HS/College or new grads: How big is poker among young people?

[hanster]

ED,
This seems like a business questionnaire; do i smell something new coming [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Anyways, I hang out with a lot of poker players at UCLA. It's a big phenomenon, actually. There is no fading from what i am seeing, if not growing. There was some "freeroll" earlier this year (They said free tournament + prizes) and about 300 people showed up. A friend of mine decided to start a series of poker events, naming it Westwoood-SOP, or W-SOP, three years ago. The very first event we held then had 40 people (mostly strangers) showed up. This quarter the first event had 80 people, which was fairly large just by word of mouth on facebook. I think the percentage of people that know how to play poker is somewhere in the 80%.

a) UCLA is a fairly big campus (40k people+) and I have networked/met/know-the-face with only a small portion (probably somewhere around 1000 at most). Out of that sample, I would say ~15% play more than once a week in live/online. I know about 10 people that play all the time.
b) For the rest of the questions, I'm going to focus strictly on people that I know for sure about their results. (Because people like to brag/embellish their winnings.) Almost everyone that plays poker that I know are regularly winning/losing over $100 per sesh. $1g is somewhere 1/8th of the number of $100. $10g is almost unheard of except for one or two players. But if you count the people that go to Commerce or Morongo or Chumash once a month, it's fairly common to be up a grand or down a grand per session.
c) I know three people last year that made 100k from poker in the year 2006 and couple others that were really close to it. (The ones I know for sure. I've heard more but cannot confirm)
d) It's very interesting to see how friends have acted when they heard about how much their friend is making. Most of the successful people that I know don't talk about their winnings much outside of the poker circle; I'd like to think they're laying low and away from danger but that's just me thinking. There is this guy that always posts about how great of a session he's had and he seems to enjoy the attention he gets.
e) Yea the party crowd plays poker but sucks at it. (I suck at poker but i know when people are really bad). Athletes LOVE poker (and as you know sports is a big thing at UCLA.) I remember the first year some big black guy came in with his posse and is on the football team and we were kind of starstruck. A lot of Track athletes like to play poker as well.

Hopefully my input helps whatever you're looking for. If you want more details that I cannot disclose in public please feel free to PM me. I have a fairly good knowledge in terms of games on this campus. The state of poker? A serious friend just told me that the state of poker is dead. But for the casual players, i think it's still going to go on for a long time.

PS: UCLABen, I don't think you're hanging with the right poker crowd at UCLA.

[ThaSaltCracka]

El D, to add one other thing. In previous circles, I was known as the "poker guy" and consequently people talked about poker more often with me. However, most people who know me now, just know that I will play poker, so its less a conversation topic. Thus, poker is usually discussed in casual circumstances. Surprisingly, older people seem to be getting into it more, but I think older people are less reckless with money. I have no clue how many people younger than myself are playing, but I have to think its much less than 3 years ago. While the trend was dying, that legislation murked the mother [censored]!

[traz]

I'm 19. My experiences stem from both High School and college. Most of my friends play donk home games, with like $10 buy ins. This is fairly common, and people from all groups seem to do this.

I personally don't have any friends who play online. The only people I know who play online, I met through poker somehow (ie, a more professional cash game, or at the casino, etc).

Everyone and their dog says they play poker regularly, and that they enjoy it, but they're mostly referring to casual home tournaments, where everyone drinks beer and throws some chips around. It's still a very very very small percentage who play it seriously, and an even smaller percentage of people make any real money from it.

The vast majority of people I'm friends with have no idea about what serious poker playing is like, meaning they have no clue about income, effort, or even how to play online. I think alot of regulars still see online poker as some kind of scam or taboo thing.

[lippy]

I live near Canterbury Card Club, which is an 18+ Card Club.

During my senior year, I would venture a guess that more than half of my male friends, say 30-40 of them, played at least once at Canterbury. Mind you, I hung out with ex-jocks who are inherently competitive.

