As both an observer as well as player of the online poker world, I’ve seen alot of changes these past few years. It’s been an interesting ride seeing the developments from the top down, and the direction that online poker has taken.
The poker boom (arguably) began with Chris Moneymaker and online poker enjoyed it’s heyday (at least in this point in time). Millions of players donated money to the regulars, and the games were as soft as ever. Poker itself (specifically, holdem) was relatively new in terms of overall study, math, etc. The players simply were not as good as they are today, and for obvious reasons.
The evolution of online poker is similar to the evolution of many things- the strong survive, the weak drop down or out completely. Easy money (such as poker) does not usually last very long.
As highlighted by some of the previous thoughts in my last post, we as poker players like to attain as much money as possible (who doesn’t?)…and there is really so much money to be made in this game; not only by playing, but by other means (staking, rake back, coaching, training sites, and others). The poker world changes from the top up (in my opinion)- that is, good players naturally rise to the top by however means (be it playing style, running well, whatever). As the game is more studied and better players slowly pick out the old guard (the top nosebleeders today have somewhat replaced the old party killers of yesteryear), it’s as I said- the players move down. Slowly, the lower levels become stronger, and the overall quality of play improves.
Observing some of the lower limit games and such, it’s amazing how much they have changed, even places like 10NL…players are 3-betting light, they are actually check raise bluffing, something that I didn’t see as much when I played 25NL 4 years ago. here’s a simple example of some of the influx of talent-
high/mid/hell, even small stakes regular wants to get some horses. he stakes some 25nl players to play. all of a sudden, that 400NL player is improving the 25nl players to a vast degree, offering them help, strat advice, etc. Those 25nl players improve at an extremely accelerated rate, moving up and dominating 50NL games. Some make it, some don’t, but others advance onwards, some up to MSNL, some up to HSNL, and so on. BAM! the games have just got harder with the acceleration of new found talent.
And you could use this example in many areas of poker…training sites, coaching…things that simply were not available years ago. I’m not sure how long the games will ‘be good’ for- I think that 10NL/25nl and such will always be plentiful with fish, and obviously the regulars will still be getting better. The poker hierarchy is similar to one you’d see in any normal business structure- the elite are few and very intelligent/work hard on their game, and slowly you go down, seeing the MSNL winners, SSNL winners, etc (with people moving up and down through the levels as need be).
So, in summation, the games are getting harder (obviously) for a myriad of reasons (poker training sites, coaching, etc). The strong will survive or move down, only to conquer a level they previously used to beat, and the process will continue. The changing of the guard will begin and end with new talent in the following years, and this ‘trickling’ affect will be seen even at the lowest limits. (This is all obvious after reading it now, but not sure why I was inspired to write it to begin with).
I’ll post some updates on UF/flag tomorrow or something