I feel kind of bad for some of the people in the replies, especially the ones trying to say, "the games were softer" as the implications of games being soft or not soft has nothing to do with a "poker boom". Boom simply references the amount of players in the game today, now you could make the argument and say that I am wrong and that there are less players in the game today, but I feel like I could provide evidence that that's not the case, anyways that's kind of irrelevant to the post so now we can move on to what the post was actually about and not derail the discussion from bitter old forum goers who are salty they lack the ambitions or skill to succeed in today's game.

I can't play on PokerStars so obviously I can't speak to the current state of the world's leading online site, but I can speak to the level of play taking place on American based sites over the last decade or so, if any skilled player has been grinding online on any of the ignition/acr type sites than they will undoubtably have had massive success, the games are still extremely soft and the amount of ridiculous tournament guarantees has been printing money for any player who actually wants to get better.

As far as live games, there is so many garbage recs & mid regs at nearly every major city that has poker rooms, and I know for a fact that the current social media landscape has increased the amount of players substantially, people like to use Vegas as a meter of how soft/hard the live games are, but that's just not a fair measurement. Fwiw the Vegas games are still very soft from all accounts, the only thing you can really argue is that the 5/10 & 10/20 games are harder and less plentiful than years past, but there is so many uncapped or 200+ bb 1/2 & 1/3 games that you are essentially playing a 2/5 game with people who are just not that good.

There isn't really any reason to defend my position too hard on this though, I can actually understand the resentment one might feel when they see a post like this, the majority of you are senior citizens and probably didn't make it far in poker, and to see the game succeeding and so much money being thrown around and know that your skill level/ambition just isn't there, you have to resort to convincing yourself the game is dead, when its far from the truth.

Pokerstars is nowhere near the leading site anymore. They have a fraction of the players that they had when I started playing (7 or so years ago).

The tournament guarantees are tiny compared to what they used to be. The daily big $11 used to be about $60-80k gtd, now it is $12k.

GGpoker is crushing them in terms of player count, normally having about 4-5x the players active.

@OP

Nice positive post! Much better than poker is dead.... And the good thing about poker is... "We" learn to control our ego.

Phil is just who he is, my god there are people out there who think its an act?! LIVE poker is absolutely booming, why isnt it? And pls no boomer rants about kids in hoodies.

lol, so true.

But yeah as I said to someone else, games being easier for pros isn't how I would define poker "booming". Low-stakes games and MTT fields being huge is a good indicator that poker is booming, if it isn't what else would be?

Younger generations showing an interest in Poker, which doesnÂ’t seem to be the case, imo.

During the boom, poker was cool.

Live poker still seems lit as always tho. MTTs live and online are still full of donks. I see tons players who used to dump at NLH playing PLO for lots of money. Poker boom 3.0 though? Personally idk and IÂ’d be hesitant that any growth will be long term. IÂ’m always a pessimist though so itÂ’s nice to see the optimism in here.

the economy should not be overlooked in this matter

this ain't 2004 anymore.

Between 2026 and 2032, there will be a beginning of a major uptick in 40 year olds or older playing poker. This is 100% guaranteed.

It could lead to the next poker boom. The 40+ year olds would bring their kids along for the ride. There will be a cascading effect. For sure, it will happen offline, and could follow online depending on the laws then.

There's a lot of room between dead and the boom from the mid 2000s.

meh, as a 40 year old who recalls what an actual poker boom looked like, i'd be telling the kids how to do sports betting instead

How much have you made from poker the past two years? From the way you talk you must be cleaning up - let's hear a figure.

So your assertion is that in the next 5-10 years, all the people who were kids during the boom are going to wake up after 20 years of not giving af about poker and suddenly take a great interest in the game?

Don’t hold your breath.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...91/?highlight=

Seems like you can find your answer here, unless there are 2 separate people posting from that account.

Thanks for this. I don't see how you can play micro/low level poker and comment about the poker economy as a whole with such confidence.

The way you see and type things says enough for me. You should study your own posts honest and not lie to yourself.
You are a negative person. You only look at big things. Typical narcissist... grow some confidence.

Just being honest about the poker economy from someone who has actually made significant money playing - sorry it's not unicorns and rainbows little guy.

We're definitely in more of a small bubble than anywhere near a boom.

The next poker boom is when all U.S. states are able to get online legitimately again, which will in-turn revitalize televised poker, which will further fuel online, etc., etc.

The next boom will be bigger than the last.

You guys arguing about whether or not we are in the midst of another poker boom and trying hard to turn the conversation into about how much you make, or have made playing poker, is odd to me. Those aren't really connected to one another. From a purely statistical standpoint, how many new players have entered the poker market from 1 year ago, 3 years ago, 5 years ago, etc.? How much longer are wait lists at brick and mortar rooms? How much have tournament entries increased? How many new home games have formed? Those are what define a poker boom; it's not about what your money making potential is amid the current poker market.

Well said. A real poker boom is when the number of "new" customers destroy the number of "repeat business" customers. Also, a poker boom can also happen if a high enough number of "prodigal son" customers who departed years ago come back in droves and bring new customers with them.

No if won't.Not even close.
It's a different world than it was in the mid 2000s. People signing up,getting torched in games with zero gamble isn't starting a boom even vaguely resembling those days.
People have way more options for action than they had in those days, pros are leaps and bounds better than back then, solvers didjt exist back then etc. Legalizing online poker in all 50 states will never replicate that moment of how mainstream poker became and how anyone could become a poker pro.

A little bump sure.

there's definitely more "gamble" in a GTO-oriented strategy than there were in some super nitty strategies from back in the day though

Yes and no. Raise sizes were way bigger back then,flops were way more multi way back then and bad players had way more of a chance back then. Does a good gto player have more gamble than a super nit from 2005?-sure. But overall those games had way more action.

People have been talking about the next boom for over a decade but it's never going to happen.

I mean if you're talking about pre flop, there isn't much difference from back then when it comes to regs, only difference is that people are now calling 4bets instead of playing 5bet/fold and everybody is 3betting kind of optimally, but yes of course if back then you could sometimes have tables with 2 or 3 recs it would naturally generate a lot more action from all of them playing way too wide pre flop

also I agree I don't think there will be a next boom, although it's not completely impossible if a tv show like Queen's Gambit is released but for poker

Only 2 or 3 recs?
Maybe on the absolute worst tables back then.

The bolded isn't true at all either.
But more importantly the ratio of regs to recs back then was completely different back then.

There is so much information out there now that wasn't available back then,the software has gotten so sophisticated and will continue to get more sophisticated etc.

This doesn't even take into account all of the other options people have now that they didn't have back then to gamble if that's what they're into.

I'd love to be wrong about this but just don't see it.

It will be bigger than all the other booms.

The Internet was much smaller in the early/mid-2000s. Now everyone has it in their pocket.