Even if poker isn't as profitable as it was in 2010, isn't it still and will continue to be much more popular/profitable than it was before the boom? Interested to hear what players who have experience playing professionally in 80's/90's feel about this.

I started playing poker in '98 and it was like printing money. If I knew then what I know now I'd be a millionaire several times over. Now?... Limit games are still plenty beatable at 20 and under. I don't play no limit or PLO, but have friends who still do quite well at <= 2/5nl.

It's definitely harder to make a *real* good living as a professional live player in the States. I guess that's good news in a sense because the super smart/talented would-be pros will either be playing nosebleeds or finishing school for higher paying careers than grinding mid limits.

I could be wrong, but it seems that no limit might finally be drying up and PLO and mixed games are already becoming the games of choice.

If I were just starting out today, I'd be concentrating on PLO and mixed limit.

Not sure if that helps in answering your question or not.

Thanks... Yeah, I was just thinking if so many players got interested during the boom wouldn't the games still be easier to beat than back in the day. I wanted to hear from older players because I was wondering if the skill level difference, due to the interest, was really that noticeable or not and you insinuated that it is. Thanks again. 8)

I didn't play before the boom but from what I know there wasn't nearly as much concentrated study of the game in existence at all at that time. So even the pros would generally only know what they had learned by playing directly. Today I think you'd be hard pressed to find many in the poker room who have never read a book or watched a video or did some sort of study of the game.

This is definitely a fallacy. All of the things that are making no limit "dry up" are happening for PLO/Mixed games as well.

Even if that were true, it doesn't matter unless the poker rooms actually spread those games.