Before we get into today’s topic, I am again looking for volunteers to act as Admin for the forum. With the publication of the two books I was involved in (my book: Advanced Limit Hold’em Strategy, and the Borer-Mak book, Limit Hold’em: Winning Short-Handed Strategies), I need to reopen the forum to new member s who wish to discuss. question, or criticize the texts. To avoid the spam problem, we will have requests for forum membership sent directly to the admin, who will enter them. We will not put the admins address directly into the website, but rather use something like “johnAThotmail.com”‘ so the volunteer(s) will not be spammed. If you are willing to volunteer, please send me a message either at my e-mail address or using the contact page. I want to thank Fred Kray for his help, but he is working on a book and is no longer doing poker.

OK, live vs. online poker. For a while there, online poker was easy. This actually followed a well-known phenomenon in live poker. When a new part of the country legalized poker, some professionals would travel there to take advantage of the local players who thought they understood the game via home games. For a while, the pros feasted on these players, until they either learned to get better or quit (though of course, like everywhere, a few did neither and just continued to lose).

When Internet poker became popular, it was as if the whole nation suddenly legalized poker. Thousand of people rushed to join and play, and many of them had little or no idea what a complex and sophisticated game they were getting involved in. It took a far longer time for the learn-or-drop-out mechanism to work, because new people kept coming in. This was bound to end sooner or later, as nobody is willing to just lose every day.

Another phenomenon of online poker is that it is impossible for the losers to kid themselves. Occasional live players tend to take money from their overall life bankroll and play. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they do not keep records and can thus delude themselves that they more or less break even. Obviously online play requires a finite deposit, and when it s gone, you must deposit more. It thus becomes clear that losers are in fact losing. They may keep reloading for a while, but again, they will either study to find out why or just decide they are too unlucky to continue.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Regulation Act accelerated this inevitable process, by making it more difficult for the casual player to make deposits and withdrawals. It even made him feel like a criminal. Even before that Internet poker had clearly become more challenging and tougher to beat. Scores of bright college kids with an active curiosity, a penchant for study, and the time to play hours on end became good to excellent players.

Live poker became somewhat tougher, but there are still plenty of casual players, recreational players, and gamblers to keep the games going.

In all forms of poker, skill operates inexorably. I am fond of saying that poker is a “ruthless meritocracy.” As poor players leave, decent players become losers as excellent players still win. Because poker is a long term game, and even big winners have losing streaks, it takes quite a whole for a player who used to be a winner to realize that he is now actually a loser in the same game. Thus, especially on the Internet, people who should step down (or study harder and learn new stuff) keep playing and ignoring the signs.

But there is no question the Internet is a far tougher place to play than cardrooms and casinos.