Is this the future of online poker?

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing move towards using tracking software in online poker. Several years ago we were told that this is the future of online poker. Well in my opinion there are different types of future. There is the extremely short term future, the short term future, intermediate term future and long term future.

Something that may help us in the short term future may prove to be a hindrance in the long term future and vice versa of course. It is quite possible that the effectiveness of something in the short term can be nullified by time elapsing and the term “having a shelf life” springs to mind here.

There is a serious argument in online poker for playing below certain levels depending on your ability. The natural progression of a poker player is either that they get educated or they get broke. The ones who educate themselves are the more serious players and the more serious players end up moving up in levels. So what happens when you move up above certain levels (like NL200) as the fish and the shark population suddenly has a distinct shift?

The fish by being fish are thus losing more money and don’t tend to hang around long. So what you can sometimes end up with is tables full of different species of shark. I don’t know about you but I certainly don’t want to be in the water with any species of shark.

But tracking software has now made the sharks even more “sharkier” and given them a whole new set of razor sharp teeth with which to use against unsuspecting lesser species. Personally I would rather be a shark but there is little point in being a shark if your food supply entails having to fight other sharks for it……this way…..sharks end up getting injured or killed.

Can you see where I am coming from here? The latest statistics for online poker are showing that only about 6-8% of players are long term winners. This is a frightening statistic but not surprising once you understand the online environment. The higher you play online then the amount of value drops off alarmingly until you can get to a stage where most of your online sessions involve sitting on empty tables waiting for some fish to show up.

One also has to remember that a fish need not be a bad poker player either. A fish is simply a player who is outclassed given the situation that they are in at this moment in time.

Some of the best poker players in the world could be fish in certain circumstances. There are many situations where I would be the shark on the table but there are an almost equal number of instances where I may be the fish as well. Playing winning poker is a matter of finding your ideal level and going up against players who are weaker than you. If you can do that and the rake isn’t prohibitive then you will make money online.

The future of online poker is starting to look like it will be dominated by tracker users and data mining freaks who basically know everything about your game. The answer is basically to either drop back to milder waters or to build yourself up to be one of the meanest nastiest sharks in the water. I always fine that there is something rather relaxing about beating up on weaker players. But then again I have always been an idle son of a gun.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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