Online Poker Ban

Let me give a brief recap over the history of poker over the past 10 or so years.


1996 or so-A few online poker websites come out such as Pokerroom, that are relatively small sites with pretty low stakes. Very few players are using these sites, which results in not many fish and very low traffic.

2002-Robert Varkonyi Wins the main event. A true amateur besting the main event field.

-The world poker tour begins, adding another medium for everyday people to see poker through the television. Fancy presentation alongside top poker players makes big time Pros famous such as Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hanson.

2003-The big internet boom. The biggest thing to happen to poker since the world series of poker first started. A man named Chris Moneymaker wins the main event besting about 850 people to win the tournament, outlasting Dan Harrington and Sam Farha, the last 2 players he eliminated. Moneymaker turned $40 into 2.5 million. In addition a huge bluff on the 2nd to last hand made Moneymaker famous.

-This year was also the beginning of poker personalities. Guys like Phil Hellmuth are now big personalities much like TO is in football. Hellmuth is known for berating opponents play as well as being super arrogant. Viewers now have favorite players as well as least favorites, and the shows are more entertaining.

2004-The world series of poker expands to roughly 2,400 people which is more people than all previous main events combined. The field is more than 1/2 online qualifiers, which results in a field that is thinner on pros at the top. Dan Harrington somehow finishes in 4th. Matt Dean finishes I believe 5th, and had only been playing poker for a very brief time. The "anyguy" can do it mentality has officially been brought to poker. Greg Raymer wins $5 million first prize. There is also a tournament of champions this year.



-Tuan Le bursts onto the poker scene winning the WPT Foxwoods and WPT championship events. This is over $3.5 million in prize money in about a months time.

2005-The main event doubles in size to 5,600 entrants, one is named Steve Dannenmann. Steve is an accountant from Maryland, who plays a casual game of poker. Him and a buddy Jerry Ditzel split his $10,000 entry fee, and will split whatever winnings Steve received. Steve somehow finishes 2nd, with a high spirited style, filled with laughing, and a very tight aggressive playing style. Truly any person can win at poker.

2006-8,773 people enter this years main event. There are not only 4 day 1's but 2 day 2's, and very, very few players with names towards the top. 3 professionals wind up in the top 20 but only 1 makes it in the top 15. The online amateurs outnumber the pros, and the online players are improving. A man named Jamie Gold truly owned this tournament leading from the 4th day to win the tournament.

2 DAYS AGO:

Bill Frist, a senator attached an online poker ban to a bill on port security. This bill was going to pass 100%, and any senator voting against it will be seen as taking a very soft side on terrorism. Currently a group is being brought together, go to www.pokerplayersalliance.org/ and join for $20 and help make a difference. For further information go to Daniel Negreanu's blog at http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php?subaction=showfull&id=1160021040&archive=&start_from=&ucat=& and scroll to the bottom.

What this means to poker:

While the WPT and WSOP will still exist many big tournaments will no longer exist. Just last week pokerstars had their "World Series Of Online Poker" which concluded with a $3 million guaranteed $2600 buy in event. JC Tran won the event following a 6 way chop in which he received a prize of $670,000 (or so). Events like this simply cannot happen without poker in the US. Poker WORLDWIDE will continue online and the WSOP and WPT might become much more international.

Tournaments will now become significantly smaller, more to the size of events in 2004. Poker is much more popular than in 2004, but now buying in will be more difficult. You can no longer enter a simple $160 double shoot out, or a $650 tourney and be in the Main Event. You now have to go to Vegas and buy in.

The main differences of online poker and live poker:



Tells: Live poker you get a ton of information, based upon how the player acts. Online you look for betting patterns, and how long a player acts on their hand.

Game Speed: Live poker deals roughly 35 hands and hour at a full table. Online I average around 100 hands an hour and I can play normally up to 6 tables at a time. That means for a 10 hour period I can see roughly 6,000 hands.

Being comfortable: Very few people live near a casino. Everyone has at least 1 computer. One can simply play poker in class or in the library or whenever or wherever you want.

Tilt: In live games it is pretty easy to put some people on tilt. Mike Matusow can just yell and people will be off their game. Matusow cannot insult players through typing in the chat box. This simply will not work.

Rake: In many live games you get a ton of rake. You will enter tourneys that have a 50+20 buy in. Online the rake would be 50+4. While I for one have donated around $10,000 worth of rake, I also receive some nice bonuses with my player points as well as rakeback. In cash games some sites have a max rake of $1 for low limits and $3 for high limits. That means a $10,000 pot would have a rake of $3, which is very low. Some casinos will rake 10% up to 20 Big blinds, so a game of 1/2 NL hold em could have a pot of $40 but with a $4 rake, it has a pot of $36, while online it would be a pot of $39 a $3 difference on a medium pot.

Comments:

Feel free to leave comments. I for one and very depressed over the online poker ban. I feel that if I feel like wasting my money playing cards on my computer then it is my right. If I want to buy 1,000 pairs of shoes and stuff them in a closet it is my right. I understand many kids dropped out of college to play online poker, but if online poker is illegal, then these kids have no job. Many people make livings off online poker, and you cannot take their jobs away. To quote Al Krux, "sometimes those chips mean your families grocery money."