is competition getting too tough to make poker profitable?

[Perestroika]

The answer to your question is no. You just have to find the games now. There will always be fish who play poker no matter what.

[GeeBeeQED]

This will never happen. Only 5-10% (Im being way generous here) will take the time to become students of the game. The 90-95% remaining will always have leaks. Maybe the games are not totally filled with stone cold suckers but there are still plenty of them at the table with varying degrees of flaws in thier games. Find a vilians mistake(s) and give him a chance to repeat them as often as possible.

Dave

[sharkscopeaholic]

BigErf 101 $1.31 $9 7% $132

looks like mostly mtt's so this isnt a bad line but its a small sample size. Just keep grinding away and getting better.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

The competition has definately gotten better....

[Gonso]

The level of play overall is far better now. The learning materials that have appeared in the last decade are light years ahead of what there was.

Still, there are always beginners, and most players do not study the game seriously. A lot of people even go through the motions of buying a couple books, and barely read them.

[dfwdevil]

Did people think the influx of fresh meat was never gonna end? It takes 21 years for a player to come of age, 1 or 2 years to ruin him. Players get better, whether they study or not. They develop a feel for the game. They start to get comfortable. They realize it's old hat. One day they wake up and they may be weak/tight or a maniac, but they're no longer really a fish. They've paid their dues and sure, you can take them for some money still. But not like you could in the old days.

[Rek]

[ QUOTE ]
Did people think the influx of fresh meat was never gonna end? It takes 21 years for a player to come of age, 1 or 2 years to ruin him. Players get better, whether they study or not. They develop a feel for the game. They start to get comfortable. They realize it's old hat. One day they wake up and they may be weak/tight or a maniac, but they're no longer really a fish. They've paid their dues and sure, you can take them for some money still. But not like you could in the old days.

[/ QUOTE ]

But there is always "fresh meat" coming through. There is always new players ready to donate for the pure enjoyment.

Yes, there are perhaps a larger pool of better players because of the amount of study material out there. But the best players will still be profitable.

What has changeed perhaps is that the mere recreational player (the fish) in the USA deem it too much aggro to put their money on a site now. However, the more serious USA players make a point of finding a way round this.

I don't go with this notion that there were a greater % of USA fish, it is just the fish element no longer bother.

[RobNottsUk]

The Fish are alive and well and playing, but may be they have realised that NLHE and FLHE are games with too much aggro in them.

In other games like 7Stud and FLO8, they get more play for their $. Got to low stakes non-HE tables and you'll find the noble Fish swimming in schools of loose-passive tables.

[Red_Diamond]

I can definitely agree that 7CS gives them a lot more run for their money. Not just because their stack can stay intact after a large screwup, but the very high variance in this game can even keep an idiot afloat much longer than seems conceivable.

The high-ante games (which most sites force), only is to their gain.

[jogsxyz]

[ QUOTE ]


But there is always "fresh meat" coming through. There is always new players ready to donate for the pure enjoyment.

Yes, there are perhaps a larger pool of better players because of the amount of study material out there. But the best players will still be profitable.


[/ QUOTE ]

The fish often either give up the game or play tighter.
The successful players never quit. Also it takes much
more than one fish to support the each winner.