Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

sbrugby mentioned in his blog a while ago how he is one of the older guys who are beating the biggest games online. Here are the top 10 biggest winners at NL on Full tilt this year, with their ages (please help me fill in the rest):

sbrugby: 25
pr1nnyraid: 23
durrr: 20
Phil Ivey: 31 (old geezer)
jinsokkp:
mjorgenson13: 20
traheho: 21?
Genius28: 20?
whitelime: 23

Lots of other top winners who are even under 21 (CTS, Stinger, Ozzy).


Why are players so young? Is the overall demographic of online poker players now really that heavily concentrated in the 18-24 year old range, or are the younger players simply the ones dedicating the most time and energy into becoming the best?

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

[ QUOTE ]
sbrugby mentioned in his blog a while ago how he is one of the older guys who are beating the biggest games online. Here are the top 10 biggest winners at NL on Full tilt this year, with their ages (please help me fill in the rest):

sbrugby: 25
pr1nnyraid: 23
durrr: 20
Phil Ivey: 31 (old geezer)
jinsokkp:
mjorgensen13: 20
traheho: 21?
Genius28: 20?
whitelime: 23

Lots of other top winners who are even under 21 (CTS, Stinger, Ozzy).


Why are players so young? Is the overall demographic of online poker players now really that heavily concentrated in the 18-24 year old range, or are the younger players simply the ones dedicating the most time and energy into becoming the best?

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Old people spend most of their time online emailing pics of their grandkids to each other. No time for nosebleed hold em.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

young people have time, energy, motivation, simple. o, and old ppl have no idea how to use the internet

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

it'd be hard to dedicate enough time to be super successful at poker if you have a full time job. So most 25+yr olds already had jobs by the time poker had it's big boom. Also, wives + kids wreck your dreams.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

From what I've seen, most old people don't like playing poker online. My old man's a decent live player at the local social club. They play mixed games, dealers choice ranging from Omaha hi-lo, holdem, and pineapple and has always done well. He gave online poker a shot on UB and quickly lost $1000 and never tried again. Plus most younger peeps are computer savvy and can multitable where some older people have trouble turning on the damn computer.

Plus, some of these younger guys probably have either hit a big tournament early on or started with a lot of money to begin with..

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Part of getting up to the highest stakes games is having no fear of the busto. Youngins who never had anythiong to lose will be more likely to keep taking shots until they run hot and then we get to read about them in NVG.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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Plus, some of these younger guys probably have either hit a big tournament early on or started with a lot of money to begin with..

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nope

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

old people are already working before they have time to invest in making millions through poker

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

nt

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

1 - i think multitabling is a more difficult skill than people around here give it credit; look at how much trouble tuff_fish had playing 2 tables. you only get to nosebleed stakes by multi-tabling (or being phil ivey).

2 - young people have more time/energy to devote to the game

3 - young people learn quicker and are more apt to experiment

and yes almost none of these people had a big tournament score

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Old people are to busy drawing the last of social security and drinking lemonade to play online. Plus, they think online poker is illegal. Plus, they are having their depends changed.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

"2 - young people have more time/energy to devote to the game"

This is IMO #1 by far. You simply dont have any responsibilities compared to a married guy in his 30's with kids and a house, etc.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Old people are to busy drawing the last of social security and drinking lemonade to play online. Plus, they think online poker is illegal. Plus, they are having their depends changed.

[/ QUOTE ]

sir, you speakeht teh troot

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Older people who are into poker started off playing live and often have weird prejudices against online poker.

Also the NL boom is a very recent thing, like past 3 three years.

So the 25-28ish y.o. people who got into poker 5+ years ago are more likely to be LHE players.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

larger emotional bankrolls, probably above all else

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

It's very simple. More time = more hands played = experiencing lots of different situations over and over. If I'm 19, live at home with no job and no rent, it's easy to play 8+ hours a day.

So if you figure someone is 5 tabling thats roughly 500 hands/hour x 8 hours times say 5 days. That equals roughly 20k hands per week. If you were to play live NL you might see 30 hands/hour x 8 hours x 5 days = 1200 hands. The guy 5 tabling plays more hands then a live player sees in a week in less then 3 hours.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

I think you all are underestimating how dumb old people are. They wear their pants up to their nipples and drive American cars. The listen to Kenny G and watch Matlock while eating meat loaf. Pretty dumb, AMIRITE?

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

imo, the younger you are the easier to focus wholly and intently on something (as multitabling successfully basically requires). as you age, focus is more easily fragmented. like how a 5 year old can stare at an ant moving a grain of sand & find it fascinating. for hours.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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like how a 5 year old can stare at an ant moving a grain of sand & find it fascinating. for hours.

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Methinks you havent actually spent much time around a 5 year old.

I do agree with your general point though.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

The believe the reason is because of the very nature of risk taking. It's good to note that the players you listed at some point all probably took very big risks and succeeded. Not to say they aren't very skilled(as they in fact are) but rather similarly skilled players probably took the same risk and failed.

As people get older it's harder to start over, so they become more risk averse. One example is to look at how a lot older people love limit Omaha/8 and Stud/8(much lower swings). Basically youth was their lucky advantage in risk taking in that going broke was probably not that important for them, as it would have been relatively easy to start over. So basically you are seeing the survivors of risk taking, which a lot of young people probably took and less older people took(also because they didn't embrace or have as much experience with the internet as young people did).

