Evolution of the Poker Player Since 2001

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Wednesday, April 13th, 2016 | Written by Stephen Smith

The world of poker has changed dramatically since the early 2000s, and players who were professionals at the time but have since failed to adapt have been unable to continue making a living from the game. Nevertheless, major developments are once again taking place in the poker industry, and there’s a chance that the people who are currently professionals could also end up falling by the wayside, much like their predecessors, if they fail to adapt to these changes.

Pros at the Start of the Online Boom

Back in 2001, when online poker sites were a brand new concept, many poker players were skeptical of them. At that time, e-commerce was just beginning, and the idea of turning over a credit card number to a website seemed risky. Many professional poker players failed to sign up for sites in their early stages due to those concerns and missed their opportunity to make good money when online poker boomed just a few years later.

Other professional players passed off online poker as a fad and predicted its popularity would fade fast. These players were obviously mistaken, as online and traditional poker now actually forms a symbiotic relationship. Online poker has made more people confident in trying their luck at the live tables, while traditional poker players have found it possible to make money by playing online.

What Poker Players Have Become

Up until recently, professional online poker players didn’t need to focus on winning to bring home a decent hourly wage. By playing at numerous tables at once, they could receive large amounts of rakeback, and professionals today are mostly grinders, people who focus on quantity and play as many hands as they can manage at a time to maximize the amount of rakeback they receive.

Last fall, however, PokerStars overhauled their VIP program drastically, eliminating the profitable top tier from their rewards structure. This caused a major backlash among professional poker players, and understandably so, as now their primary source of income at the virtual tables has been eliminated.

Where Poker Is Going

The recent changes at PokerStars and at other sites, like 888 won’t mean the end of professional poker, but it will mean that players will have to adjust their styles to continue to earn money. At PokerStars, it will now be necessary to play fewer games and focus on winning by using skill rather than simply grinding. 888 will reward players who choose to branch out and try other forms of gambling like online casino games and sports betting, as well as those who use their skills to earn various achievements.

Players who have managed to make money simply through grinding and have not developed good strategies and skills will likely be unable to continue to use online poker as a viable source of income; however, for everyone else, a change in how games are played will continue to make poker profitable, and possibly, more fun.

Opportunity Costs

Consequently, poker pros these days now have some pretty big decisions to make on whether to continue eeking out a living at the virtual tables, or alternatively to seek out new career paths which may afford them better money-making prospects. One player, Terrence Chan, has over the past few years embarked on an exciting new vocation as a mixed martial artist, and last November offered some interesting advice to his fellow pros on his popular poker blog.

During his poker career, Chan won $1,207,767 playing live tournament, as well as a further $213,629 online under the screen name TChan. In his article entitled “The end of the online poker pro?“, Chan states that traditionally just 1% of players were able to either break-even or earn a living playing poker online, but now that figure is likely to be even less considering the lower reward programs currently being offered by major poker sites.

Furthermore, Chan expresses his view that as far as PokerStars is concerned, once respected poker pros are now being viewed simply as “leeches on our games, parasites on our idyllic poker economy”. As a result, Chan suggests current pros should now reconsider their future options, and as he explains in his post:

“If you are an online poker pro, and you have not made at least 100k/year in the last two years, you should strongly consider applying for a real job somewhere. If you are an aspiring poker pro and haven’t quite made the leap yet, you need to look long and hard about whether you really want to sign up for this grind. Stars’ goal is to create an equilibrium where everyone is a small loser. It is an uphill battle when you are fighting against the most powerful organization in poker.”