I find poker more difficult now. I used to make a bit of money in 2003 to 2005 before Black Friday hit. Now I find myself looking for different poker variations because everybody seems to know Hold Em now. I have never faired to great at PokerStars and that is the only place I have played for the last year. Just starting at 888 poker today and hoping for a bit smoother sailing. Anybody have any thoughts on building money a little easier?

Poker has got more popular over the last twenty years, mainly because of on-line Poker sites like Pokerstars etc. With television series like The Big Game and Late Night Poker, it has become more respectable, and of course you cannot watch any channel today without the odd advertisement for different Poker sites.
As it becomes more popular, the players are getting better, and even professional players are saying it is harder now to make money from on-line Poker because of the standard of the players, There are a few who make a living from on-line Poker, but most of them Stream live games on "Twitch" and most of their money comes from their subscribers and sponsors.
It is possible to make a living from on-line Poker but it is now harder than it used to be.

When the fun Stops, STOP!

Poker has evolved in recent years so it seems more difficult now.

Online is a different game. The players are much better than live. The average player puts in a good amount of work away from the tables too.

I started playing again about a year and half ago. I went from $250 to around $750 but I doubt I'll be playing online once the casinos and cardrooms open up here in Ontario and Qubece. I study about 1 hour for every 3 -4 hours of play and also multi table 4-6 MTTs at a time, about 7-8 a session.

So unless you play a ton and study you're not going to be good online.

Absolutely it's harder , actually I think it's getting harder and harder every year , and some Poker rooms with their decisions for increased rake , lower rakeback or smaller prizepools or other restrictions to players , they make it even harder for players to win big nowadays ......

But on the bright side , if you are good , you can still have profits . If you adapt you survive , if not .......

Obviously its never going to be 2005 again. Online poker is not a hidden secret, which have been waiting 20 years for someone to discover it. Today players have a lot of software and training material at their disposal, and most games are close to being solved. So optimal play is within reach of anyone, who bother putting in the work to learn it and then also has the disciplin to carry it out.

In top of that the internet has also reached mid income countries like Russia or Brasil, where making 5$ an hour playing online poker is pretty attractive to a lot of people. And therefore we now see "regulars" even at limits, where 20 years ago it was almost only recreational players filling up the tables.

But that being said in micro and low stakes games there are still many recreational players, who have taken advantage of none of all the knowledge or software available. They have just learned the rules of the game, made a deposit, and now they are sittting down at a table or two to have some fun. Chase some draws, wim-bam-boo, left and right, dust a stack away, and then the tournament is over. Or in some cases the cash game session, because often these players dont reload, when they get busted.

So its really a matter of perspective and expectations. Yes poker is surely more difficult now, than it was in 2005, even though I have no personal experience, because I did not play back then. But its still not difficult to beat micro and low stakes games and to make an amount like 500$ per month, if you put in a lot of hours at the tables.

So its just, that online poker is no longer a "get rich quick" scheme, and if you live in a country with high living costs, then being a full time online poker pro is probably not a career, you want to try and pursue. As PokerPoet2 say, most of those, who actually try, also have significant side income from streaming or other sources like being sponsored by a poker site.

Where do you feel the difficulty? What are the reasons? Because you are not winning enough money?

Originally Posted by MarlonCanada

I find poker more difficult now. I used to make a bit of money in 2003 to 2005 before Black Friday hit. Now I find myself looking for different poker variations because everybody seems to know Hold Em now. I have never faired to great at PokerStars and that is the only place I have played for the last year. Just starting at 888 poker today and hoping for a bit smoother sailing. Anybody have any thoughts on building money a little easier?

Hi, I have to agree that the competition has certainly gotten harder over the past few years and especially since COVID. I am guessing that it is due, in a large part, to the availability of HUDs and other software. As well there now seems to be a lot of free coaching available. As for PokerStars I play there regularly but over the past two years have not done well there, perhaps its the competition or most likely it is due to changes at PokerStars where I have found if one's bankroll is low then winning is almost impossible??? I have done and am still doing really well on ACR and 888 and not quite as well on GG. maybe its just a different batch of players? I mostly play Micro buy in MTTs so building a large bankroll isn't very feasible, however the fun of playing is still there...Good Luck

For sure it's harder nowadays because there are plenty of information and strategies on sites.
Also a lot of good players started to stream and they share valuable infos

Online poker has pretty much always been harder than live.Not really sure why but its always seemed this way to me.

