Wrong

I think there will be a small "boom" in the first couple months and a relatively quick acceleration afterwards to levels meeting or exceeding what we had a few months before BF in terms of site traffic.
I think there is a decent chance that whomever emerges as #1 will garner at least FTP- like numbers within 2 years.

Stars was always bigger than FTP. I think we will see probably in the realm of 2-10 million individual players for whatever the biggest site may be and have traffic of roughly 200-300K at the peak hours.

All of us wondering the same thing.

Helping post regulation poker boom
-easier to deposit
-advertising push from new companies that enter market

Hindering post regulation boom
-Might be higher rake and lots of taxes taken out
-Player pool is better than before so it'll be harder for fish to make it up the limits/they won't last long
-Casual players who left might not feel compelled to come back, poker could be a fad for them

A couple things that could help poker:

-Some sort of poker reality show (that achieves mainstream success)...think...like what The Ultimate Fighter did for the UFC.

-Celebrities endorsing poker...the recent Hollywood underground games, somehow becoming more socially acceptable and in the news for example.

-Poker as a spectator sport needs to happen. Watching poker, even when being played for lots of money can be very boring...if there was a way to make watching poker exciting...surely there's some marketing genius who can make this happen, it would go a long way to make poker more popular.

I think we're looking at an inevitable fragmented online poker landscape where players from each country are forced to play on country-specific sites. I doubt any US site will reach numbers that you see on Stars now, never mind back in 2003-5.

encase feature table in a sound proof one-way mirror room. Spectators can see in, players cannot see out.

Broadcast hole cards to the spectators.

If thats the case then why didn't they do it back in 2006?

uhhh they didn't do it back in 2006 because the US was still living large on the huge housing bubble and everyone was counting their money without worry. I think there's definitely a good chance for a boom given the amount of coverage WSOP gets and the chance to sat into it and make MILLIONS!!

Rec players don't need to grind up the stakes, they put how much ever money they want to put on, then play with 1 buyin or sit in a few tournaments, maybe they lose maybe they win, either way they will usually come back. How many people play the lottery in a given week and when they lose 1 time say. "Oh darn, I lost I'm never playing again" The chance to make huge money will get a lot of rec players online if it government regulated.

Your brain is half a world away......

This.

Just about everyone who wanted to play online poker gave it a try from 03-07. And unlike us all the fish got tired of losing their money and either learned how to play well or went on to something different. We all knew this was going to happen and it did.

If/When poker is legalized in the US the player pool will probably be better than it was in 2011 but in no way will it compare to the madness from 03-07. Poker isn't the new and exciting fad that it was. You won't see tons and tons of noobs rushing in to play poker.

A post UIGEA "boom" is a dream that will never come true. I can't believe people can't get that in their heads.

I disagree. That's allowed right?

Maybe if the economy gets better at the same time. When times are tough people cut out entertainment expenses. The last poker boom coincided with the biggest real-estate boom in history.

Not sure if we will see another poker boom per say, however tons of player getting back to the game once US players can play online again will certainly look like a boom, but really it will just be a return to the game.

you just explained why there could be another poker boom. every idiot college student, every idiot middle aged man, and many other demographics are convinced they are great at poker and that it is easy when in reality everyone is ****in horrendous.

Never underestimate the power of the marketing monster, especially in today's pervasive media.

And not to mention how 3 out of 5 of my poker enthusiast friends never got into online poker before because they didn't feel safe and secure(with good reason).

Once it gets legitimized in the US(which has NEVER happened in the past, including post MM era) and safe, people will go ape****.

You will be very disappointed then.

[ ] Credit Cards

Credit cards - not ok

Check card with visa logo - ok?

obv counting chickens before they hatch

How are you guys envisioning the emergence of a SUPER site with a 1 MILLION accounts or more when the likely scenario will be a fractured state by state US system ?

stopped reading here bc this is false.

End of world is in 2012 so we will never see one again.....

lmao

there will be no boom internationally as it will be a closed shop in the USA

The web spreads information fast...
Your average person is more sophisticated today...
Than in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s.

Consequently, average people have figured out...
They'll get raped by Pros in Zero Sums Games...
Only complete idiots have illusions about this.

So fewer people are trading individual stocks...
(Strip out the Algos and volume is down)...
And still fewer people are gambling regs online.

There will never be another poker boom...
It's purely another NVG group-think assumption.

Alright Shatner, put the mouse down. But seriously I think things will return to a solid level in relatively short order. Just because there is more info out there does not mean people will use it or even know how to apply it properly. Some simply like to play recreationally and don't feel compelled to spend hours a day studying and watching poker videos. And I will put money on the new marketing schemes to draw in a lot of new players who either hadn't thought to play before, or who were previously skeptical or afraid of it being somehow illegal or sketchy. There are a lot of people in this country and you can bet when this opens up the sites will be advertised in every way possible and join with new sponsors to reach new markets.