Quote:
Originally Posted by Fore
First you realize my post was facetious? But if your qualifier is winning any $10 donkament anywhere in the world or min cashing in a $50 daily somewhere I donÂ’t see an issue. Does the free roll I chopped 30 ways 11 years ago qualify me? I did cash.
TBH it was really 8 ways and only 7 years ago, but the point is the same. That was the last tournament I played. OTOH, if I was in LV during wsop and happened to have a big win at cash I might decide to take a YOLO shot at the main.
I did read your sarcasm but I also read your underlying point that you don't like turning away the "one shot" super casual from the field.
Again my proposed standard was any mincash last 2 years or any 10k+ cash lifetime, so your freeroll 11 years ago would not qualify but a $50 daily the same year would. My whole point is that a rec who can at least make the money in a $50 tournament makes for a more interesting field than some rich guy from LA who barely knows hand rankings but has $10k. For example I know someone who works in entertainment who was basically "comped" a seat.
Turning away players sounds bad for growing the game but again my point is that getting Ivey, Negraneau, Hellmuth, or Doug Polk to the ME final table would be fantastic for the game but 6k+ runners is just so many people to get through. Less people and less table draw luck would help a bit.
I said I don't feel strongly about this idea and it's probably not actually good, however, something that I feel extremely strongly about is that the poker community needs to detach from the delusion there will be another Moneymaker boom. That level of public interest is just a once-in-universe type of thing, public attention is too fickle, and poker entering the mainstream to the same extent is about as likely as big band swing music hitting the Billboard top #10.
If you're trying to grow swing music dancing, you don't even try to get to Billboard top #10 you try to grow your niche not by appealing to everyone but by appealing to people who are disproportionally likely to be interested in swing dancing.
Simiiarly I always see suggestions to grow poker that look to appeal to every Tom Harry and Sally with the most normie marketing possible and I just don't see it working. On the other hand, I see platforms like Youtube and Twitch being amazing avenues to reach your niche audience and grow it. I don't see as many 20-somethings as during the boom but when you see one I bet you they know who Garrett Adelstein is because he's a Youtube star. I love any ideas of crossovers with things like chess, cryptocurrency, league of legends, magic the gathering etc because those are also niches that will highly correlate with interest in poker. I agree with the other commenter that the best possible rec at a Main Event final table would not be Vince Vaughn but be Alexandra Botez or Hikaru Nakamura (popular Chess streamers).
I do recognize there's a tiny bit of friction between "poker as a serious strategy game" and "poker as an old time gambling game, with eccentric characters smoking cigars." I do acknowledge that's a tough balance to strike and the eccentric personalities are great. I'm just brainstorming out loud in the 2p2 thread because of course I'd love to see poker grow as well but I think people are trying to force super normie stuff and pray it becomes 2005 again rather than think more strategically about who to reach and how, especially in a day where there's more competition for attention than ever.