MUCH harder these days for sure!

You might find you have a bit more success at 888Poker & maybe GGPoker... & possibly some sites that are open to the USA (just be sure to research your available withdrawal options first).
I find it can help to play at certain times of the day. (at least it does for me)

It's a different game - much more aggression and lots of poker training sites. Also, not as many 'casual' gamblers.

Poker has evolved a lot since then. Everyone has been playing completely differently ever since. However, most players still play incorrectly. I don't like 888 at, I think ACR is a much better poker room.

I don't think it's that much more difficult at micros/low stakes but it has definately changed. People are more aggressive overall than in the past. A similar thinking player can still win relatively easily in today's game still

There are more good players but at the same time bad players continue to emerge, I evolve and there is a lot of content but if you are a good player you will continue to earn money

I think it has always been difficult, since you do not have the virtue or the ability to see the players, and because today there are many tools and programs such as Holdem Manager and poker tracker, which help to have a base and an idea of your adversary.

I would say poker has evolved and is much more difficult than it used to be, I play a lot tighter nowadays

Opponents are much more advanced even at low stakes and now players in different variations like HORSE, 8-Game, and Omaha are becoming more skilled and experienced so it’s getting harder to get good or outstanding results, but it’s not impossible.
There must be someone who succeeds.

I am sure that the more players are there, the more defficult it will be. Want small amount of people? Try us poker sites like betonline.

During the early days of the Poker Boom it was easier to find a high profile, US friendly site. It was also easier to get paid when you won.
These days only the better players are willing do what it takes to play online. Identification theft and sites shutting down are also factors that keep the weaker players out of the game.
Can you guess how many sites I’ve lost money on due to the sites shutting down? I’m 69 and a rec player.

During the outbreak of the pandemic, many offline players switched to online platforms. Certainly, playing online has become more difficult, technology does not stand still, many players use programs for the game that count very quickly and almost always very hard against the program.

It won't get any easier. There are many new players now due to the pandemic. Someone decided that sitting at home you can make money on poker, but someone just gets bored. They really don't know how to play. Play anyhow. An unpredictable player is harder to play with. Especially if this player is also a fish.

Yes, poker is a lot harder game right now, there are new strategies, solvers that help to improve

it's hard to make money in poker now
you need to work on the game, use statistics, play 30-50 tournaments per session
play in different rooms

I would say when you have poker sites giving away tens of thousands of dollars to viewers on twitch, paying people to represent them pretty decent money, paying so called PRO's to rep them and put them houses in Vegas for the WSOP november timeline, you know there are probaly things not gonna swing in your favor when playing thier site. #1, RNG is cool and all but its the the same as sitting at a real table and playing real poker. With RNG if you are heads up for 10k online, and I raise you, if you take 3 seconds to call me all in, you will have a different result than if you take 4 seconds. the remaining deck is constantly changing, according to them. In live poker, the deck is set, and you play your cards, your experience, and your gut. Sometimes thats all it takes. In online poker, its basically just the lottery. And understand, most sites US friendly are unregulated, so if you trust them, good luck with thier RNG. Honestly, nothing makes sense online. Every site plays different, some sites Im up on, some I cant win a single hand. I narrow them down accordanly. Stay away from ACR first and foremost. Dont believe, Phil is just a nice guy giving away free money. It comes from the people who play there and lose, Its the money the regular phil fan boys dont win. I will never be convinced, online poker is a fair place to play, I do enjoy ignition as you generally dont have to play for 4-6 hours before late reg is over and usually your in the money before you know it. May not win, but its a better system they use, no names etc......etc....just a number, a new number every game. One day soon ACR will suffer a well deserved fate. I made a complaint 2 years ago to a new state Senator from my state. It was noted, and being followed up on, I still get calls fromm time to time. Very interested to see the outcome I assure you.

Originally Posted by antonis32123

Absolutely it's harder , actually I think it's getting harder and harder every year , and some Poker rooms with their decisions for increased rake , lower rakeback or smaller prizepools or other restrictions to players , they make it even harder for players to win big nowadays ......

But on the bright side , if you are good , you can still have profits . If you adapt you survive , if not .......

