there was no table selecting or seating scripts at the time
every table you could join probably had a weaker player.. nowadays 100 regs hunt for the same fish, especially at higher stakes

After all these years, many poker rooms still don't have a good grasp of how important the "balance of luck and skill" is to the long-term success of their games. So, some of the stuff they do hurts everyone, including the poker room.

Mason

I agree, the rake has been way too high in poker for eons. And the only way to send that message to the casinos and sites is to not play.

Absolutely. Plus the Full Tilt roster had people like Phill Ivy, Mike Matasou, Andy Block (and the similarly named Andy Blach), David Benjamin, Dave Oppenheimer, Jon Juahnda, Patrick Antonio, Eric Lingren, Eric Sidel, Gavynne Smith and the great Gus Hanson. Then later, young phenom Tom "derrrr" Duan joined the group. And how could they go wrong, with megawhale Dude Laliberty funneling literal fortunes into the economy.

You mentioned Harmen. They were great at drawing some of the top female figures in the game. Benjamin's the fiancee Erika Shineburg was on the roster. So was Cindy Violet, long before she tried her hand at vegan restaurants. Full Tilt wheeled Clony Gowan out on such shows like NBC's Poker After Sundown until she sued their asses. And as I recall, they snared Annette Orbrestrand before she was even old enough to play in the WSOP. Huge.

This isn't even counting the Hendon Mob guys: Joe Beavers, Vam Raswani and the Shipman brothers. When CardRunners came under their watch, you knew things were cooking: players like Isaak Baren, Andruw Wittgenstein, David Beinfeld, Bryan Hastings and of course, Michael "Rolex" MacDonald suddenly operated under the Tilt umbrella.

Sure, they might have played a little fast and loose with giving out Red Pro status. Sports gambler Allen "Cleveland" Dworkis certainly had a background in stud, but he wasn't exactly a top-tier poker player. They also bestowed such status upon these odd little married couples, like Bill and Christy Gases, and Chipp and Karena Jet. And don't get me wrong, the Gases, Jets and Sextans are all better than most of us, but still, you have to admit saving some coin for filmmaker Bryan Kopplemann, TV announcer Ollie Nijhad and Annie Duke refugee Jo Rightman means you're just going for quantity over quality.

One of the early clues that the sponsorship dollars were a little sus was when Betty Shack, the wife of Dan Shack, got her name in red. In hindsight, it's easy to see why they were so insolvent. But at the time? Kris Fergerson, Howard Federer and Rey Vitar had us all whamboozled. They were taking players who otherwise were only known to the poker echo chamber, and turning them into household names we now will never forget or misspell.

^ your devotion to misspell is impressive lol

And to think the original reply was simply that I used to mix up Andy Blach and Andy Block in my head.

I started in 2007 - remember messing around with all tournament formats and with like 80 dollars left decided to focus on SNG's on Absolute Poker. Started at the 5+1, than 10+1,20+2,30+3,etc - eventually was playing the 109s regularly. Late 2009 switched over the MTTs with my first big win in the 150+12 FTP that started 3 PM est for like 13k. Had a fun run crushing MTTs from 2009-2011 Black Friday - than played live 5/10 cash for a while before coming back to online mainly on the US sites. Ended up leaving in 2016 after games had gotten harder/moved to another career. Think my last big win was the 215 Quarterback on 888 - reg filled weekday game. Was a fun time - sad that it's over but I guess that's how life goes. You never appreciate the moment especially when you're young.

Nova Scotia here and I can't wait and am looking forward to MGM going Canada wide.....surely that's the plan. Yeah can confirm zero affect here I can still play everywhere I could before online. I still choose to stay at Pokerstars though.

EDIT: As for the original typic we're not in a poker boom in my opinion. I started playing just before the Moneymaker poker boom and went thru it. Right now is no where near like that.


Cheers!!!

Rake in Vegas is as low as it gets anywhere. Unfortunately, the nit population in Vegas is as high as it gets anywhere.

That's because the rake is too low. Obvious solution to make the games better is... wait a minute

can confirm. People from Florida/Texas come here and can't stand the lack of spew

The loose spewtards in vegas are found in tourneys my friend...

MGM going Canada wide? Source? As a Canadian I would absolutely love all of Canada to be ring fenced nationally and not just Ontario.

OP: what was poker boom 2.0? Sure vlogs, streamers and live streams might have drawn a little more attention to the game but there will never be another time like the actual boom when any clown could make a 95th percentile salary grinding poker.

I'm not saying there's no money left in poker, but you need to work much harder for much less now.

I would love it as well so just assuming, guessing or really hoping that's the plan no source sorry to disappoint. I mean surely they didn't spend all the money and time just come too Canada for Ontario even though it's the biggest market there's all of Canada sitting here waiting for the taking. Halifax/Nova Scotia here on the East Coast alone is over a 1m population, and very quickly growing and most here love cards, lotteries and gambling. I have plenty of buddies, friends and people I know who would never play on Pokerstars or any other offshore sites but would gladly welcome MGM or any Company and some form Govt regulation that comes with them.


Cheers!!!

But then you have to play tourneys

I just hope that if it does happen it's a national pool not a bunch of provincial pools. On PS Ontario even with 15 million people the traffic is questionable at times which makes me wonder how sustainable such a ring fenced pool is and how long it will stay soft. I don't think smaller provinces would do well at all if they were on their own.

For those in US segregated pools like NJ or MI, was there a noticeable increase in difficulty of the pool over time due to the smaller pool "drying up" faster than the global pool?

That has always been the makeup of the NGV frontpage, even in the golden era.

But they always “run so good”

eta of poker boom 4.0 ?

I national pool is really the only way to go and the only way it'll work for everyone specially the small provinces like Nova Scotia. If it's not a national pool it's a waste of time and they shouldn't bother.


Cheers!!!

Poker is divided which sucks but it is growing exponentially for sure.

2006 wsop didn't have everyone coughing like 2022 at Ballys... ;-)

You think that's high?

That's been my experience playing PLO on StarsOntario.

While the Las Vegas rake may be lower than other locations, I do think it's high for game sustainability and the long term growth of poker.

Those locations with even higher rake, and this includes tournaments, are probably doing even more damage.

Mason