Here we are (fellow American Citizens).

April.....2014. It's been three years since Black Friday.

twitter is bigger than ever !

Legal, Regulated, Online Poker is now available in New Jersey, Nevada, and some place called Delaware.

Live Poker events have seemed to remain strong !

How are you doing ? Your still active on 2+2 so your still into Poker !

Do you still play Poker almost every day ? Did you transition to mostly live play ? Have you continued playing on unregulated sites ? Do you focus on free rolls ? Have you experimented with BitCoin Poker ? Or are you in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens in your state ?

What are your feelings about the future of Poker ?

Will State by State Regulation ever come close to what PokerStars once offered players in this country ?

Where will we be in 2017 ?

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Pokers future ?

Would actually love to hear serious opinion on this topic (future of online poker) from guys like sauce123, maybe ike if they were to open this thread.
I think back in 2011 or 2012 sauce was saying next 2 years gonna be toughest for poker or smth in one of his comment, and after it will be better.

I am now working a job completely unrelated to poker but still play live for fun somewhat regularly. I had plans of always being able to substantially supplement my income through poker and that has gone away, financially it is much more tight than it would have been which tilts me sometes but overall life is still pretty good. I'm optimistic that someday poker will be available in my state but pessimistic about the timeline and what it has done to the games.

If it's 0 to 100 with Optimistic being 100, and 0 being the other side, I'm basically 75-80 as a person...

But, on poker, I'd be about a 20. I'm extremely pessimistic on poker because no one seems to really have any way to fight FOR it. And, the AGAINST seems to be pretty strong.

From the beginning, this need to be lumped in with ideas against Big Government. Big Government includes the government having it's hand in your business.

Just need a big state such as California to join in or link states to get a strong booming business. When they see little down fall and the companies are making money then the government will get a piece of their pie and new studies can be conducted on the overall infrastructure which will help lead to more states joining in. I think it will have a domino effect. 3 states already signed on but these are smaller states with smaller player pools so it won't gain much momentum until we see bigger numbers.

I predict a few more states joining the Igaming platform in the next few years. That is if Sheldon Adelson doesn't succeed with his efforts for prohibition.

That said hopefully more established companies go for crypto currency igaming.

I think I'm lumped in with the casual fan. I play live events once in a while but a full time job and other commitments make it impossible (for me personally) to get in more than one or two games per month. I have not seen any progress where I live (FL) in terms of online action . I am pessimistic for the next 10 years or so feeling that regulation might come one day, but no time soon.

I see more and more ****iness involved with fiat poker. Regulations, harder games, etc

I see more and more promise with crypto poker - though this is a very underdeveloped market. Nearly no regulations, can be seriously reduced rake and serious site to site competition on rake for the first time in history... which will help account for the harder games.

As is, graphically speaking, fiat poker is way high up on the decline, crypto is touching the bottom on a rapid incline, imo.

The government will continue the trend of controlling people's lives.

60 year olds at the casino talking about ranges

This. The online grinders flock to the casinos and put these ideas in everyone's head. Which is fine. Just because someone knows about or even understands a concept doesn't mean they can execute it well.

the culture shift in poker from wild west gambooling to taylor caby cardrunners nerd is worse than any law that's been passed.

New Jersey online is getting better as a 10 year experiment begins, but liquidity is and will be a problem. If NJ legislators and AC casinos can not cut deals with other states it will stagnate on its own. These potential deals do not look promising for 2014.

The NJ sites are beginning to slow down their initial push, and most have taken a break in April to reassess their promotions. You can only lose so much if you can't draw enough players. Betfair only raked $7 from online poker in February.

Online Players across the US who want regulated sites are at the mercy of the politicians. If their state is in need of a revenue boost then they may react. On a National basis, there is no way the senators and congressmen in D.C. are doing anything. It is a lost cause.

Unregulated sites are still there. Playing on them is not being harassed at present, but getting money off the sites, if you are a winning player, still seems like a major detriment.

That leaves playing at the B&M's that had a minimal boost after Black Friday. The good rooms will continue to flourish, but the closures are happening like pre-Moneymaker.

Adding up the pluses and minuses, the future of poker in general is trending flat to slightly down.

a blood moon will occur at 3am est in north america on april 15 of this year, possibly signaling the imminent global superapocalypse that will destroy all life on earth for 10,000 years.

I think we're heading straight to the Mormon's armageddon

Poker is headed to more online regulation and taxation.

With fiascoes like Silk Road, Silk Road 2.0, Mt. Gox, Sheep Marketplace, I'm afraid crypto poker might tarnish online poker's sterling reputation.

Been playing since 2003. Pretty sure in the last 11 years at least 5 or 6 times a year people say poker is gonna be dead in 6 months. It is what it is. So sayeth the spider.

I wonder if California regulation could actually reduce the chances of national legalization. If California started making some decent revenue wouldn't their politicians want to prevent progress in D.C. because the money would be taken from state to federal coffers? Just a thought (guess you could call me a pessimist then)

Play money site where you purchase HUD per tournament use packages. $22 buys you into four play money 100 person tournaments where $500 in cash prizes are awaiting.

No account on the site since you don't play with real money, and prizes are immediately transferred to your bank account since you won the prize, and don't get to keep money on the site.

This HUD gives you basic details like PFR, VPIP.

When you play in the more detailed HUD tournaments, the cost of the HUD is more. $88 for four, 100 person, $2000 in prizes, etc.

Obviously, all numbers of people playing, and cash prizes are pre-determined since this is a play money site, and you're not wagering.

It's also not a lottery since when you buy a lottery ticket, you may or may not be a winner. When you purchase a HUD package, it has no value, and you may decide to never use it.

I'm not overly optimistic about online poker returning in a playable form within ten years.

But, I think recreational marijuana use virtually nationwide may not be that far away.

I'd settle for one or the other. I guess.

All it needs is a stable software client and well capitalized brand behind it, which presently is near impossible because there isn't a market for it. You listed three (maybe two?) drug exchanges and a shady exchange as the reasons why there may be hardships. Online poker had its FTP, its absolute poker, its lock poker, its everything too. If anything, cryptos solve this problem if the site is willing to prove solvency with a cold wallet address... along with the tens of other problems it solves.

I don't think anyone is saying it will be dead in 1/2 a year. Its just the general direction its headed and while its easily beatable presently for a decent grinder its been on a slow decline for a while now.

The CA bills are written in a way to insulate them from any negative effect of national legalization. So there would be no reason for the CA Congressional delegation to then fight a federal bill.

I haven't played a hand of poker in months. Our home game dried up as people have been having kids and no longer have the time. I played on bovada a bit but the software is pretty awful and it has way less traffic than the old FTP. I just got bored with it and gave up. I don't expect Texas will regulate online poker anytime this decade so I really just check in to see if the 1 outter that is federal regulation is making any progress. From time to time I'll do the daily action plan if adelson or some other jerkface riles me up enough. Otherwise I just don't see any light at the end of this tunnel.