Future for Online Pros

PairTheBoard · #1 05-04-2006, 03:53 PM

How many of you who have been making part or all of your living playing Poker online have experienced a dropoff in your earnings over the last few months? My view of online games is that their profitablity has declined steadily over the last couple of years, and precipitously over the last couple of months. I'm thinking that the glory days for being a pro online are about over. If this is true there should be a lot of evidence showing up in the Earnings of those engaged in this profession. It may be time for a lot of people to start making other plans for earning a living.

PairTheBoard

grac · #2 05-04-2006, 04:07 PM

Anyone who thinks very profitable online poker is going to last forever is completely naive. I agree with you that the money pool is drying up. Obviously the very top pros have nothing to worry about but the majority will find themselves struggling to turn out a decent living within a few years.

CrayZee · #3 05-04-2006, 04:21 PM

So the nits go busto. Big deal. Find another hobby/job; play live. If you can't handle the heat, get outta da kitchen. Poker is a competitive endeavor...live with it or go away. Somebody's gotta lose. This applies to you, me, and everyone in between.

Estrop · #4 05-04-2006, 04:22 PM

Yeah, I mean it's not like anyone made money playing professionally before the poker boom.

iceman5 · #5 05-04-2006, 04:26 PM

I play only semi-pro (meaning I have a real job as well as making a nice income from poker).

I have noticed no drop off in my earnings, no drop off in numbers of fish, no drop off whatsoever. In fact, if anything I think the number of fish player higher stakes is increasing.

I played at Prima for about a year. I havent played there in about 3 months but Im about to go back so I did a bunch of datamining. I see an abundance of ne players that Ive never seen before and their stats and win rates (loss rates) are as bad as ever.

The poker boom is alive and well and isnt going anywhere anytime soon.

Synergistic Explosions · #6 05-04-2006, 04:30 PM

I think most people see dropoffs in earnings from poker do to boredom and complacency. I don't buy the theory that games are getting to tough to beat. I think once you believe that kind of thinking, your through.

Change things up. Poker is a large canvass with many different approaches that can win you the money you need to live on.

LImitPlayer · #7 05-04-2006, 04:40 PM

The games have been drying up ofer the last few years but they still are extremely beatable. My earn has actually gone up but I would say thats mostly due to the transiton from full to Short handed games. My game has also gotten much better over the last cople years. Sure i make really dumb mistakes once in a while but thats due to me 8 tabling the SH games and not the fact that I am a bad player. Sit me down at 1 or 2 tables instead of 8 where I am fully concentrating on all the players and each and every move I make and I will completely crush the games I am in

If the games ever get bad enough that i can't 8 table effectively I will lower the # tables and move up in limits.

I remember about a year and a half ago you used to see pot averages of 10BB plus on about 8-12 of the tables at each limit on Party.

Now you are lucky if you see 1 or 2 above 7 BB at each limit.

What I have noticed is people are getting tighter pf but postflop play is just as bad as ever
Time to find another job? Nope, not even close.

CrayZee · #8 05-04-2006, 04:44 PM

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Time to find another job? Nope, not even close.

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For some people, it may always be true to find another job...but they suck anyway. What do you call that? Oh, delusion. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

9cao · #9 05-04-2006, 04:51 PM

[ QUOTE ]
How many of you who have been making part or all of your living playing Poker online have experienced a dropoff in your earnings over the last few months? My view of online games is that their profitablity has declined steadily over the last couple of years, and precipitously over the last couple of months. I'm thinking that the glory days for being a pro online are about over. If this is true there should be a lot of evidence showing up in the Earnings of those engaged in this profession. It may be time for a lot of people to start making other plans for earning a living.

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

I play NL. Games are getting slightly tougher IMO but I have gotten slightly better and therefore winrate has actually increased.

I will guess that you play limit and I would think those games will dry much faster than NL. Anyone who thinks games will stay this soft forever is crazy.

MNpoker · #10 05-04-2006, 04:51 PM

Might be relevant might not be.

I opened up my copy of SS1 the other night and found the LHE section to be humorous (And I was jealous!!)

It said LHE is a game where 5 to 7 people typically see the flop and ....... (And this was the $10/20 to $20/40 game back in the 1970's (with inflation I have no idea, but they made it sound big ))

Tons of players today could crush any game they found from the 70's (or 3 years ago). People have gotten better, there are discussion forums like this one, tons of books, and even TV shows that say 'tight is right'.

Like most things in this world if you want to remain at the top of the game you need to continue improving. If it gets to the point where most players are at the same level and there are only marginal win ratios possible a new game will appear.
(When's the last time you saw a 5-stud game running?)

People will not stop gambling and the good players will not stop figuring out how to take advantage of that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]