Poker Will Continue to Boom

Jeff is incredibly lazy, so he asked me to write his publisher's message for this issue. I guess sitting around collecting money is tiring for him. Anyway, I agreed, so here it is …

People are constantly telling me that poker has peaked. I tell them that they're wrong. This week, I received confirmation that I'm right.

I haven't played a hand of major tournament poker since last year's World Series of Poker. I didn't cash in 10 events. I was disgusted with myself and decided to take a break. Anyway, this past week, I went to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to play golf. On the No. 2 course, site of last year's U.S. Open, I noticed that our caddies were looking at me and whispering. One of them said to me, "I've seen you on TV."

He went on to recount for me, in detail, my bust-out hand from my only World Poker Tour final table. "You pushed all in with the K 3, right?"

Yeah, that's right.

"Mike Keohan had pocket kings. He's tight, so why did you do that?"

I had my reasons (never mind that the reasons were all bad).

So, although I've barely played poker in the past 18 months, and despite the fact that my last major final table came in February of 2004, this guy remembered all the gory details of a WPT event that I played two years ago. I'm barely a blip on the poker landscape, yet I'm constantly being recognized in cardrooms and even on golf courses.

People follow poker the same way that they follow NCAA basketball or Major League Baseball. And the quality of the poker that is available on TV is only getting better.

I've been living overseas (in Asia) since December. I came back this month to do the voice-over on this year's New York Versus Boston Poker Challenge (I'm the analyst). I finally got a chance to watch High Stakes Poker on GSN. This is the greatest thing that I've ever seen in my life. It was inconceivable four or five years ago that a cash game would ever be televised. And we've barely scratched the surface of what's possible.

I estimate that poker is at about 15 percent of what it will ultimately become in mass-market acceptance and popularity. Internet poker sites will continue to grow. TV will continue to crave poker programming, and those shows will continue to improve. High Stakes Poker is just the leading edge of the trend.

So, even though I'm really down on my own poker prowess right now, I'm going to be back at the World Series, looking to break through. But no matter how I do, poker is going to keep booming. You can bet on it.