1. I know among my crowd, the bloom has come off the rose. About a year ago we had no problem finding 20 players to play in a monthly home game. Now its hard to scrape together 10 and almost everyone I talk to says their online sessons are shorter and not as frequent. I think some of the online slowness has to do with all the nuts you find online playing 47os to catch a 7 on the river for a win. There is so much bad play online now that skilled players get whacked by people that should never have been in a hand.

Posted at 3:58PM on Sep 7th 2005 by Doug

2. That is interesting Doug, where I live (in Canada) you can't escape it. Home games are larger than ever here. I have to agree with Wil though, the sites I frequent show no signs of slowing down.

Posted at 4:19PM on Sep 7th 2005 by Joanne

3. isn't it just saying that the growth is decreasing? i haven't seen the original article this is refering to but it seems like it's not saying that online poker is unpopular or even not still growing - just that the rate of growth has hit its peak. that would not be all that surprising as poker experienced an unprecedented boom two years ago.

Posted at 6:42PM on Sep 7th 2005 by michael

4. The exponential growth of poker had to slow down at some point, but slowing down is a far cry from actually losing players. Eventually, the poker market will find a point of equilibrium, where the players who bust out (and don't return) equal the number of incoming players. The trick is to get to, and remain, near the top of the food chain. :0)

Posted at 10:55PM on Sep 7th 2005 by Rod

5. Stock gets major hype, has huge IPO, people realize it was a big *too* huge, goes through correction Goes back to more realistic stock price, still extremely solid.

IANASB, but how does any of that indicate a loss of popularity in any arena besides the brokers?

Posted at 7:01PM on Sep 14th 2005 by PokerGeek

6. I ABSOLUTELY with Doug's comment about the nuts that are trolling online poker rooms, looking to hit miracle cards. Problem is, all too often, they hit their miracle cards, get paid off, and get incented to come try it again the next time they're dealt 57h---chase that straight flush!

I have begun to refer to them as "Crazies", and they have been killing me lately. I think I will blog about them very soon---noting some of the bad losses I have taken. Most recent bad loss came where my trip Kings lost to gutshot straight with winner holding 8-10o. My preflop raise did nothing to deter them from hanging around. Nor did my persistent raising when my KK improved after a K was high card on ragged flop.

Oh well---what can you do? Keep up the good work everyone!

Posted at 12:40PM on Sep 15th 2005 by Mark