Good ol days of Poker

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StefW

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Back in 2001 a whole new world opened when i discovered online poker.

My first ever room was Bugsysclub, a small but realy fun room that i managed to dominate for 2-3 years. In total i cashed for $34.000 here. Unfortunaly the pressure from the bigger rooms was too much and Bugsysclub closed :(
When i discovered pokerstars and especialy the tournaments i felt like a kid in a candyshop! The next 2 years i won in total $80.000 via tournaments as The_sherriff and i won some nice seats for live events.
I managed simular good results at partypoker so online poker paid the bills and opened many doors for myself.
I started my own company ( nothing to do with poker ) in 2006 so poker was a luxury far out of my reach for the next years!

Last year i was ready for a comeback and started to see what was out there, dear Lord i think i found more online pokerrooms then Katholics in the Vaticaan!!!
But how HUGE was my disapointment when i took a closer look at pokerstars!? The tournaments are nothing more then a crapshoot & now they have added that late reg stuff the term crapshoot does not quite describe my feelings about it! OMG where are the pokerplayers? Who let this bunch of bingoplayas out?

Whats happened to poker?
 
PLAYINBIG

PLAYINBIG

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As for, where are the poker players ? Some are playing in Brick & Mortar.Since black Friday. some peeps have no choice to play other than live.The bingo players...well every since Chris Money Maker pulled off 1 of the best online satellite tourney wins everyone thinks they can do it.Some might but not all.
Moneymaker won his first and only wsop bracelet at the 2003 WSOP Championship Event. This was at the same time ESPN began utilizing poker cams for viewing pleasure. He won a $10,000 seat for the Main Event after winning a satellite tournament which cost $40 at pokerstars.com. The 2003 WSOP Main Event, Moneymaker’s first live tournament ever, is the tournament credited for the start of poker boom.
During the 2003 WSOP Main Event, Moneymaker pulled off the infamous all-in bluff with “King high” against Sammy Farha, the eventual runner up. This particular hand is known as the highlight of the tournament and referred to by many as one of the greatest bluffs in poker history. Norman Chad, an ESPN commentator, called Moneymaker’s all-in move “the bluff of the century.”
“Moneymaker”, a name perfect for poker, is Chris’ real last name. He is not shy to use his name to his advantage, as he is now a celebrity spokesman for Harrah’s Entertainment and Poker Stars. Moneymaker has found consistent financial success off the table, with projects such as his autobiography, Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker, which was released in March of 2005. Moneymaker’s book, which has sold over 40,000 copies, has been received favorably from the poker community.
The downfall to all of his success is the public criticism that Moneymaker receives almost daily for his poker ability, or lack thereof. Many online bloggers and critics believe Moneymaker is the most overrated player of all-time. Chris has yet to cash in the Main Event since his win in 2003, and has not won another bracelet at the WSOP. However, Moneymaker has not disappeared completely in the poker world, as he finished 2nd at a World Poker Tour event, which earned him $200,000. Moneymaker still must prove himself to skeptics over and over again at the poker table. Moneymaker’s latest cash at the $10,000 buy-in European Poker Tour Main Event, where he finished 17th place out of 392 of the world’s best players, is a strong argument that he really can play the game.
Whether Chris is a quality poker player or a fluke, he has done more for the game than almost anyone else of his era. His inspirational victory at the 2003 WSOP has catapulted himself to legendary status. Doyle Brunson took poker from the underground games in Texas to the casinos of Las Vegas, but Moneymaker took the game from casinos right into our family rooms.
The “Moneymaker Effect” has lifted the game of poker to incredible new heights producing never-before-seen prize pools and huge fields of players. The poker world has changed forever with the invention of “pocket cams” and the Cinderella story of Chris Moneymaker. With his dark shades, fearless all-in bluff, priceless last name, and boy next door charm, Moneymaker has made a place for himself in poker history.
 
dd_decker

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Maybe you were winning back then because the quality of play was softer. With all the poker information available now, I think online players are more sophisticated today, not less, as you imply. This forum alone is jam packed with posts that can help raise anyone's game to a higher level. So basically, I think it harder to win today, not because the tournaments are crapshoots, but because the players are better. You have it backwards, man....
 
IWinUlose

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Good ol Poker

Well I see your from Belgium because players from the states don't see more poker sites then Catholics at the Vatican if anything we see less and less. But what dd_decker said is true the few sites we can play on their are some damn good poker players out there and to me much better then players from the past. Just saying,,,. :cool:
 
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S

StefW

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thx for the reactions!

Yes i guess i will have addapt if i want to make some kind of comeback, it is true that playing the bigger tourneys on pokerstars was easy in those days as 75% played like an open book ;)
stef
 
imafin

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i must of said this a dozen times in the last couple of years...i too really really really miss playing at pokerstars. love that weak competition in the cheap games.
 
