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The Changing Face of Poker

The changing faces of poker; change with it or get left behind.

This topic is extremely important for both cash games play and tournament play. In this day and age of poker, the climate has changed drastically due to two reasons. Reason #1: The inception of internet poker. This has totally changed the face of poker. The stereotypical poker player no longer exists; you know the one, fat old grumpy cigar smoking gambler. Now you see everything from the eighteen year old straight out of high school to the stay home mom playing the afternoon tournament online after dropping here kid off at baseball practice. Reason #2: Can you say “Chris Moneymaker”. Reason #1 and reason #2 have a little bit in common. Before any of us new era poker players knew who he was, Chris Moneymaker had won a seat into the world series of poker playing an online satellite on Pokerstars.com.

I would bet (sounds like a gambler) that the large majority of the knew era poker players (including myself) watched the 2003 World Series of Poker on ESPN and said “If this guy can make it, so can I”. After Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker, hundreds of thousands of people began learning (The right or wrong way) Texas Hold’em Poker. These players (All races, genders, ages, and financial statuses) flocked to the online pay sites and to there local casinos with huge aspirations and dreams of being the next Chris Moneymaker. For some people this was short lived, and for others (Yours truly) it became a way of life.

Well many of you right about now are saying “What does the above history lesson have to due with the topic at hand.” Well, it has a lot to due with it. Any serious player that began playing this game after Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker went out and bought every poker book in sight and began studying and applying there new found techniques. This my friends was called the “Poker Boom”.

The problem with most of the books and literature written during the time Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker was that they were written by professionals that have never faced the online poker boom. These writers have played there whole life in Brick and Mortar poker rooms, because that was the only place they could play. Many of these books were written way before the internet and Moneymaker changed the face of poker.

These books (I have many of them) have been written by extremely successful poker professional and have some of the best information and study material around. Most of these books give you a great starting base regarding fundamentals. Most of the techniques in these books will allow you to beat the average player in the casinos. The problems with the books are that books don’t play poker. They can give you all the fundamental techniques needed to play, but they can not give you the experience that live play can.

The internet has changed the way players play, for the good or bad. If you intend or have any aspirations of becoming a great player, you need to change your game play in order to compete with the best players in the world. You need to study books, magazines, internet programs and discuss poker with players you respect. Nothing will help your game more then playing with different players at all different levels. This is the reason why internet players have become so tough; they have played thousands of hands against thousands of different players. You don’t have to look far to find a great example of the way players had to change to compete against the new face of poker. Just take a look at this year’s World Series of Poker; they called it the year of the Pro. For the past few years the pro’s have not played as well as expected. This is due to the emergence of amateur and internet players rise to casino poker. The pro’s realized that if they wanted to compete at the same level that they were accustomed to, they had to change with the times as well, and change they did. Thirty eight pro’s won a bracelet out of 55 events. These top pro’s made slight adjustments to there already solid games and it paid off.

If you are as serious about this game as I am, you will do everything you can to get better and succeed. This game has become increasingly tougher with the changing faces of poker. Either change with them or get left behind.

Paul “The Machine” Valencia

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