Hey everyone. I opened this thread for the sole purpose of clearing up an issue that has been running around in my head for a few months now. After actively following the evolution of the poker community, I can't seem to put my finger onto how poker will look like in 5, 10, 30 years. That's probably because it's impossible to do so, but I would still love to hear what you guys have to say about this.
We probably all roughly know how poker looked like about 15 years ago. Tons of fishes running around, new players everywhere, online poker started and many people took advantage of that. It was much easier to get the money pouring into your wallet than today. And we need to accept the fact that it's getting tougher every day.
There's this one site (I won't post the link to it, because it probably isn't in line with the forum rules) that posts traffic updates on all more famous poker rooms. And the player pools are dropping down every year. For example, a few days ago the worldwide market was down 12% from this time last year. That number seems HUGE to me.
So here's where my personal story comes in. I'm 21 years old, I have been interested in poker from ever since I can remember, but I have only been playing for real money since I was of legal age, which is 18. For the first year, I didn't really make much, but once I started actively studying the game, I started making enough money to be able to move out and support myself. The player pools still seem soft enough that I would be able to make enough to keep supporting myself, however I'm wondering how this is going to look like in the future. I am currently also enrolled at college and I currently intend to finish it (but will be playing and studying poker at the same time as well).
So here come the questions. What do YOU think poker will be like (offline and online) in the coming years? We know many players dropped out of school and have now become millionaires because of poker. Take Daniel Negreanu for example - he told his parents he's quitting school for poker. Would he still drop out under today's circumstances? In 10 years, will I still be able to log into a poker site, find a table full of fishes and take their money? Are international poker sites still going to exist? I'm also worried about the legal issue of poker. I live in a small country, where I'm pretty sure they will be putting a huge tax on poker that will prevent you from making a profit at poker.
Don't feel threatened to answer these questions. Just wanted to show you what i'm interested about. Anything that comes to your mind about poker in the future - post it here.
We probably all roughly know how poker looked like about 15 years ago. Tons of fishes running around, new players everywhere, online poker started and many people took advantage of that. It was much easier to get the money pouring into your wallet than today. And we need to accept the fact that it's getting tougher every day.
There's this one site (I won't post the link to it, because it probably isn't in line with the forum rules) that posts traffic updates on all more famous poker rooms. And the player pools are dropping down every year. For example, a few days ago the worldwide market was down 12% from this time last year. That number seems HUGE to me.
So here's where my personal story comes in. I'm 21 years old, I have been interested in poker from ever since I can remember, but I have only been playing for real money since I was of legal age, which is 18. For the first year, I didn't really make much, but once I started actively studying the game, I started making enough money to be able to move out and support myself. The player pools still seem soft enough that I would be able to make enough to keep supporting myself, however I'm wondering how this is going to look like in the future. I am currently also enrolled at college and I currently intend to finish it (but will be playing and studying poker at the same time as well).
So here come the questions. What do YOU think poker will be like (offline and online) in the coming years? We know many players dropped out of school and have now become millionaires because of poker. Take Daniel Negreanu for example - he told his parents he's quitting school for poker. Would he still drop out under today's circumstances? In 10 years, will I still be able to log into a poker site, find a table full of fishes and take their money? Are international poker sites still going to exist? I'm also worried about the legal issue of poker. I live in a small country, where I'm pretty sure they will be putting a huge tax on poker that will prevent you from making a profit at poker.
Don't feel threatened to answer these questions. Just wanted to show you what i'm interested about. Anything that comes to your mind about poker in the future - post it here.