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Bowman

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I'm real unhappy that online poker games well I can't find any tournament histories on private games. That is a total bummer. Poker is getting stronger and should continue that way. Online play can be tough, a bluff here and a bluff there make me fold and man I need to change that.
 
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Madness_does

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used to be awesome that they used to give away wsop tickets like candy, the great $1000 free rolls they would have, it all went to crap went bush passed the gambling bill, and black friday cemented it.
 
duggs

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are you really complaining that the fields have gotten weaker? they definitely havent btw
 
bezobrazny

bezobrazny

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All I can agree with you is the stupid late registration that is attached to almost every tournament. I can understand that, otherwise even PokerStars wouldn't be able to organize so many big cash tournaments per week but the game suffer that's a true. Definitely you should try adapt and find kind of game you like and enjoy. Things are changed, that's for sure.
 
bezobrazny

bezobrazny

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I forgot to tell you. Late registration you don't have on SnG tournaments, so you can try that kind of tournaments. You have different ranges of buy-in and you can choose how crowdy game you want.
 
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K

kmbpoker

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good thing you started a business when you did. poker tournament play just went through a decade of change where you are forced to gamble more than you really want to. the younger generation of poker believes it is ok to bust in a tourny if you got pot odds.they are used to just going to the online lobby and sign up for another. the up side is go to your local brick and mortar and get paid by the same bunch
 
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fefeloschi

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Pokerstars

I started recently and I hope to see many good player, but I noticed a very large number of Russians, absurd and played with these players.
I will monitor and observe before having a very opnion formed on PS.De moment'm beginner and I'm learning from my own mistakes.:confused:
 
Rappyness

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Man, Chris Moneymaker is one of the reason I started playing online. Saw his whole run in the world series of poker and the rest is history and poker online just exploded that year! Just the good all days when there aren't many restrictions until now! Miss those day were you can use paypal for deposits! Oh the good old days!
 
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Cooking

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Since Black Friday online poker is not the same..I don't have the same enthusiasm anymore to play. I think the game is tougher now, at least my profits are definitely not the same than before. :(
 
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OMG where are the pokerplayers? Who let this bunch of bingoplayas out?

Whats happened to poker?
Well, what happened is that the bingo players made it a lot tougher on you. You used to win because there were so many loose passives playing against you and all you had to do was understand that you could bet for value against them and they would call with bottom pair, a gutshot draw, or whatever, and if they raised or re-raised you, you could easily see that they caught their draw and you folded. Very easy game for you, so you won big money.

Nowadays, in addition to bingo players, there are some tough loose aggressives that are deceptively good at poker. Their tourney philosophy is that it's OK to gamble early and create a table image of a maniac...if they bust out, it's OK, just try again next tourney. Then, when it gets down to the last 20% of the field, they know what to do to give themselves the best chance to take the whole thing down, provided they got lucky early. That's because of the years of training and education they have diligently applied themselves to while you were sloughing off in your useless business venture!! ;) The days of "wow, I can make the money here!!!!" are gone and most people understand that in order to survive at tourney poker you must play to win.
 
needaGF

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I want to know what the problem is with the late registration mechanism? Sometimes I just cannot make it in time.
 
Jd0ubl3M

Jd0ubl3M

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Yeah it has changed, but what can you do. I was always excited waking up and jumping on Stars, FTP, UB, and bodog grinding and making scores and playing the satties to live events but now with these other smaller sites I have fun playing them but it isnt the same.
 
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RickAversion

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I played a bunch of times with friends as the poker craze swept in 2005-2006. Then, in my group, everyone stopped playing. It was just a passing fad in my area. It almost seems so retro to even mention it. "It's so 2005". We even went to Vegas and played in a $50 tournament back then.

Further, I know online poker was dealt a death blow in 2011 with the fed banning.

What is the status now? Is Hold'em a lot less popular than it was in 2005? Was there a peak? Is it 50% as popular as it was back then?

Has the phone App era brought a resurgence to Hold'em? This is how I got started playing again in 2012, and it's been real fun. And, I am better now than I ever was before, playing 1000's of hands on my phone instead of a slow night with live people.
 
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DeadlyAim

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I agree with everyone about players getting tougher but trust me there are plenty of donks out there not as many as before but with the tough economy u can't afford to be a donk... so they have gone.

The poker "fad" is over better players and more dedicated players are left... still see like 6 wtf was that plays in the tourneys, I play though.


One more note... personally I take advantage of the late registration and enter tourneys with about 5:1 cash to players left... I hate turbo play that's a crap shoot.

Omaha and turbo are on my only if its free and I feel like losing games. I wish stud was more popular guess it eliminates all the bluffing people like... I digress.
 
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JUDGE1018

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My first big online site was poker room out of canada back in 2003 won 10 k on there ,man sure miss those days.
 
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