There has been much debate regarding the popularity of poker this year with many such as myself stating that poker is in decline. Can we really say the poker boom is well and truly over? What metric can we use to determine the current popularity of poker? Well for the purpose of this article I’m mainly going to reference to the UK poker scene, in particularly the live poker scene.
As an old git I can relate back to live poker before the online poker boom. I use to play at the flea bitten card room at Stanley’s Casino, Derby. On a good night we would have 20 players for the £20 rebuy, whilst on a bad night we were down to a single table. Of course the online poker boom had a massive effect on card rooms around the UK. Virtually overnight the attendance at Stanley’s shot up to 50, 60 or sometimes over 70. This of course was mirrored all around the UK. A few years ago perhaps the best card room in Europe was built in Nottingham which was just a 20 minutes drive from my home. Instead of playing a £20 rebuy at Stanley’s I was now playing £25 and £50 buy ins at DTD with up to 200 runners. How times had changed!
Casinos throughout the UK started to cash in on the poker boom with most card rooms packed out for their regular holdem tournaments. Even the G-Casino chain cashed in on the boom creating the GUKPT poker tour, a poker festival each month at a different venue around the UK with the main event being a £1000 buy in.
So what is the state of play now? Is live poker still thriving? Well I’m sorry to say that it is very clear that live poker in the UK is in decline. Virtually every GUKPT event this year, compared to last year, has seen reduced entries. The £25 midweek buy in event at DTD that used to attract up to 200 runners is now struggling to attract 70. Even EPT events seem to be attracting fewer entries compared to last year.
As the number of online poker players increased it was very clear that many of these filtered to the live poker scene. It now seems clear that as the number of online poker players decrease, this results in less players buying into live poker events.
I know many affiliates will be in denial, perhaps blaming the decline on the World Cup or even say the decline is seasonal. To me though, these arguments are not valid, as the decline has been in progress for perhaps the last year.
I’m not saying that poker is going to die, but it does seem clear to me that interest in the game is levelling off. We desperately need legalised online gambling in the US, which many suggest could create another boom.
