[Kuso]

some observations:

- i think nlo8 has as much or more potential than plo8. this is mainly due to nlhe donks experimenting, trying to expand their game range, or get enough of a teaser rush to think they can beat a game that they don't really understand.

- i think nlo8 could actually turn into a decent live game once online poker finds more stable legal ground in the US and the player base can develop. i personally prefer plo8, but i think it's too hard for most casinos to find dealers who can handle keeping track of the pot size, maintaining side pots, and split pots accurately and quickly. i think keeping track of the pot size is the killer of this trio, but i could be mistaken.

- plo8 games at 100 and lower are at least as juicy as pre-frist if not moreso. there are certain times that the tables are bad (see the previous post), but i think these are the exception rather than the rule. for all the ex-party players, i hope you realize that party counted uncalled bets in the avg pot calculation, but ftp and stars don't.

- i see plenty of donators up to the 400 games on certain sites. this is based on results and on generally observing the level of play.

- some of the "regular" mid-stakes players have substantial leaks and many of them do not play a consistent game -- that is, some of the good players have GREAT a-games, but can often be induced into a spewing c-game.

- the 1000plo8 and 2000plo8 games at party didn't run ALL the time. it certainly ran pretty consistently thursday to sunday, but there were plenty of dead times.

- i don't think the 1k+ games will go regular again until the legal statuses of online poker and online transactions to poker sites become more stable. once this happens, online wallets will become easier to deal with, and the poker economy can flourish again. i personally think a lot of wealthy donators (in terms of poker) in developing countries were were taken out of the online poker economy by the frist-screwing -- that is, some of the people who "made" the games may have lost their ability to easily buy into them.

- many mid-high stakes players seemed to have either moved on in life or have started to play more live games due to the uigea. again, an online revival will draw them back.

- i'm not sure that there are 5 regular players at ftp 100plo8 who i consider to be consistently good. there a plenty of nut-peddlers, a few aggro players, and A LOT of donkeys. i can recall two players against whom i must "play poker" and vary my game, the rest are just plain easy to read and/or play against. there's a third who has a little bit of aggression but is mostly nitty who is a decent winning player... but he's easy to play against (give him minimal action). all that being said, i can certainly imagine a table that had 5 seats (or more) taken by players who are not significant donators -- my advice is to discover the joys of table selection.

- the <100 games will likely go far in forming a decent nlo8/plo8 ecology -- the problem is that it usually takes a while for grassroots ecologies to develop and flourish.

- the kids coming up now playing cards in the schoolyard and in home games will ensure a vibrant poker economy for quite a while. the only real issue is whether online poker gets disambiguated sooner or later.


... just my 2 cents.