How will poker change in the future?

or, what might replace it?

I'm working on a story that's set in the future and I've realized that the characteristics of a poker player might fit one of the main characters. The only problem is that I don't see poker existing as it is thirty or forty years from now.

Any thoughts as to how poker might change in thirty years? Or what might replace it for 20something males with online skills, some intelligence, some risktaking propensity, some competitive nature and some specific type of people reading skills?



Would poker become virtualized? Or replaced with some form of moneymaking gaming that better utilizes a fuller online or virtualized connection?

Day trading futures would fit your story.

online, good math skills/ understanding of EV, risk taking, intelligence...

people reading skills don't apply though

I dont think live poker will change much due to the attraction of actually holding the cards and the thrill of placing reads and setting traps.

On Line gaming, though, Im sure will continue its evolution.

I can imagine a future where the game fundimentals are maintained but additional bets/odd are added to every hand where the active players in the hand could be offered side bets within the hand along with players not in the hand making a myriad of side bets as well.

As far as the logistics of playing the game, Im sure a "visual" feature will be available where we can see the players if desired. Im sure Audio will also be an option.

so picture sitting in traffic on the way home in your new JEEP Auto Trak (Self Driving 6 Wheeler) , you select the "frost option" for the front wind shield and pull up your favorite Poker Site onto the Heads up Projection display and buy into your favorite 3/6 .




Well kids its bed time, youll have to finish the story in your head.....

Yep, though day trading might change too in 30 years. But that is another idea for the character's basic background.

Good point. The old live version has been around for a long time.

Yeah, and a virtual screen projected anywhere that you can play on. Maybe a mouse that's directed by eye movement while your robot driven vehicle takes you home ....

Personally I'd be surprised if poker has changed significantly in 30 years time - the game has existed largely unchanged for over a hundred years and just like other long-lasting games (chess, backgammon, blackjack, etc) I'd expect it to still be pretty similar.

I guess technology will have an influence on the game, I wouldn't be surprised (though I would be sad) to see more live games move in the direction of the PokerPro tables with touch screens and electronic cards / chips instead of the real things for example and maybe even live versions of online HUDs.

So maybe we just hope Tilt comes back and we get Rush poker, on touch screens?

There will be advanced computers and/or software that can beat any human easily in poker in 30 years. Online poker will be games among bots.

The only thing I see potentially changing over the next 30 years is the type of poker game that is most popular. Right now, NL Holdem dominates as the most popular game, but I could see that changing over time.

I was going to say this too. Remember back 30 some years ago when the cartoon "the Jetsons" seemed crazy futuristic ... Visually seeing the person on a phone. That tech is reality now. It's reasonable to think that in the future online poker will build in that capability. The tech and bandwidth are there, just a matter of time before the software catches up.

They have these tables already online on 888Poker.

Not that I didn't believe you ... I just google image searched and there are plenty of screen shots out there. Interesting for sure ... I wonder when Stars and others will incorporate this.

I hear PLO is the game of the future.

Or better yet RAZZ!


and then watch the suicide rates jump up to astonomical levels

The technology already exists, but I think Virtual, huge Live/Online (VL/O) tourneys will be around soon. Local bars with A/V linkage will connect to larger networked games, with huge fields, and huge prizes. So, for example they will start with a local live table or 2 or 9, and as they get short handed at that bar, virtual players from other bars will take a seat. You will be able to pretty much interact with those virtual players as if they were sitting next to you, and visa-versa.

There will be no dealer, and clumsy, time consuming chip handling will disappear, this game will move much faster than live, but not as fast as a pure online game as we know it today.

A few years after this begins, true 3d will come into play and for all practical purposes, the only way you'll know your villain isn't there is when you shoot him for that bad beat he just laid on you and all you get is a broken window.......

I don't think poker will change, but the interface certainly might. It's reasonable to consider there will be voice activated actions with eye tracking so all you would have to do is look at a section of the "screen" and then say your action. "Screen" could be any number of things, 3d virtual tables with holograms, some sort of glasses etc.

That's what I heard too, 3 years ago?

But, that's an option too. I could come up with a variation that doesn't exist without defining the rules clearly and pretend that it overtook all other variations. Maybe with virtual tables that exist side by side, like parallel universes, and all you do is turn your chair slightly to look at the next table.

Holdemaha - you get 3 holecards.
NoLimitAnnett'em_15 > a variation of nlhe but nobody sees their holecards til' after showdown!

-a mixture of voice and webcam technologies/features
-Full 3D Hologram Enviroments
-B&M Online Poker Room and Casinos will Dominate

Yeah, I guess I don't see poker changing all that much. Maybe a different poker variant will take the lead as far as popularity, but I think there is something to be said about the feel of cards in the hand, sitting at the table, staring your opponent down.

Maybe I am just not creative enough to write a book Good luck!

