Poker's golden age

	The best players in any activity want competitive arenas in which they can demonstrate their prowess

Over the last year, one of the most common questions I’ve been asked by journalists is whether the poker boom is going to last. It’s easy to see why the press would ask such a question because there have been countless instances of games flourishing for brief periods of time, reaching unprecedented heights of popularity – only for them to disappear without a trace (remember the Rubik’s Cube?). However, I believe poker will have a long shelf-life because it shares fundamental similarities with other long-lasting leisure activities.

Factors that determine whether games like poker become firmly established or simply fade away include the capacity for skill development, a large bibliography, competitions and tournaments and corporate sponsorship. Let’s look at these briefly in turn. Firstly, all good games are relatively easy to play but can take a lifetime to master. I would therefore argue the capacity for continued skill development – not even the pros can claim to be infallible – is important for poker’s continued popularity and future existence.

Poker’s a real tease

Sean Carroll from the University of Chicago says the secret of poker’s allure (and challenge) is it’s a game of incomplete information. Gamblers know the cards they already have, and they (should) know the probabilities of various further cards coming their way, but they have to infer their opponents’ hands from tiny hints (such as their bets, their positions at the table and their personal styles). Carroll says Texas hold’em is so popular because it manages to accurately hit the mark between ‘enough information to devise a consistently winning strategy’ and ‘not enough information to do much more than guess’.

The best poker players are able to use different algorithms against different opponents, as the situation warrants. The psychological charm in such games is there’s no perfect strategy, and that’s what keeps you coming back for more.

For games of this type of complexity there must be a bibliography that people can reference and consult. Without books and magazines to instruct and provide information there’ll be no development and the activity will die. The sheer number of books on poker and the emergence of monthly magazines (like InsideEdge and PokerPlayer) on the market again demonstrates how healthy the state of the poker industry is.

Thirdly, there needs to be competitions and tournaments. Without somewhere to play and like-minded people to play with there will be little development within the field over long periods of time. Although playing poker isn’t an Olympic sport, who’s to say it shouldn’t be by the middle of the next century? This is very much linked to the capacity for skill development as the best players in any activity will want competitive arenas in which they can demonstrate their dexterity, prowess, physical and mental reactions, problem-solving ability and overall gameplay.

Finally – and very much a sign of the times – no leisure activity can succeed today without corporate sponsorship of some kind. The poker industry is a multi-billion pound industry so corporate sponsorship in this particular area shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Connected with this is the fact that poker has also moved onto the small screen and into our living rooms. When I’m channel hopping late at night it sometimes seems I’m doing nothing but flicking from one poker programme to another.

We wannabe Chris Moneymakers

Televised poker is similar to reality TV – except poker players are competing for a million dollars and aren’t acting. When people watch professional sports they may project themselves as being able to ‘play with the pros,’ but they know it’s just a fantasy. Viewers of poker, however, can think along with the players and really feel that if they had the opportunity, they might make it to the final table themselves. There seems little doubt the media blitz of TV poker shows has contributed to the surge in poker popularity.

Today’s youngsters are the first generation in history under the age of 25 years to grow up in a gambling-permissive society. It’s a cultural change that’s taken the game from being one largely limited to card rooms and gaming halls up to today’s heady heights of casinos, the internet and national television.

Then there’s the psychological appeal of the game itself. Poker has much the same appeal that chess (or, for that matter, any other game of strategy) has. It’s the psychological and intellectual ‘game within the game’. Like chess, you’re also thinking further ahead than the next card – indeed, the number of things to think about is virtually limitless. It’s an intellectual game that never has an ending. There’s no perfect strategy and everything you do is contingent upon a hundred other factors, so it never gets boring for players. Every table is different, every game is different, every hand is different. And, if you do it well, you can win a lot of money!