I'll answer the rest to the best of my knowledge... and, not to sound conceited, am friends with a lot of people. The demographic is college-aged males that are predominantly white.

[ QUOTE ]

a) What percentage of people play poker sometimes / regularly, like once a week or more /all the time, every day or almost every day / etc?

95% / 5% / 1%

b) What percentage of people play at limits where they are regularly winning/losing over $100/$1,000/$10,000 per session?

Under 150 swing:95% / Under 1k swing: 4.9% / Above: .1%


c) How many kids in your school are making over $100,000 per year at poker?

3rd biggest University in the nation, I know of 3 that have

d) How much do the people who don't play poker know about how much people are making?

Basically nothing. There was an article about Schneids winning the PP Millions. Other than that, whenever my buddy who has made ~ 80k talks about it, people don't believe it.

e) Does the party crowd play poker? Do athletes play poker? Is it "cool" to play poker?

It definitely is cool to play poker. Everyone thinks that they're good when they really have no idea what they're doing. It is an "in" thing to be a part of, but basically no one actually knows how to play


[/ QUOTE ]

[Pat Southern]

I have been out of the poker loop for about a year cause I "retired" after this summer. But last year when I knew stuff here's the answers.
c) I know 5 that made at least 80k last year, the highest earner was probably somewhere around 200k.
d) It varies from player to player. Obviously the people who are more flashy with their money are more noticed. My friend Thomas would buy tons of [censored] ranging from $200 bottles of champagne, a 60" TV and a Cadillac CTS with bigass rims and brag about his poker winnings so anybody who hung out with him at all (and even people who didn't) knew he made a lot of $ from poker.
It also matters what circle you run in. Obviously the friends of the winning players know. As for random people, last year a lot of the frat guys and some sorority chicks knew I made a good ammount cause I run in that circle and people talk. While, Thomas, who was on the basketball team was (in)famous with athletes because that was the circle he ran in. After this summer, more people I didn't know would be like "oh you're that poker guy" cause I moved to Vegas for the summer and had one big tournament score that I let my best friends know about, and like I said, people talk. So I would guess tournament success is more likely to get people talking than grinding, because making $xxxxx in one day every so often is more sensational than making $xxxx per day.
e) With myself included, of the 6 decent winners in poker, 5 of us party a good ammount, the other one I've never seen him out in the 4 years I've been in college. Two of the winners are athletes, one is a football player and the other is the aforementioned basketball player. I know other athletes that play poker, but none of them are good. I think playing poker is neutral in terms of cool, but having money is always cool.

It seems like poker interest has died down recently, but that could just be because I'm not living in the dorms/frat house anymore..

[highhustla]

I'm 24, recently graduated... I agree with the rest of the thread. Everyone <3's donkaments and everyone's willing to gamb000l with $10-30 for the night. The game is still fairly cool, though, cause it's gambling (though less cool than a couple years ago). And being a winner is always cool, of course.

It sounds like the real point of this thread, though, is that we need to go to Commerce.

[Allinlife]

"normal games" are $10~20$ buyin NLHE sng's, I'd guess about 10% of HS/college crowed play on Semi-monthly basis. I suspect most of these regular poker player's swings are around $100~$200 at most, since not many people play higher then 50c/1$ NL

VERY few people make over 100k/yr, My guess is 3 at most in university of Toronto, which is one of Canada's biggest university.

The party crowd plays maybe once a month, not too sure about athletes. I remember back in HS my friend who was in a local base league always had a game going with the baseball crowds, $25nl cash game.

People that don't play poker would never really suspect anybody making over couple hundred, judging by various reactions I get when I've told people I'm paying for my tuition.

All in all, the popularity is definitely going downhill at a slow pace, last year was the peak imo. I wouldn't say it's exactly considered cool unless they know you play and win at high stakes. it's just another "guy thing" like drinking/ watching a basketball game otherwise.

