[Dire]

Another issue I have with this article is correlation vs causation. You see lots of youthful players dominating the online poker scene, so you imply youthful players must have some natural learning advantage over older players. While you mention that brain function tends to decline with age, you offer no further elaboration.

Have you considered the issues of time, motivation, etc? Online poker is a game that requires thousands of hours of work and effort to reach the top in, not to mention the motivation to begin playing online in the first place. Who is more likely to be able to put in the thousands of hours it takes to master this game - teenagers or 25+ adults? Who is more likely to have the motivation and trust to deposit onto some online poker site in the first place?

There is a direct analog for this in chess as well. Is Victor Kortchnoj a freak somehow able to bypass 'brain decay', or does he simply maintain the motivation that many players lose as they age?