I completely agree with you that if you can adapt to the current situation, then you can earn money at the present time on poker. The question is also, what does earnings mean for a particular person? $ 100, $ 200, $ 1000? If $ 100-200 is enough, then it is quite realistic to achieve this goal with the help of freerolls and promotions that do not require special expenses. 1000 $ is more difficult, you need to connect buy-ins up to $ 5 in tournaments, where there are still a lot of bad players. But the main thing is. that it is possible!

There are always people starting their poker career, and of course in the beginning they are not so strong. Usually it takes 6 months they say. That's why you can always have some fish or at least weaker players at your tables, especially in tournaments, which are weaker than cash games. But even in cash games you can profit relatively well, because crazy guys appear from time to time, at all levels, you just have to be patient and be a good observer (and maybe a note taker).

There are more people with study playing that have many tools that did not exist before but in the same way there are many people without so much preparation, it is not easier than before but you can still earn money

I think there is a lot of value in farming for the right tournament to give yourself best chance with online poker - i agree its more difficult to play online today than its ever been but i guess that really comes down to experience and the amount of games you play and situations you expose yourself to - to get that experience.
Its similar with playing live - far less players exploit position i find with live poker and thats based across playing at a wide number of UK based casinos - i prefer live anyday due to online - the micro stake tourneys online can be a bit of a bun fight at times - that said - there are some really good tourneys out there spread across a number of providers.

Poker has become more difficult even when compared to the game about three years ago. At this point, you have made the best decision to play in the poker room 888. Over time, you will join in and understand how to play now, I wish you good luck!

According to my point of view, the place where there is more difficulty is in pokerstars, because it is the most popular room in the world and that means that they attract many regular and inexperienced professional players but that in that room they are trained and that inexperienced from so much playing With so many good players he is growing and being a better player gradually, if you want to start with one room I recommend acr there are very good tournaments and their cash tables are closed because there are few players, but I also recommend that you play in both rooms or several rooms so that you have more experience and can earn more and not depend on a single bank, Greetings

Today poker becomes more difficult than before. It s normal, there are more good players who study the game and who improve day by day

I believe so today there is more information and people end up acquiring more knowledge and making the game more difficult!

Of course, online poker is getting harder every year due to the fact that there are a lot of idiots going all-in with 7, 2 offsuit.

Originally Posted by digdug0037

I would say when you have poker sites giving away tens of thousands of dollars to viewers on twitch, paying people to represent them pretty decent money, paying so called PRO's to rep them and put them houses in Vegas for the WSOP november timeline, you know there are probaly things not gonna swing in your favor when playing thier site. #1, RNG is cool and all but its the the same as sitting at a real table and playing real poker. With RNG if you are heads up for 10k online, and I raise you, if you take 3 seconds to call me all in, you will have a different result than if you take 4 seconds. the remaining deck is constantly changing, according to them. In live poker, the deck is set, and you play your cards, your experience, and your gut. Sometimes thats all it takes. In online poker, its basically just the lottery. And understand, most sites US friendly are unregulated, so if you trust them, good luck with thier RNG. Honestly, nothing makes sense online. Every site plays different, some sites Im up on, some I cant win a single hand. I narrow them down accordanly. Stay away from ACR first and foremost. Dont believe, Phil is just a nice guy giving away free money. It comes from the people who play there and lose, Its the money the regular phil fan boys dont win. I will never be convinced, online poker is a fair place to play, I do enjoy ignition as you generally dont have to play for 4-6 hours before late reg is over and usually your in the money before you know it. May not win, but its a better system they use, no names etc......etc....just a number, a new number every game. One day soon ACR will suffer a well deserved fate. I made a complaint 2 years ago to a new state Senator from my state. It was noted, and being followed up on, I still get calls fromm time to time. Very interested to see the outcome I assure you.

Strange hands happen on acr and me but not as close as on N8 ... In my case I can't beat my hand on n8 6 out of 7 days a week ... As much as I'm in the lead when it starts there's no way I can win every call when I push I know I fall out.
But let's say it's poker. I also saw crazy hands live

Obviously poker is more fun when you make money vs. lose money. But if you treat poker like a sport, you need to look at losses (or difficulty) as an opportunity to improve your game against better opponents.

