{"id":5433,"date":"2021-06-28T13:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T13:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/?page_id=5433"},"modified":"2021-09-17T15:47:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T15:47:24","slug":"is-online-poker-dead","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/articles\/poker-guides\/is-online-poker-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Online Poker Dead Or Waiting For A Resurgence?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Online poker originally was the big player in the online gambling scene, providing an alternative to real-world sports betting, bingo and casino gaming. However, today, it is not quite as popular as it once was. The number of people opting to engage in online poker has dwindled since the 2000’s, and today the traffic levels can be considered as being at some of their lowest levels. This, of course, isn\u2019t good for the poker world, in general. Plus, it has led to various networks not being able to maintain their structure and closing down for good.<\/p>\n
Why is it that online poker doesn\u2019t have as much draw for gamblers anymore? And what\u2019s more, why is it that newcomers to the online gaming world don\u2019t have much interest in playing it? Has it just lost its general appeal or has something else knocked it into submission? Also, is this a game that has gone through a steady decline and will ultimately be non-existent in the years to come or can it be saved some way? Let\u2019s take a look at the rise and the fall of online poker and find out if gambling companies are doing anything to keep it as an available option at their sites.<\/p>\n
There was plenty happening back in the year 2003. In February, more than 2,000,000 people demonstrated against the Iraq War, which was the largest demonstration in UK history. June saw the release of Harry Potter and the Orders of the Phoenix <\/em>(simpler times for J.K. Rowling, no doubt). And Iain Duncan-Smith resigned after just two years as the Leader of the Conservative Party. However, it was also the year that the online poker boom<\/a> became prevalent.<\/p>\n That period of poker\u2019s huge boom would last for at least three years, with No Limit Texas Hold\u2019em and various other versions of the game reaching heights of popularity that it hadn\u2019t experienced before. It was during this time that the online poker player pool went through a revolution that saw it double in size every year at the very least.<\/p>\n As it happens, it was a film that sowed the seeds for the growth of poker, when Rounders <\/em>starring Matt Damon was released in 1998. Furthermore, online poker was introduced at Planet Poker in this year, and with the occasional broadcasts of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, there was enough there to appeal to people. There were two other triggers in 2003 that bolstered the status of poker, starting with the World Poker Tour\u2019s inaugural season on the Travel Channel in the United States. And then, in May of 2003, Chris Moneymaker \u2013 an amateur in the poker world \u2013 won the WSOP Main Event<\/a> after winning his seat via an $86 satellite tournament.<\/p>\n Online poker experienced quite the enthralling three years of high popularity, before October of 2006 rolled around. It was then that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was written into law in the US, meaning that several online poker sites (including industry leader PokerStars) had to withdraw from the country. In the first WSOP following this, attendance in the Main Event of the tournament fell by around 28%.<\/p>\n While the game still remains more popular today than it was prior to the poker boom of 2003, it still looks like the number of people participating in it is falling. But why is this? Well, several factors have worked against the professional poker world, and these issues have continued to arise even in recent times.<\/p>\n is killing off sectors of various industries and people are losing out on their jobs to robots. However, it was in 2019 that Facebook\u2019s AI Research team published their own paper, which outlined results for a superhuman AI that was capable of consistently outplaying the world\u2019s top poker players. Of course, that\u2019s a great feat for the AI world. Yet for the poker world, it\u2019s a huge blow. This nearly $4 billion industry was set to be rocked by this artificial intelligence, and they were likely to pop into action at all online poker rooms.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just something that has randomly come around. In fact, the paper that Facebook released is the culmination of many decades of work. Humans have been trying to design a piece of AI that can beat humans at a game with more than two teams, and the launch of such, known as \u201cPluribus\u201d, went on to successfully beat five other world champion players in a format akin to standard six-player online poker. And what\u2019s more, that AI was crafted with less than $150 of resources. Essentially, such intelligence can be created by anyone, making online poker no longer a game of skill, but one of battling robots.<\/p>\n Yet, even before these artificial intelligence bots came into operation, the online poker world was suffering from declining numbers. This just seems to be another punch in the face for the industry.<\/p>\n Poker as a game in general has always had those players who are a lot more professional and those who are considered more as amateurs. That\u2019s the same with anything really, but at one time, this had little impact on the game. As the years went by though, the sharks became more prevalent, taking advantage of the small fish.<\/p>\n Basically, a poker shark<\/a> is a more experienced player who preys on those who are considered amateurs and newcomers. This provides them with an easier way of winning money, as their superior skills often outmatch those of their lesser experienced opponents. And this would be something that affected online poker rooms often at one point, because a shark could simply take note of the username of a fish and follow them from table to table to get as much money as possible from them.<\/p>\n Today, some poker rooms incorporate anonymous tables, so usernames are not displayed for anyone. This makes it difficult for sharks to target specific players when they move from one table to another. Furthermore, poker rooms have included games that transport players from one table to a different one after they fold in a game. This keeps things mixed up and doesn\u2019t allow any one player to specifically be focused on.<\/p>\n Yet, the damage was done with the initial influx of sharks. Newcomers were scared off by the shark-infested waters of the poker world. Anyone who is new to the game would likely fall victim to them sooner or later, and this makes playing it far less enjoyable. Therefore, fewer people were signing up for accounts to play poker, and with less players for the sharks to prey on, their numbers also dwindled somewhat.<\/p>\n The number of online poker networks has also diminished in recent times, due to the decrease in people playing. A variety of networks have had to take the decision to close their poker operations over the past few years, with Microgaming\u2019s being one of the more recent to do so.<\/p>\n Microgaming started offering online poker to its members in 2003, which is when it first opened the Prima Poker platform. Of course, with the poker boom of the time being of great importance, the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) grew thick and fast, and over time, the developer went on to craft a network of around 30 different sites. This led to it transforming into one of the largest collaborations in gaming history. However, the network is another one that has suffered from the influx of bots taking over, and it wasn\u2019t too long before it took the decision to close down that it released certain data on its efforts to counteract this. That was done as a way to hopefully encourage the industry to be more transparent into itself about such things.<\/p>\n Despite the MPN becoming a large enough network in itself, it paled in size when compared with many others. Towards the end of its tenure, reports suggested that it averaged around 300 cash game players at any given time. That figures allowed it to be ranked 19th<\/sup> in the world, which was far behind big players like PokerStars and PartyPoker.<\/p>\nThe General Decline in Numbers<\/h2>\n
An AI Issue in Recent Times<\/h2>\n
Shark-Infested Waters<\/h2>\n
The Closure of Networks<\/h2>\n