When I read that, I thought of the math PhD who worked at a Subway sandwich shop for a while, and is now famous (among mathematicians) for developing the approach that may eventually prove the Twin Primes Conjecture.

Poker rooms still need a limited number of regs converting weak players' deposits into rake, but it's more profitable for the rooms to outsource these 'jobs' to those who agree for a low 'salary' like $10-20 an hour (with high variance needed to retain casual players). Bigger winners aren't needed.

I lived in China for 9 months, so I'd like to share my opinion about a "Chinese Poker Boom", unfortunately I'm not optimistic.

One of the main factors to look at when considering a "poker boom" from a specific country is the value of that country's currency compared to your own currency.

The US dollar has significantly more buying power in global exchange than the Chinese Yuan, so it would be very difficult for the average American to earn a living playing against the average online Chinese players (obviously there are some super rich Chinese "whales" but they're the exception) .

For example, a monthly wage in China can often be as little as 1200 Yuan per month ($200 USD). Worker's rights laws in China are a lot more lax, as well, so that Chinese person may be working 50+ hours a week to make that salary (some friends of mine work 70 hours a week to make that much). A Chinese person can live off that $200 (food, transportation, rent, etc) for an entire month.

An american making $7.25 an hour on the other hand may earn about $1000 a month, five times as much. The cost of goods in the USA compared to China is a lot more expensive, but that's irrelevant in a game of online poker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...PP)_per_capita


What does this all mean?

Two person pot, an American and a Chinese person are both all in, the pot is $200 total.

The American works at walmart, for him the $100 at risk represents 15 or so hours of work...$200 is a lot of money in the pot, not a huge deal though, that $200 would maybe cover a fraction of his rent, a few nights out on the town, or maybe his cell phone and cable bill.

For the Chinese player on the other hand, he is playing for a pot of 1200 yuan, this represents an entire month of grueling work at a low paying job and will cover a month of all living expenses. It makes financial sense for a college educated, intelligent, motivated, Chinese person (of which there are many millions) to spend a few months learning the game, getting decent, then grinding it out against foreigners who are playing with their extra income. This is a better option than some of the alternatives of working more hours, doing harder work, for less money.

TLDR: Because of the favorable exchange rate comparing USD to other currencies, for Chinese people (or people from other countries with lesser values currency) it's worth it to grind tiny stakes against Americans all day...you can make more money with far less work than a typical low paying job.

I believe what I said above to be true, my question though is, why don't we see MORE players from Eastern Europe and other countries with a lesser valued currency flooding the online games (online poker in China seems to be in a legally gray area but what about other countries)? Or has that already happened? Maybe some of you guys from those countries could chime in?

I hope that I'm wrong.

Well, when you open the Pokerstars-lobby and look at the microstakes-tables, you'll definitely notice, that Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) is already flooding the tables there. Has been a while like that.

I've mostly been playing live! Interesting.

I think online poker is pretty much dead, but I think the above post is wrong.

For a start, 1200 yuan a month would represent a very low wage in China. The guy making 1200 yuan will speak and read little or no English, thus he's limited to Chinese sources to get better at poker (and given poker isn't so popular in China, these don't exist, or at least not to the same extent as the wealth of knowledge in English we have online). The guy making 1200 yuan will have failed to complete much schooling, so likely won't be intelligent enough to learn the game to an acceptable standard. For sure, speakers of English who are reasonably intelligent aint working for 1200 a month, and they're the ones who have the potential to kill your games.

You make some good points.

Yeah I should have mentioned in the beginning of my post, I am not saying a Chinese poker boom won't happen, I'm saying that in my opinion, it wouldn't be very beneficial to poker players who live in countries where their currency has significantly more buying power than the Yuan.

For example I was living in a small but decent hotel in one of the nicer cities in China, paying $6.50 USD per night (obviously they have hotels that cost way more than this also).

Even if you double the wage to 2400 Yuan per month my point about Chinese people having more incentive to grind low stakes stakes poker compared to working other low paying jobs, is still valid. The reality is that the world isn't as much of a meritocracy, and as upwardly mobile as you might believe. I know highly intelligent people with law degrees or science degrees, in China who work for very low salaries in hotels or other establishments (many for 60 hours a week).

The question is: how much incentive does a person have to grind low stakes poker instead of work an available job (study the game, improve, get training, take it seriously) compared to a person from a country with a stronger currency?

All that having been said...I love playing against players from ALL countries. Poker being outlawed in the USA and some other countries is a much bigger issue obviously.