker is nowhere near "about to die" status. so partypoker's growth has levelled off from its exponential growth which everyone knew was unrealistic and which no one expected to continue, so of course that means no one wants to play poker any more.

[M Schumacher]

Don't you worry guys...
I just deposited 10 million into my party account!!!
My screenname is : Pplike2gambool

[henrikrh]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't you worry guys...
I just deposited 10 million into my party account!!!
My screenname is : Pplike2gambool

[/ QUOTE ]


All right, we play heads-up party black-jack, and we don't stop untill party has our money. Vant a cookie?

[auntieklava]

This could be an overly American perspective, I hope at least. I'm norwegian, and poker here is as big as ever, and growing. At the moment Scandinavia seems to be well ahead of the rest of Europe with respect to interest in poker though (correct?), so if the rest of Europe catches up there's fair potential for further growth. Not to mention the enormous possible growth should a "poker-craze" reach asian countries.

Just some thoughts, what do people in various regions think? Potential growth in Asia? Europe? Personally I'm interested not so much wrt games, which are better than ever, but how I should assess Partygaming shares.

[Brock Landers]

Judging poker's growth by sales of chip sets is absurd. First of all, chips generally don't wear out. A lot of the people who want them already have them, so there is no need to buy other sets.
For example, if hammers just became really popular, there would be a huge surge in initial purchases, then when your core audience had bought them, sales would "slump" as the only purchasers would be new fans. This doesn't mean you are losing your fan base, as it is still growing, just that the growth curve is becoming less steep. This is inevitable in any business cycle.

[r0eKY]

every tourny on tv has 75% donk players who get there off a $5 buy-in, 2000 people

i hate these shows

it should be cash games all day 24/7 then ill watch

[stickman]

[ QUOTE ]
every tourny on tv has 75% donk players who get there off a $5 buy-in, 2000 people

i hate these shows

it should be cash games all day 24/7 then ill watch

[/ QUOTE ]

Nicely put.

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
every tourny on tv has 75% donk players who get there off a $5 buy-in, 2000 people

i hate these shows

it should be cash games all day 24/7 then ill watch

[/ QUOTE ]

Nicely put.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is how the post looked after it was edited /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[r0eKY]

i should start spelling stuff out

im new here

[daveymck]

[ QUOTE ]
This could be an overly American perspective, I hope at least. I'm norwegian, and poker here is as big as ever, and growing. At the moment Scandinavia seems to be well ahead of the rest of Europe with respect to interest in poker though (correct?), so if the rest of Europe catches up there's fair potential for further growth. Not to mention the enormous possible growth should a "poker-craze" reach asian countries.

Just some thoughts, what do people in various regions think? Potential growth in Asia? Europe? Personally I'm interested not so much wrt games, which are better than ever, but how I should assess Partygaming shares.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there are mixed messages coming out, there have been reports in todays paper of a boom in sales of chip sets and other poker stuff in thre run up to christmas in the UK. There were sets in loads of places from Supermarkets to normal high street shops as well as even motourway service stations.

On the other hand I see that Prima have not renewed the sponsorship deal with the Mob, I think they were one of the first to get a really big sponsership deal and certainly euro wide it has seemed like both sides got a lot out of it. It may be the Mob are about to go seperate ways, Ram doesnt seem keen on the media side and Ross is currently on a TV show so might not be too focused on poker neither.

I dont think the player boom is over but it may be the types of sponsorship and battle to steal players from other sites changes how the rooms advertise and focus their marketing efforts (eg Stars VIP club etc).

The potential asain Market is huge but noone as yet seems to be making any inroads there pokerwise although I think there are issues in some of the main asian countries according to some documentary that followed Victor Chandler around.

[Lurker.]

[ QUOTE ]


Part of this might be b/c I play limit HE and get tired of watching preflop all-in fests on TV, where we aren't getting relevant information usually (stack sizes, blinds, table image).

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm so sorry...

[HOWMANY]

[ QUOTE ]
whatever. the people i make my money off of have been around before the poker boom, and theyll be around long after. they are called gambling addicts and they are a lovely, generous people.

merry christmas,
mike l.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure the people I have won the most money from have been losing poker players since before I was even born.

[DLizzle]

god don't you people check the date of the OP now that posts are getting bumped randomly nonstop?

[HOWMANY]

[ QUOTE ]
god don't you people check the date of the OP now that posts are getting bumped randomly nonstop?

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/frown.gif I feel more than a little retarted.

[shaniac]

Man for a second I was freaking out cuz I thought the poker boom was nearing it's end.

[Thuey11]

[ QUOTE ]
Man for a second I was freaking out cuz I thought the poker boom was nearing it's end.

[/ QUOTE ]
you can still play online poker?

[jordiepop]

you are a genius sir

[Johnny King]

poker is exploding in Germany right now. I have a friend who make chip sets in asia and he tells germany is going crazy right now.

[slickss]

Referring to comments on the sale of poker chips.

Poker chips are not cell phones. Once you buy chips you're set, at least for some time. I doubt there will be any upcoming revolutions in the production of poker chips that will make me want to update my current set. Even with frequent use the stay "nice enough" for the average homegame for many years.

[chicagoY]

very good points.

[chicagoY]

Good news, rare good news.

[chicagoY]

Yeah, but more home games = more poker players.

[john voight]

damn that article was wrong. THE OP WAS PUBLISHED IN 2005.
IMO there was a nice hot run in poker from 2005-2006.

Anyway, poker took a beating in the last 7 months, and it is still going decently strong, so I am fairly optimistic about the long run state of online poker.

[Paul Levy]

[ QUOTE ]

On the other hand I see that Prima have not renewed the sponsorship deal with the Mob, I think they were one of the first to get a really big sponsership deal and certainly euro wide it has seemed like both sides got a lot out of it. It may be the Mob are about to go seperate ways, Ram doesnt seem keen on the media side and Ross is currently on a TV show so might not be too focused on poker neither.


[/ QUOTE ]

The Mob are with Full Tilt, actually they've been for a while now:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/ourHendonMob.php

Agree there's a lot of room for growth this side of the pond. Just think that the London metro area is almost as large as LA, but its current capacity is probably less than three dozen tables.