[john voight]

I mean majority of ppl are playing to socialize @ school environments. Hell if I never played poker, and thought It would be fun, I would have no problem [censored] money for a good time.

I, suck at Madden, yet I will always play for money, simply b/c It is the price of entertainment; same can be said for the guys who play poker and lose.

So while there may be lots of "players" they are hardly ppl who take the game seriously.

Now, I guess with time, ppl will develop a desire to play for $ value, however I would say 90% play for kicks (at first).

This is just my view. I go to school full of poor ppl (IMO, prolly not, IDK), so blowing cash is not as prevalent here.

[MattC]

I go to school at UCSB and make my share of money. I don't have 100k sessions but I've made enough to pay my tuition playing games such as 10/20nl and 30/60 limit.

As far as I can tell unless the person in question is totally afraid or is against gambling they are definetely into playing poker at least on a casual, once a week, or similar type of home poker game. Most of my friends enjoy going to the casino and playing poker, some are even hardcore enough that I can discuss hands with. 2 of them know what 2p2 is and read it somewhat but none of them are into it like we are, or at least I am.

I would say most girls dont play but at least 90% of guys play home games and maybe like 40% have played online at some point. These are of course really just total guesstimates though. As far as winning or losing is concerned, I'd say maybe only 5% of those that play are actually winning or losing more then 100 dollars/session. Most of these I'd imagine are the ones that play for 10 or 20 dollar buyin max home game. I know of only one maybe two people who'd be willing to play 2/4 nl or above consistently
The only person I know of that has made more then 100k is Jeff Madsen and I. I've heard rumors of people having like 500k in their account or some [censored] but its unsubstantiated.

In general, I think most of the people who even play poker are not really aware of the possibilities of profit especially when it comes to cash games. Most people know that a lot can be made but only a big payday tournament type of way and not the grinding that is considered common here. In the event that my friends or someone else finds out about me specifically they never really believe it and if they do they think it's exaggerated. They keep telling me I should cash out before it's too late etc. as if it were luck. They say this even after I try to explain to them how it really is and how I do it.

Going to UCSB, I drink probably on average 4 to 5 nights a week and all my friends play poker so I'd say the party crowd can definetely play. I'm not sure if the collegiate athletes play that much if at all but I play basketball and other sports several times a week and the people that I see on a daily basis at the gym definetely have the time and/or want to play poker at least 2 times a week. However, most of these guys will play for 5-10 MAYBE 20 dollar buyin.

Overall, poker is definetely popular and I would say it is even cool to play as it is socially acceptable and also socially common, at least where I live. It's not like a girl would say to me: "WHAT!?! you play poker, you're a loser" if I told them I played/was playing. Rather, it's something that is so common it comes as no surprise. Everyone I know loves to smoke, have a beer, and play a game on a weekday night. There are plenty of regular home games. However, I think perhaps poker is definetely not the "thing" it used to be, the fad seems to have definetely passed. Most people believe it's a game of luck and really have no idea about what poker really is in that a lot of them have aspirations at hitting the jackpot but really don't understand the intricacies of the game. I'm sure the games will be good for at least a few more years, but mostly when college students are bored over the summer and decide to deposit a few hundred just to see if they can make a killing.

I think with the passing of the UIGEA things have changed a lot, many don't play online anymore. However, I strongly believe that if online poker could make a comeback in a way like it used to be and is heavily advertised there would be a second Poker boom.

[Bond18]

I'm 22. I've been removed from the live poker scene for some time now as it wasn't ever bi enough stakes.

I went to university wisconsin-milwaukee, poker was fairly popular there. They held a freeroll donkament in the school union and home games were very common, though obviously for small stakes. To my knowledge i was the only guy making more than a few k online around the school. I was a serious enough player that i was pretty disconnected from my peers, but i really feel the online vibe was hit hard post UIGEA. People would ask me what i was going to do now that 'online poker is illegal'. [censored] media.