Does anyone think that poker could be on the rise again? With some of these guys known to play other games on twitch bringing thousands and thousands of viewers to the game and going on massive heaters in front of all of these people, I feel it is just super good for the game and is bringing new people both recreational and maybe some future regs to the game. Thoughts?


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Don't think so tbh. Obv people might deposit and try to gamble it up but with todays 3rd party tools and bumhunters they go broke pretty and fast and realize this aint so fun after all. Like that latest stickyrise ho ended up tilting averything away.

Amaya is predicting record profits for the end of 2016, but I'm not sure it's much to do with Twitch, as I think poker traffic continued to decline. The streaming obviously attracts some new depositors and redepositors, but I've not seen any evidence of a mini-boom. More and more people are quitting, including two former Team Online players that announced their "retirements" from professional poker playing at the turn of the new year. (Daleroxxu and Frosty).

I doubt poker is on the rise again in the way you are saying. Twitch poker seems to average something around 5k viewers an hour, when the poker boom was going on many ESPN episodes were getting 600k viewers an hour when they would air (admittingly not 24/7). It isnt even very close.

I think the growth of vlogs/poker youtube is more significant. It gets far more uniques than it does viewtime compared to twitch, but its a larger platform and hits more people. However it is still nothing compared to those Boom era days.

To not all be doom and gloom, I think there are aspects of poker that could see some growth particularily in developing markets that have not yet experienced their full potential (such as Brazil). Also new legislation could help promote the game in countries such as the US which would bring it back in a big way, but I wouldnt get your hopes up here.

Twitch and Youtube are helping to build a new, and younger audience. This is much needed to help the ecoystem grow as you need new players to replace ones that are leaving the game as they get older. Both of these will help the game but we need more to happen at a larger level to get growth going within poker.

Maybe offering higher rake would help out the ecosystem, not sure if anyone has tried that out yet.

no, never. EVER. FOR ANY REASON. now get over it.

Great idea, would be one of the few great changes if implemented.

Would have loved to of seen this be a big change in 2016 as it would of really helped out the entire ecosystem. At least then dnegs would have kept his word about there being great changes in 2016.

I think DNegs could really get behind this idea.

Keep up the hand analysis vids Doug. I them!

I am still waiting for that epic change in 2016 dnegs was talking about. Maybe BTTF could help.

They should make a poker movie similar to that "god is dead"... except the professor wins this time

Haha Jesus Christ. I think maybe 85% rake would be better for the game.


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[ ] bringing
[ ] thousands
[ ] and thousands

I dont know if you misread this but i promise Rektful on twitch (a hearthstone player) bringing all his viewers to watch him play poker is bringing thousands to WATCH***** the game. Even if they arent playing or or even thinking about it they are at least watching it.

Definitely on the uptick. The wpn hunl lobby had 3 people including me at $2-25 NL. The weekends often have up to 5-6 people. I shouldn't be making this public ...... doh!


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I don't disagree with your point as a whole, but twitch:ESPN is a pretty bad comparison. Wrt to poker popularity right now relative to the boom, it would be much more effective to compare current ESPN poker viewership a la apples to apples. I play 30+ hrs a week and have never seen a twitch stream but have seen a ton of poker vids on tv.

One key diff is for twitch and yootoobz poker stuff someone has to typically have initial interest and then go seek it out on those mediums. Whereas ESPN kind of "brought it" to the masses since millions are tuning into it at any random moment. It's way harder to like, just stumble upon poker on twitch or yootoob.

Props on your yootoobz channel btw. I x them out time to time and enjoy them

Sidenote: offering higher rake would better the games????

Um.. wat?

He's joking.

Not really. As far as games on Twitch go, poker is not very popular. While games like Hearthstone and League of Legends gets hundreds of thousands of viewers, poker gets a few thousand viewers at most. Maybe a bit more when someone runs deep in a tournament.

The viewers it attracts are mainly a) those who want to take the game seriously b) those who have already been playing seriously for a few years - especially the cash game streams. Bringing in more aspiring grinders is NOT going to create a boom. If anything, it will do the opposite.

I can't help but read all of Doug Polk's posts in his voice now

Do you also include his intro of "hey guys, Doug Polk here"?

Doug, think of writing that before your posts in the future

The only way there's going to be any sort of boom is if mass numbers of Chinese and Indians enter the international market. Problem is that China would rather play video games and Indians play on their own sites

Indians != India