For much of early the 2000’s, the focus of online poker rooms was about how they could attract the most Americans possible to play at their room.  After all, it seemed that a good number of US residents were poker fanatics who were ready and willing to spend money on the game as frequently as possible.  But when the UIGEA act was signed into effect in 2006, many of these rooms were at a loss for what to do.

Fortunately for the poker industry, many Americans have come back to the game but the focus isn’t on them as much anymore.  That’s because online poker is rising rapidly in many European countries - especially among the younger people.  A survey run by JupiterResearch discovered that the number of poker players between the ages of 18-24 has gone up by a ridiculous amount. 

For example, Germany saw its total poker playing population in the 18-24 year-old demographic go from 17% to 41% in just one year!  Sweden saw a somewhat big increase too since its number of 18-24 year-old players went from 18% to 25%.  Poland and Hungary didn’t see its younger poker playing population increase that much but it’s tough to do when you’ve already got over 60% of your players being in the 18-24 year-old range.

Females are increasingly responsible for this poker surge in Europe too since places like Spain and Italy have seen huge hikes in female players.  In fact, Spain sees almost a 50/50 split since 44% of its poker player population consists of women and this is up from 16% in 2007.  Italy only had an 18% female online poker playing population but this number has bolted up to 34%.  Norway, Finland, and Sweden also have a big female poker player base too. 

With how much many of the demographics and numbers have changed in just one year, it’s tough to imagine where the limits for poker are in Europe.  Hopefully the game keeps growing throughout the continent as more and more people take up poker.

I never personally got into online poker during the late 1990’s, but I wish I would’ve.  These were the days when, even if you only knew the basics such as pot odds or that you should be trying to read opponents, you could easily make money.  This is because most people that hopped on the Internet in these days were the true definition of fish.  They had no idea of poker strategy and they were practically guaranteed money at the table (at least according to the stories I’ve heard).

Things remained in this fashion on into the early 2000’s, although players did start getting better.  By the time that I jumped into online poker in 2003, players weren’t really too great nor too bad.  I myself was just starting out in these days so I wasn’t the greatest either but I eventually got better.  Unfortunately, it seems as if everyone else got better too or just dropped out of poker altogether.  Now it’s much harder to find really bad Internet poker players out there and every review that claims a room is full of fish is way outdated. 

The truth is that there are still fish out there but they’re just not as bad.  The whole deal has changed now since players skills have improved so it’s not just a matter of seeking out really awful players.  Loose and aggressive players no longer bet out on every hand nor do they stay past the flop all of the time.  Basically, these people aren’t as easy to take advantage of anymore. 

The one thing that does remain constant is the tight players as there’s plenty of people who still see this as a safe alternative to playing too aggressively.  Now don’t mistake this for being tight/aggressive as most of these players are not to be taken lightly.  However the passive players, who used to be ignored back in the early days of online poker, are definitely a group that needs to be taken advantage of now. 

The great thing about the ultra-tight players, or tight/passive people, is that they will surrender blinds very easily.  They wilt to bluffs and semi-bluffs if they aren’t holding good hands and their money is easy to obtain.  The only thing is though, you’ll have to battle others for these blinds too and you will also have to battle players that you used to avoid at the tables.  This may mean going after the aggressive players who you perceive to be somewhat weak.  The key is that there aren’t as many major fish out there so you have to be more aware of the tiny advantages that you can exploit.

I remember hearing about the Internet gambling case down in Kentucky several days ago and immediately dismissing it as an attempt by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to get his name in the papers (see the first post here).  After all, how could a small state such as Kentucky have the power to take away some of the biggest gambling and poker site domain names?  What reason could they possibly come up with to justify themselves - out of all of the other 50 states in the US - being able to take away property from these global companies? 

And just think, places such as Doyle’s Room service many different nationalities and many different countries yet Kentucky thinks that they have some divine right to cripple these businesses just because the government doesn’t like its residents gambling online.  Unfortunately, we live in a world that allows crooked governors to align with crooked judges to keep these circuses going.  This was revealed after Kentucky Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in favor of allowing this case to go to trial.

Never mind the fact that the only reason Steve Beshear is doing this is so that Kentucky’s long tradition of reaping money from tourists, as well as its own residents, through horse race betting can continue (this was actually one of Beshear’s platforms for getting elected).  Now how stupid is this?  Beshear wants to stop online gambling in his state, yet boost the gambling activities of his own state even more. 

It’s sad to see that this case is even going to trial and also that a state government has the power to perform an injustice such as this.  Plus the power this wields to the government is also a scary thought and this was summed up nicely by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association when they stated, “Should the actions of Kentucky’s chief executive stand, the harm to Internet freedom would be immense. What a powerful weapon would be placed in the hands of government: to arbitrarily seize politically, religiously, or culturally-based Internet domains that may run contrary to the views of those in power.”

Let’s hope that even more unthinkable things don’t arise from this case.

There are a lot of things where the team concept really makes sense: basketball, football, marketing, construction, colluding with buddies in online poker rooms to make more money…..just kidding about the last one.  But seriously, besides those who choose to cheat other players out of their money online  (in which case I really hope they get caught), I’ve never seen where the team concept comes into play with poker.  Apparently, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas thinks differently though.

That’s because the Hard Rock Hotel is going to be hosting a new form of poker that settles around the team-first concept (if you don’t believe me then check it out here).  It’s called Dream Team Poker and this team event will be taking place from November 7th to the 9th.  The concept of Dream Team Poker sounds pretty cool in theory since there will be 25 teams consisting of 3 people competing against each other. 

What’s unique about this is that players who hit the rail early will not only hate themselves, but they’ll also be hated by their teammates as well.  The early exits are no longer names under the rug - they count for their team’s score since everyone’s place is added to the tally.  To me, this is a pretty unique and original concept, plus the Hard Rock Poker Lounge is a sweet place to hold this event.  But don’t get too excited about the thought…..

This is because the Dream Team Poker deal is an invitation-only event and only 75 people will be invited to compete.  Everyone who is sent an invitation has to pay $1,000 which adds up to $3,000 for the entire team.  Wow!  What an invitation tournament…..you have the honor of paying $1,000 to fly out to Las Vegas, pay for your own room, and compete for a $75,000 prize pool which pales in comparison to many Sunday online tournaments where people can pay $300 (or less) to enter.

While the original line of thinking with this idea is pretty cool, I won’t be too impressed until Dream Team Poker becomes more practical.

Several weeks ago I did a post on the issue of just how effective poker training websites really are (see it here).  After all, this is a growing part of the poker industry since places like CardRunners.com, StoxPoker.com, PokerPwnage.com, and RealPoker.com have developed pretty big membership bases.  I couldn’t exactly speak from personal experience but I was kind of wondering on the success rate that these places offer their players.

Well just recently I got my first feedback on how these sites are doing as I heard of a thread at TwoPlusTwo.com (see it here) that deals with the topic of how good the instructors actually are at playing the game of poker themselves.  The thread was aimed at the aforementioned CardRunners.com and, unfortunately for the site, it wasn’t exactly good feedback.

The person who started the thread was somebody who got curious about the actual skill of the teachers at CardRunners.com and did a search on their cash game histories through TableRatings.com.  After the search was completed, it was discovered that 7 out of 9 of the main instructors at the site were losing money when playing cash games.  This definitely begs the question: are these the type of people that you want to pay money to teach you the game of poker?

Now obviously this could have just been chalked up to a bad run if it was just one of the pros.  However, 7 out of 9 of them had poor results which again makes me question the effectiveness of these so-called pro instructors and even the sites themselves.  I’m definitely going to keep up on this story and see if anything else pops up about the subject.