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

[ QUOTE ]
"2 - young people have more time/energy to devote to the game"

This is IMO #1 by far. You simply dont have any responsibilities compared to a married guy in his 30's with kids and a house, etc.

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It's not just time and energy. It's also a lack of financial responsibility. Most of these kids can burn through their bottom dollar without any real consequence.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

old people are stupid, ldo

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

How old is tuff_fish?

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

[ QUOTE ]
1 - i think multitabling is a more difficult skill than people around here give it credit; look at how much trouble tuff_fish had playing 2 tables. you only get to nosebleed stakes by multi-tabling (or being phil ivey).


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From the hideously old age of 28, I have to concur with this. I can play two tables pretty comfortably, but more than that is just too much for my eyes and my arm. Don't expect to massively multitable forever. You may not get there as early as I did, but you'll eventually get there.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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old people stupid

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Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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it'd be hard to dedicate enough time to be super successful at poker if you have a full time job. So most 25+yr olds already had jobs by the time poker had it's big boom. Also, wives + kids wreck your dreams.

[/ QUOTE ]
I hate you.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

shouldn't PA be on that list?

i'd assume a lot of older players don't do well online because of the pace of it. it's a lot easier to tilt when you are seeing a lot more hands per hour, and a lot easier to burn through a lot of money faster. the speed transition between live/online can't be ignored.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

I often see a lot of parallels between poker and the stock market, and I think the successful players in both are under 25 because of younger people are better able to cope with the stress of making snap-second decisions for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

older (35+) people aren't good at thinking quickly for whatever reason, especially using electronics

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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Also, wives + kids wreck your dreams.

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This needs to be repeated about 1000x.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Most old people that I know of aren't smart. They don't have the stamina. There not good with computers. That is pretty much 100 the reasoning behind it.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Just think about your parents playing poker.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

omg sillygooser. you're the worst player ever! omgomgomg lol awesome!

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

Here is the real deal from an "old" person.

Young kids have balls . I had balls when I was young.

Young kids have stamina . I had lots of stamina when I was young. Nowadays, after 3 or 4 hours I'm toast. My brain is literally fried. I played 2.5 hours today and I couldn't even think straight when I quit the game.

Young people are reckless . I was reckless when I was young, and it made me well, and broke me at the same time. But you need that adventurous attitude to make it to the big time.

Young people are willing to go broke . I went broke dozens of times when I was young, but it's something I don't even want to think about now.

Young peole think they know everything . They're cocky, arrogant, and opinionated. They may not know everything but thinking that way helps tremendously with your confidence.

Young people are not only confident, but they truly belive that they're very lucky. I happen to think I'm very unlucky. I was luckier when I was young.

When you get older you realize how stupid you were when you were young, and how lucky you are to even be alive. Age gives you a different perspective on things.

By the way, how old was the guy who got third in the main event?

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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Just think about your parents playing poker.

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I heard a rumour Joey Sebok's dad is actually a decent poker player...

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

you guys are way overemphasizing younger players having more energy, stamina, and mental ability and way underemphasizing the simple fact that younger people spend alot more time online and are much more computer literate and more likely to go the online route vs playing live poker.

lol at thinking people have lost their mental acumen by the time they hit their late 20s/early 30s

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

How has no one said anything about how the title of this thread is worded. CLearly an old person came up with this title.

Young people are not as set in there ways. Whenever I play live, it always seems like the old people at the table play alot more predictably than the young ones.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Here is the real deal from an "old" person.

Young kids have balls . I had balls when I was young.

Young kids have stamina . I had lots of stamina when I was young. Nowadays, after 3 or 4 hours I'm toast. My brain is literally fried. I played 2.5 hours today and I couldn't even think straight when I quit the game.

Young people are reckless . I was reckless when I was young, and it made me well, and broke me at the same time. But you need that adventurous attitude to make it to the big time.

Young people are willing to go broke . I went broke dozens of times when I was young, but it's something I don't even want to think about now.

Young peole think they know everything . They're cocky, arrogant, and opinionated. They may not know everything but thinking that way helps tremendously with your confidence.

Young people are not only confident, but they truly belive that they're very lucky. I happen to think I'm very unlucky. I was luckier when I was young.

When you get older you realize how stupid you were when you were young, and how lucky you are to even be alive. Age gives you a different perspective on things.

By the way, how old was the guy who got third in the main event?

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/thread

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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older (35+) people aren't good at thinking quickly for whatever reason, especially using electronics

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r u serious? You can come up with something better than that. There are some good ones in this thread, but this one made me shake my head.

I'm 38 with a Masters in both Computer Science and Mathematics and am head of programming at a Fortune 500 company. We "older people" simply cannot sit around in our PJs all day and play poker. It's called already having a life.

Once I learned bankroll management, I started at the micro level of 10NL. 3 hours a night, 4 nights a week MAX is all I can put in. Since Oct 06. I have moved to 25NL and crushed it, then to 50NL with pretty much the same success and now I am splitting time between 50NL and 100NL and I have NO doubt I will be beating 100NL and taking shots at 200NL soon.

If I could put in the amount of time these guys put in, I know for a fact I would be playing and beating the higher levels. But less time to play = less hands = less knowledge of the game.

Re: Just how young (and why) are the top players online?
 

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I'm 38 with a Masters in both Computer Science and Mathematics and am head of programming at a Fortune 500 company. We "older people" simply cannot sit around in our PJs all day and play poker. It's called already having a life.

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lol