There are lots of life experiences that brings profound nostalgia: Christmas mornings; Dark Side of the Moon on a turntable; sandlot baseball w/ friends; etc.

2000s online poker is on that list. There was nothing like waking up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning to play some of the big tournaments, checking competitors on Sharkscope as those tournaments got deep. Bonus grinding. Affiliate/rake back programs. Fish. Study groups w players from around the world. Paradise Poker, free Party Poker swag, etc.
And of course the supplemental income.

Who knows, for me, Black Friday may have been a blessing in disguise. I’ve since raised two boys that are now 14 & 16 and I am probably a better dad and husband for not spending those hours grinding poker. But it doesn’t make me miss it less.

Anyone have any fun memories to share of the online Poker Boom they miss?

2000's poker was a PARTY

I still can't quite understand I played so long before joining 2+2. Sat several years at the computer all by myself, determined to be a winner on every version of poker all from play money to micro stakes, using the opening hand charts. Missed much of the boom anyway, started in 2007, maybe a few hands in 2006. Or was it 2008 and 2007, must check! Omaha8 became the favorite.

Was buying every poker magazine and the books, the latter to a big part not really read. Yes, those were the days. Was out of poker maybe ten years, recently back. Tournament holdem may now be with me to the end, trying to finally learn good postflop when deep, and correct bluffing strategy, called semi bluffs back then...

As I still intend to win guess it will be play money and live.

It's impossible to overstate how amazing it was to go from dorm room to dorm room at the height of the boom and win 100's of dollars in each.

Loved grinding various $200 Sunday tournaments on Stars with NFL football and then Sopranos on in background

The government destroys many beautiful things.

People more or less giving away free money at all buy-in levels on Party.

Guys cold calling their pocket AA's all the way to the river, regardless what cards are on the board.

Printing money playing NL08 on Absolute and Ultimate Bet. Cashing over 50% of the time playing PLO and NL08 tournaments.

Bots and RTA that were worse than many players and could be easily beaten...

What I remember best from UB is they offered also Crazy Pineapple, think I got action once. And then of course the pic of Hellmuth offering bonuses, one eye closed. I let them have my $10-20 after the scandal, had already moved mainly to Stars.

tuff_fish videos

When I was 19 I thought BBV was basically the greatest place of all time. The internet was just more wild back then…

I loved those wide-open days to play poker 12 hours. Especially on Sunday, getting up after a night out.

Nothing quite like going deep in a big tournament. Playing hand for hand. Looking at the payouts.

A would grind a bunch of multis and SNGs but once it started getting super deep I’d be down to just playing the one tournament. So exciting.

Incredible time!

Haha YES!!!!

Oh man - classic!! I remember watching these. Too good.

Playing 24 tables at 8bb/100 with 50-60% rakeback, making 75$ an hour playing 100nl Full ring.

Endless dopamine

The end of the boom / golden era was way before Black Friday though.

At least for non-US players the advent of micro stakes had a way bigger impact. Suddenly people could start out playing $0,01/0,02. Before that you had total beginners at 1/2.

Oops!

Never played online in those years but sheesh the home games were ridiculous. We'd play 6-10 hours a day Friday/Saturday/Sunday my junior and senior year in high school.

I was a total terrible nit but somehow won 100-300 every other weekend. I felt like I had endless money as a 16 year old haha.

The government's destruction of the industry also started before Black Friday as the UIGEA was passed in 2006 and spelled the end of Party Poker advertising on every TV station in America.

I remember a 5 card draw bot on Paradise Poker, called "The Beak" that needed a minimum of trips to call down a stand pat bet

for a few months in 2005 I was only allowed to use the computer for two hours so I would register for a tournament on paradise poker and wait for about two hours get blinded down and start playing with 1-2 bbs. Then if my user time ran out I had to stop playing.

What ever happened to Tuff "F$ck me to g@dd@mmed tears" Fish

i once registered for a 100 pacific poker sit and go (it was either 9 or 18 players i forget which.) It took a while to fill, i forgot about it and went out to run some errands. When I got back I was in the money.

Observing and playing with vinivici9586. Incredibly inspiring for me at the time.

In 2005 or 6 there was a nit who only played Aces at the two cent deep stack no rake game on Stars. I believe he short stacked and shoved. He was not a bot. He would chat and defend himself daily to my needles. He would leave immediately. He was profitable

sure, cool story bro