We have all witnessed what has happened to live poker during the pandemic but what might live poker look like for 2021?

Dan Smyth conducted an interview with PartyPoker Live President, John Duthie to find out more of what might be expected for 2021.

Will live poker return as we once knew it to be? or will there be restrictions?

CardsChat Interview: What Live Tournaments Will Look Like in 2021

I believe online poker will gain even more space.

I think 2021 in poker will be completely online, besides, online poker rooms will be profitable, and they will be inclined to spend 2021 online

Looking at some of the live events that was started you're starting to see partitions around the table. You also see almost all the players wearing masks at the table too so you're starting to see some of those changes right now. will it get to a point where they might enforce people to to have to approve that they're taking a vaccine I don't think that will happen it could be doubt it good luck trying to do that in the United States of America maybe other countries can enforce this but the United States I doubt that and it might not be very good for business. But you're starting to see that some of the changes going to 2021 to get back to the card rooms in the tournaments and stuff. That's what I think will happen eventually it will come back though being a totally different form then what we're used to seeing before the pandemic even started.

Hi.
It is hard to say what live poker will look like in the future. But I think that online poker is expected to grow rapidly in the near future. I think that in the near future, we will have real online tournaments, using virtual reality technologies.

Just as Rock music is forever , so (live) poker will be forever.

(Although I only play online .)

It had better go right back to the way it always was before this year of human madness and insanity.

But I don't think it will. Very sad. I'm not a germophobe so don't ask me to wear a mask, I view this entire thing as a total bunch of BS. Sorry, but that's how I view it. It's just the normal flu, damn it, stop being such a bunch of wimps.

I've pretty much lost any remaining faith in humanity, this won't end until we demand it ends... but yes I understand that almost every human on earth believes this virus is a real thing... very sad.

I won't go back to live poker until they stop the mask idiocy and remove the stupid plexiglass. Plain and simple. I don't expect to be playing live poker anytime soon, believe me on this. Our world is doomed and it has nothing to do with the common cold...

Originally Posted by Alizona

I won't go back to live poker until they stop the mask idiocy and remove the stupid plexiglass.

Lol

Unless huds becomes a thing on the table, it will probably stay the same except casinos to stay afloat will try to make it more attractive to play by probably lowering rake and offering more peeks.

Originally Posted by Qrise

I think 2021 in poker will be completely online, besides, online poker rooms will be profitable, and they will be inclined to spend 2021 online

I'm not so sure about this. Las Vegas will weigh-in along with hundreds of Casinos through-out the U.S. Canada, Europe, etc.
There are multiple vaccines in the works, social distancing, masks and sanitizing are real things.

Originally Posted by ADRI7HO

Just as Rock music is forever , so (live) poker will be forever.

(Although I only play online .)

I agree (live) poker will be forever.
It's sad to see that you are online only.
I was curious, have you had the opportunity to play in some small tournaments in many, many Las Vegas Poker Rooms? When they are going full time, there would be a $40,$50,$100,$250 buy-ins several times a day at multiple properties.
Even local casinos in my home town in Canada, held weekly live tournaments along with cash games. Casinos will surely be back in 2021...our Provincial Government is bleeding money and needs the cash.
Regards,
StreetPhd

I think the virus will recede in importance once the vaccine is widely distributed.

Live poker will come back and look exactly like it did pre-COVID.

Live poker always has a market.

But now there is a new innovation and that is to play poker via zoom.

Originally Posted by Qrise

I think 2021 in poker will be completely online, besides, online poker rooms will be profitable, and they will be inclined to spend 2021 online

Its gonna be interesting to see

I surely hope not tbh I think their is no substitute for live poker, I support it but live poker is my jam

Originally Posted by Poker_Mike

I think the virus will recede in importance once the vaccine is widely distributed.

Live poker will come back and look exactly like it did pre-COVID.

Live poker always has a market.

But now there is a new innovation and that is to play poker via zoom.

I sure hope you are right! I would hate to find myself watching the same WSOP championship tournaments from pre-Covid-19 years on repeat for the rest of my life. Not to mention, how will I ever complete my lifelong goal of playing in the WSOP myself if live poker becomes replaced by online.

Seems like this virus has changed the way we approach anything in person for the past year + and is continuing to do so for how long? Who knows. I would love to fast forward to however long it will take for it to be a distant, unfortunate memory of the past. I personally think we have at least another year or so to go before things start looking like normal.

I learned from an interview that some organizers do not plan to take a hard line regarding the vaccination system and passes. How do they plan to accommodate players with different views in one tournament? Some people are wary of imposing a vaccine. But their movement will be severely restricted in this case.

The organizers soberly assess the risks associated with the restrictions of both the host countries of the tournaments and the regions from which the participants will travel. Some airlines have already announced their intention to limit the flight of unvaccinated passengers. For poker players, of course, there will be no exceptions.
Thus, the issue of vaccination will be a key factor affecting, in particular, the future of live poker. If this process is slowed down, the tournament organizers would like to learn from the experience of the World Series of Poker.

Based on what I'm seeing when I go out, most people are returning to pre-covid when it comes to masks. I expect casinos to look like they did in 2019 by the end of the year.

I think for the rest of 2021 there will be very little change compared to the previous year. But in a few years with the technology that reaches the tables they will be busy with our holograms

I don't think live poker will ever disappear, atleast not for the foreseeable future. Online poker has been around for atleast 15 years, and yet before covid the casinos in Las Vegas alone made billions of dollars every year. The reason for this is simple: People really enjoy gambling. For most people playing poker, it's not about making +EV decisions and trying to make money over the long run. It's about the thrill of potentially turning 200 bucks into 800 in one night. I think those types of people don't find online poker nearly as fun.

Originally Posted by jeffman123

I don't think live poker will ever disappear, atleast not for the foreseeable future. Online poker has been around for atleast 15 years, and yet before covid the casinos in Las Vegas alone made billions of dollars every year. The reason for this is simple: People really enjoy gambling. For most people playing poker, it's not about making +EV decisions and trying to make money over the long run. It's about the thrill of potentially turning 200 bucks into 800 in one night. I think those types of people don't find online poker nearly as fun.

Spot on with so many points.

One thing that popped out at me was your statement 'online poker has been around for at least 15 years'. I guess it's a little known (or forgotten) fact, that online poker had indeed began back in 1998. Crazy huh?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online...ctober%201999.

poker, comes in diapers, it is a game that little by little has evolved, and day by day it is becoming more viral, and much more known...

Personally, watching live poker is where it is at. The drama, emotion, tricks and skills on display is missing in online poker to a certain extent.

Some Vegas poker rooms are packed, others are closed some possibly permanently. With plexiglass on the tables I'm not playing it makes it too hard to see things, leads to disagreements over what the action is, etc.