Yep, back in 2014, and 2015 I had nice results. Maybe 20 of $1000 or more cashes. I have only had 2 nice results like that since.

It’s definitely more difficult now. It’s not as popular as it once was. People have learned the game and there are many books and information on the Internet

I have been doing better now then years ago, but that is more a reflection of my improvement and not the fact that anything is easier.

I think what has gotten harder is finding freerolls at any time of the day.

Also since there are a lot less choices of sites for US players, the remaining sites make it very complicated to get the money out. Bonuses were true bonuses back then, Just run it through x number of times. Now it is many more times through than in the past. Very tricky rules.

Rake has gotten much more steep. 15 years ago, the sites had a desire to bring more players in to increase their income. Also the fact that there were a lot more people online, they were actually making more money than the sites are making today. More money back then, even when the sites were sponsoring constant freerolls, or bigger guaranteed payouts.

It should actually be easier for poker rooms online then live poker rooms. Scale is the key. The sites available to US players are significantly smaller than they were 10 years ago.

I think the strong US players have found ways to play. The weaker ones from back then, did not come back. The pandemic may have brought some players back to online poker. It will be interesting to see if they drop back off when things get back to normal. (when that happens should be a different thread)

And I think online poker is much easier now than before.
Previously, there were no auxiliary programs, and all players played both tournaments and cash mostly tight, there was one basic strategy for everyone, and everyone played it.
And now there are a lot of additional programs for every taste, there are a lot of chips at the tables, much more than before.
It's much easier to win online poker now than before.

Online poker has become much more difficult because the level of play of all players has improved.

Yes. Everyone can play, practice and get better player.

I've been playing pokerstars for a long time without much success. But, what to do. I haven't been hoping to earn money on poker for a long time. I play to have something to do. I do not invest my funds. Therefore, this is normal. On 888 I played there, too, I didn't achieve anything in 2 months. Now only on pokerstars. My best results were on the ipoker network.

Originally Posted by digdug0037

1, RNG is cool and all but its the the same as sitting at a real table and playing real poker. With RNG if you are heads up for 10k online, and I raise you, if you take 3 seconds to call me all in, you will have a different result than if you take 4 seconds. the remaining deck is constantly changing, according to them. In live poker, the deck is set, and you play your cards, your experience, and your gut. Sometimes thats all it takes. In online poker, its basically just the lottery.

Not many sites have used the 'continuous shuffle' (vs. the 'fixed deck'). I know Fulltilt Poker did but I don't think any of the others do (I'm not 100% sure of this but I do know that most use a fixed deck shuffle).

Either way, this has no bearing at all on whether or not the outcome will change based on % of chance we had/have at winning the hand.

Suggesting that online poker is "just the lottery" sounds like something an inexperienced player might say.

IF it was just like playing the lottery, then why are some guys winning the lottery consistently across all stakes and all game formats?

Poker is more difficult now like about 10 years ago i win more than now.

I started playing On-line Poker years ago to give myself a solid grounding before I ventured into Live games, and I agree On-line Poker is harder now, than it was then. You cannot see the other players On-line so it is much harder to get a solid read on them.
Live games however,I do get some information from body language of an opponent and will call some small bets, even when I have nothing but an Ace high hand, wanting to know what he was betting with, that also gives me some information on him in later hand's.
Poker is like a War game, you have to know when to attack an opponent, and know when to retreat.
It is never about the Gold, Only the Glory that really matter's!

When the fun Stops, STOP!

That was the time to get payed. Before black friday there was a lot of money to be had.

It sure is more difficult nowadays because there is a lot of information and strategies on the sites. The players study the game and improve every day.

Hello community, if the level has increased there are more prepared players with a higher level and therefore it is difficult to win ..

Yes, you are right, the level of online poker has risen sharply. Most of the time the opponents are weaker at a live poker event and you can get more out of it if you are a good player and can assess your opponents well. That means your win rate in online poker cannot be as high as in live poker. That makes things even more complicated because the variance in online poker shows its ugly face. Why it is like that? A lower win rate has a drastic effect on variance. You will feel it a lot more. Information about poker strategies can now be found everywhere. Almost everyone analyzes their game extensively and tries to improve. Fewer and fewer weak players are depositing money and just playing for fun. The only thing I can advise you to do is go down to the limits and try to rule there.