Is poker a fad?

sooners83 · #1 07-25-2005, 11:53 AM

With all the poker on TV and everyone trying to play poker, will this just be another fad? I think poker will hit its peak this year after the coverage of the WSOP, do you all think it will just flatten off, keep going up, or go down? Will poker be around for a many years (maybe forever?), or will people get tired of losing their money and quit caring about it?

hoursurfing · #2 07-25-2005, 12:39 PM

Its definately not a fad. It gives people something to do when they're bored and having nothing else to do. They're not playing online poker because its popular. Home games might dwindle but I believe online play is here forever. According to the statistics online poker will hit 20 billion in market share by 2009. Not sure how reliable that source is.

Later,
Rog

sooners83 · #3 07-25-2005, 01:57 PM

Don't get me wrong, I hope it his here to stay. If not, I will continue to ride the wave as long as I can.

GregK · #4 07-25-2005, 04:10 PM

It will have to peak & level out someday?

Its no fad IMHO though.

jcap1p · #5 07-25-2005, 04:39 PM

Poker has been around since ancient times, but with Varkoni, Moneymaker and Raymer winning the WSOP, people started thinking "Wow! Anyone can win this thing!" That is why it has blown up so much in the past couple of years. After a while though the dreams of all the wanna-be's of winning a big event will start to die off when their bankrolls diminish and they realize that they will probably never be world class players. I think interest in the game is at or near it's peak right now, but as we know people LOVE to gamble and those who weren't playing poker 5-10 years ago are playing now. AS we know most people don't start playing poker and all of a sudden just stop, so I think that for at least the next couple of years, that sailing the affiliate ship is a very lucrative proposition.

Jason

bfuchs · #6 07-25-2005, 05:19 PM

I think poker sites realise it is not a fad. Why else would they pay you $150-$250 a player?????? if it's going to die out they won't make a profit.

ozim · #7 07-25-2005, 06:53 PM

Why? It's simple. It's like huge rally on the stock exchange, it's like a dot.com fever from few years ago. Therefore, it doesn't matter how much it costs to get involved and people spend millions to get the train before it leaves. But the train has got nowhere to go. Just as the stock market, poker industry needs new players to keep booming. But then, suddenly, when noone expects it and when things look really rosy, the river of new players dries out and everything colapses. Surely, PartyPoker, PokerStars, Paradise/Sportingbet - they will survive. But you don't really think there is a market for 500 poker rooms, do you?
The reasons thousands of people play poker will still be there, but the reasons that make millions gamble will not.

regards.
Chris

Dave · #8 07-25-2005, 09:18 PM

My dad taught my brothers and I how to play poker when I was 10.

When I was 15, in 1977, I came across a copy of "Gambling Times" magazine at the local news stand and became fascinated with the WSOP and it's cast of larger than life characters like, Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, Johnny Moss "The Grand Old Man of Poker", Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, Jack "Treetop" Straus and Bobbie "The Owl" Baldwin to name just a few. I studied David Sklansky's poker strategy articles and was soon fleecing my high-school chums of their pocket money.

The World Series of Poker has been a huge annual event for millions of poker fans world wide for decades, but we had to read about it in magazines and catch glimpes of it on "Wide World of Sports" , poker isn't some new fad.

Reality show obsessed cable television and the internet have just turned tournament poker into a new spectator sport, thanks to lipstick cams and celebrity commentators.

I started playing online as soon as Planet Poker opened their doors in 99 and signed up at Party Poker a couple of years later.

I don't know if I used an affiliate link when I opened those accounts, but if I did they've mades thousands of dollars from me. Literally thousands. I'm the kind of player you want as a sign up.

Sure most of the old time players like myself already have accounts at most of the major online poker rooms but new, life long winning players are being introduced to the game everyday. These are the people you need to target as a poker affiliate.

Giving $50 free to someone who has seen poker on tv and thinks it's cool, so you can get $75 CPA and pocket $25 profit is laughable.

If you build a player base of life-long, winning poker fans you'll see the money roll in every month for many, many years to come.

How do you do this?

1. Build a website that teachs people how to become a winning player, even if it's just at low limit. Winners keep playing and generating rake.

2. Team up with a winning player you know and become business partners. He or she has the contacts and you can handle the marketing strategy. The possibilities are endless if you use your imagination and work hard at it.

Is poker just a fad?

For millions of people, yes, but for millions of others it's a life-long passion.

sooners83 · #9 07-26-2005, 12:45 PM

I think over time (while the big poker wave is moving), if you could get a few thousand RMPs to sign up under you, the most of the 'gamblers' would weed out over time then you could have a steady base of solid players that play every month and make you money. Just my theory

Beanie · #10 07-27-2005, 03:26 AM

No one knowingly takes the name Beanie. So yes I was involved with Beanie Babies. I was also involved with Sports Memoribilia. I know fads. Poker is a version of a fad.

What I think we will see is companies getting much more aggressive with overlays and such. This will be a good time for both affiliates and customers as companies will be comfortable making less on the same customers that they had a year ago. I don't see an overall decline for a couple years (poker is the new black jack).

What I do think is that the people who have control over their customer base will be positioned well to benefit from the competition that will inherently happen as companies fight for fewer and fewer customers.

Sounds good right, only problem is the customers will want more and more from us and it will be difficult to continue getting new customers. My approach is to give my customers the red carpet treatment so they send their friends to me. So far, so good.