Why 2005 Will Be a Terrific Year for Poker and What You Can Do to Make it a Banner Year for You, Too

So compelling is poker nowadays that it's become the thing to talk about at dinner parties as well as around the water cooler at work; even people who had no prior interest in card games of any sort are wondering just what all the fuss is about, so they give it a go, too. Everything builds upon everything else, and poker is, as the current vernacular goes, "blowing up."

The coming year promises to be a great one for poker. The television boom – all poker, all the time, or so it seems – hasn't yet reached its peak despite televised poker tournaments at almost every hour of the day or night. All the pizzazz stemming from the fact that the last two World Series of Poker champions found their way to the big dance through Internet satellites (at PokerStars.com) continues to popularize online poker beyond the wildest dreams of Internet poker site operators only a few years ago.

If you looked for a book about online poker prior to 2003, you'd be looking a long time. But John Vorhaus, Matthew Hilger, and yours truly along with Kathy Watterson each wrote a book about Internet poker that year, and all were published within about three months of each other.

Because most of the 2005 World Series of Poker will take place at the Rio, the crowds figure to be even bigger than they were in 2004, simply because the Rio has more space than the Horseshoe. At this juncture, 3,000 participants for the main event seems not so much a PR man's fantasy as it does a starting point for estimating just how big this event can possibly grow.

All of poker's growth elements are self-enhancing, and that produces the feeding-frenzy phenomenon we're seeing today. TV brings people to live events, and so has the democratization of poker and low-cost entry paths provided by Internet satellites. When 3,000 people show up to play in a poker tournament, that's news, and the media gives it the attention it deserves. Their coverage causes more people to take an interest in poker and begin playing in local casinos and on the Internet. Tournaments are bigger as a result, and poker's newcomers, bitten by the craze, can't get enough of it as a spectator event on TV.

This leads to made-for-TV poker events that bring even more players into the game. The "craze" elements of poker's popularity mean new opportunities for poker players everywhere. You'll find more games available at your casino, the casino across the street, and the casino in cyberspace. Many of these games are very loose, and are populated by players who have yet to learn that winning requires selectivity as well as aggressive play. Until new players learn that lesson, there's a huge opportunity awaiting anyone who understands these twin concepts well enough to take advantage of those who don't.

Television's fascination, for the most part, centers on no-limit hold'em tournaments. That's good news as well as bad. The bad news for you and me is that some new players will learn to play the game extremely well because they have the inherent talent and discipline, avail themselves of books, videos, and personalized poker lessons that are available to them, and supplement these things with whatever acumen they gain by critically dissecting the poker tournaments they watch on TV. The good news, however, far outweighs the bad. Many new and eager players will never learn to play well. Some of them just don't have the right stuff, while others are simply action junkies – table-cowboys who belly up to a poker game only for the action it provides – and see it as just another gamble. While these guys will have their winning nights, in the long run, they can be picked clean by anyone with a modicum of skill and discipline at the poker table.

Like kudzu vines choking the life out of other plants, no-limit Texas hold'em seems to be driving away other forms of poker, and you seldom find Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better, seven-card stud, and seven-card stud eight-or-better spread in land-based casinos. The only exception occurs when these games are spread as cash-game adjuncts to tournaments.

But outside of tournaments and those "training-wheels" no-limit hold'em games spread with a maximum, and generally very affordable, buy-in of $100 or $200, most of the games you'll find in traditional casinos are played with fixed betting limits. There's a world of difference between no-limit tournaments and fixed-limit cash games – and new players, weaned on Internet tournament poker and tethered to their nightly TV poker fix, will need to make lots of adjustments to master both games. Many tournament adherents, if for no other reason than their lack of playing experience in fixed-limit games, will be the designated live ones for quite some time in cash games. This is another opportunity for skilled limit hold'em players to win more money in 2005.

Variety is the spice of life. Everyone needs a change every once in a while, and that includes poker players. I predict that many hold'em disciples will begin to develop an appetite for other games, and if you can get out ahead of the curve by learning to play them well, you'll have a huge edge over hold'em players who decide to give Omaha eight-or-better a tumble and apply their hold'em strategies because the games look remarkably similar, and they don't have any other frame of reference from which to select playing strategies.

Poker's growth affords remarkable opportunity for players as well as for individuals looking to advance their careers in the poker industry. 2005 will bring more games, in more locations, and if you're willing to take the time to put in the effort and study that are guaranteed to improve your game, you should find yourself improving faster than your opponents and increasing the gap between your skill level and theirs. That can only bode well for you in the long run. Have a happy new year; I'm predicting 2005 will be a good one.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger. His newest book, Winning Omaha/8 Poker, is available at www.Cardplayer.com.