Poker...Then and Now - Part II

In my last column, I wrote about some of the amazing changes that I have seen occur in the poker industry over the last 30 years. Specifically, I wrote about the increase in the number of women playing poker, how much younger today’s players are, the fact that smoking is almost nonexistent in poker rooms in 2010, the decline in dealer and player abuse, the sheer increase in the volume of poker players, and some of the big differences in tournaments from 1980 to 2010 (better structures, deeper starting stacks, the use of tournament clocks, higher buy-in events, the introduction of the penalty system, expanded payouts, and so on).

Since that column went to print, I’ve made a list of changes, concepts, procedures, and innovations that I’ve seen during my long poker career, and present them to you in this column in no specific order:
• automatic shufflers
• electronic waiting lists
• player tracking systems
• statistical programs like CardPlayer.com’s Poker Stats Tracker, Poker Stove, Stat King, Poker Tracker, Hold’em Manager
• online poker
• prop bets
• tweets (I hear that Joe Sebok has more than 1 million followers on his Twitter account.)
• Poker Players Alliance
• WPT Boot Camp and WSOP Academy
• Tournament Directors Association
• poker cruises
• lipstick camera
• Mississippi straddle
• dealer-appreciation toke options in tournaments
• sit-and-gos
• re-entry tournaments
• “Ironman” tournaments
• betting lines on the poker-table felt
• Red Bull
• buying the button
• six-handed max games
• heads-up tournaments
• Spade Club
• Rush Poker
• multitabling [playing multiple tables simultaneously online]
• nosebleed games
• “third man walking”
• Player of the Year

There are lots of new trends in the poker world that have arisen over the past 30 years. We’ve seen the demise of seven-card stud and draw poker as the popularity of no-limit hold’em has increased. Lowball used to be one of the most popular World Series of Poker events. Hold’em poker wasn’t even legal in California until the mid-’80s. Did you know that the original game for the WSOP ladies event was seven-card stud? It then changed to half seven-card stud/half limit hold’em, then limit hold’em only, and now no-limit hold’em. Until 2002, it was almost impossible to find a live game of no-limit hold’em except during the WSOP. In fact, no one had even heard of some of today’s games, like triple-draw lowball and badugi.

Playing styles also have changed over the years. I heard a good saying recently: “Fast play is the new slow-play!” Who ever heard of “continuation-bets” 30 years ago?

Geographically, poker has expanded at an amazing pace. If I remember correctly, poker was legal only in California, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington when I took over Card Player in 1993, and it was virtually nonexistent in foreign countries. Today, you can play in the majority of our states and many countries around the world. I just read that the World Poker Tour now has an event in Marrakesh. There are “new” tours opening on a regular basis: the European Poker Tour, Asian Poker Tour, Heartland Poker Tour, and the newest, the North American Poker Tour, are just a few examples of very popular poker tours.

Technology has helped to change our poker world. You can now watch Vlogs such as The Scoop on CardPlayer.com. You can play on electronic poker tables without a dealer. There’s a tremendous number of online poker-training sites, such as Card Player Pro. Texting and tweeting at the table are commonplace. I’m hooked on at least a dozen poker blogs, but there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of poker bloggers.

Poker celebrities have become household names. Who hasn’t heard of Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Mike Sexton, or Daniel Negreanu. Internet celebs like Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Isildur1 have tongues wagging and chat boxes full. Thirty years ago, if you had said that poker players would one day have agents and be treated like rock stars, I would have thought you were crazy. Today, you can hardly turn on the television without seeing a poker show like the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, Poker2Nite, Face the Ace, Poker After Dark, or High Stakes Poker. Poker players have crossed over to mainstream television, such as Annie Duke appearing on Celebrity Apprentice or Vanessa Rousso starring on Bank of Hollywood.

So, is the poker world better for all of the changes that have occurred in the past 30 years? Absolutely — although I really miss the days when I could walk into a poker room and know at least 75 percent of the players.

In my next column, I’ll go over some modern poker terms. I welcome your e-mail to [email protected] with some modern poker terminology or slang.
Now, let’s play poker.

Linda is a partner in Card Player Cruises and teaches for WPT Boot Camp. She is available to host seminars and corporate functions, and can be reached through her website at www.cardplayercruises.com.