Versions of this already exist. One is called Pineapple, players get three cards and discard one of them preflop. Another is called Crazy Pineapple and again, players get three cards and discard one of them after the flop. Otherwise plays the same as texas hold 'em. Both games have been semi-regular features on the tournament schedule at Crown Casino (where the Aussie Millions is played) so it's not necessarily just a home game thing. Dunno how popular the actual tournaments are though

On a different note I for one hope like mad that webcams and voice links never become a standard part of online poker. Has anyone ever played online video games where somebody has their voice link up and you have to hear their horrible music in the background or, worse, their game sound on a one second delay through static? It's a horrible thing and online poker wouldn't be much different. Plus if I wanted to see people I'd go play live poker.

I already dislike it ... forget waiting 30 years.

I like this. SciFI Poker. But they don't have to be virtual tables, they can be actual tables, and multi-tabling takes on a whole new meaning. Push a button, whoooosh, parallel universe and hero is there, actually there. And all the villains do not have to be human even.! Involve holograms in those other universes to rep hero when he is not in that PU (parallel universe).
Bring in every known and semi-known poker player when hero uses their names in those Alternate PU's.

Damn, story is writing itself. Hell, you could even make money writing it, Call it PPT, (Poker Pro's of Titan) and solicit money from Titan Poker as product placement......

Set it way far in the future tho. So many great SciFi stories are dead now because the authors thought putting those stories in the plausible future was making their stories more relevant. 1984, Brave New World, 2001 to name a few.

Heh, I think you're writing a different story that I've got, dj. Mine is only that far in the future because of what's going on in the main plot. The potential poker player, or poker in general, isn't the main part of the story. At the moment the characteristics of one of the characters could possibly fit the profile of a current poker player which is why I'm trying to piece together what poker might be like then.

Tacky butt. For some humor in your alternate reality story where a slight movement of the chair changes realities, have the tacky butt, which prevents your hero from getting up out of that chair to explore that reality. In some of those realities, he may not want to go anywhere else, but in other realities he sees the gorgeous cocktail waitress 'out there' and wants to soo badly, but for the tacky butt.

Paradise poker had Pineapple, an interesting Omaha (if I remember correctly) variation, and Zen has a version of holdem where you get 3 down cards, then a flop, and only a turn. As far as poker changing, I think it will be toward multi-games, possibly still horse, but a 7,8,9,10 game rotation would seem plausible as well. Or you could set it in a kitchen, with kitchen poker rules. Drunkenness and debauchery get involved...seldom a bad thing IMHO.

homer ha
a poker game for thick people

Loving this thread. Just a couple things for now: currency as we know it today will likely not exist in 30 years, so there's that aspect; also, I think the playing field will be more balanced regarding gender so your character could easily be a woman.

Currency as in physical bill or coins, I suppose, though all the primary characters are well off, for various reasons. They can afford to do things like travel from one continent to another which has become very expensive in my projected future world.

As for gender, I don't think so. The primary female character is almost certainly a prostitute by choice (her father is exceptionally wealthy) and I'm looking for an occupation for the primary male who, other than being mid-twenties in age and either well off or working for an organization that will pay many expenses, is a little less defined. But some poker-like skills may fit well with what he has to do in the story.

Pretty sure in about 10 years Badugi will be the only poker game played.

The only change in the last 200 years has been the addition of online games,
so I can't see much changing in the next 40 years.
Probably an improved graphical interface for online games, but that's about it.

If you want something futuristic then just go with virtual reality of sitting with the other players holograms.

I'd argue there's been some changes - in the beginning the only popular games were either five card draw or five card stud (if Deadwood is to be believed). Lowball and split pot games weren't invented until around 100 years ago and flop / community card games weren't invented until the 1920s (if Wikipedia is to be believed). AFAIK tournament poker (as we know it now) is also a relatively recent invention. Also poker was commonly played with a stripped deck (containing only 20 cards, for example) in the beginning. The 52 card deck only became common in later years and now there are very few games (Manilla is the only one I can think of) that use stripped decks. So the game has definitely evolved and changed in the past 200 years.

Of course poker was a very young game 200 years ago so there's an argument that there's less change to come now that the game is more mature. Still, who would have thought something like Rush poker would exist even five years ago?

If we wanted to have more fun, we could invent hybrid cards. For example, the 78 card, could be used as either a 7 or an 8 or both in straights. Deck might be 150 cards (very hard to hand shuffle, but piece of cake electronically).

Remove or add suits.

But in each of the variants, the term poker would also need to morph. Just as the word poque (old name for a similar game), implies a non 52 card deck, Foker could imply some really devious version played with some cleverly designed deck arrangement. All the underlying concepts of poker (as we love it) would still be there, but the artifacts of each hand would be different.

Or simply change the game by using a pinochle deck. Or the rejects from pinochle decks.

avg. age of online player will be much lower > by 2031 the avg. age of online player will be 12yrs. old

software will get more and more advanced
huds will use AI (artificial intelligence)
to try and outwit other AI huds.
eventually they will be processing so much
information they will become self aware,
construct 'bodies' for themselves and step out
of the machine.
we're all doomed,
doomed i tell ya

Poker is just fine the way it is.

Voice/mind control?

No thanks.

Sounds cool on paper but in reality is stupid and less initiative.

Perhaps making poker more lively by having a virtual crowd somehow or announcers and scoreboards displayed every break or something