ScooperNova
Hair in a Biscuit
Loyaler
I thought it might be fun and nostalgic for some of us old folks to talk about some of our memories of the golden days of online poker in the US.
The consensus is that the games were easier to beat. I don't think it was really that much easier at the small stakes cash games I play, but I certainly agree that online poker is tougher now overall. This was also during the poker "boom" ignited by the appropriately named Chris Moneymaker winning the wsop main even after qualifying in a satellite and being an unknown at the time. There were a lot of people just trying their hand (pun intended) at a new game. The small stakes MTTs I play sometimes are noticeably a bit tougher overall, and the player pool is much smaller. In my opinion, so many people specialize in MTTs, and have studied the overwhelming amount of information, this is the style of poker that has increased in difficulty the most. The player pools being smaller and the people who have stuck around being more likely to be experienced players is a factor for sure.
Back then there were SOOO many sites to choose from. This is probably the thing I miss the most. This also meant there were SOOO many sign up bonuses to take advantage of. There was also always the exact game you were looking for somewhere. There were some I played on that I can't even remember their names.
- One of my favorites was called something simple like PokerRoom.com or something.
-I had a lot of success on partypoker as well, and I probably played the most MTTs on there.
-bodog was pretty good too, MUCH better than what we have left of it today in Bovada/ignition. That was probably the site I put the most cash game volume in. I played as high as 10/20 omaha on there somehow. That just seems like a fantasy today as i play .05/.10 PLO8 lol.
-The site I probably miss the most was Doyle's Room. I really liked their celebrity tournament whatever it was called. They had famous pros with bounties on them. These were the first bounty tournaments I ever played. Sometimes the GOAT himself played. His son Todd played often. I remember Jen Harman and Hoyt Corkins too. Good times to be had for sure.
What were some of your favorite sites? I'd love to hear about these sites and why you liked them. I also remember playing Absolute, Ultimate Bet, Carbon, FullTilt, pokerstars
I was a young man back then and it's fun to think about cutting my teeth at all the different sites and learning the game from my roomate. We used to play in tournaments together and take turns playing hands lol. I guess that's against the rules, but we didn't know any better and/or care. It's not like we had some crazy advantage or something anyway, maybe the opposite lol. It was just so much fun taking turns and discussing the hands. I was a little different back then so we were usually "partaking" in some other light activities while playing. I ended up making enough money to be helpful with rent, but certainly not pro level or anything. We also held homegames at out place twice a week and I cleaned up pretty good.
Then you just wake up one day and try to sign in and see the FBI screen of death lol. I can't believe it hasn't been legalized nationwide and taxed at this point. It's been so long. It's ridiculous sports betting is viewed as some righteous activity and I can't play a hand of poker, which is ABSOLUTELY more of a skill game than sports betting.
Anyway, what are y'alls memories of the golden years?
The consensus is that the games were easier to beat. I don't think it was really that much easier at the small stakes cash games I play, but I certainly agree that online poker is tougher now overall. This was also during the poker "boom" ignited by the appropriately named Chris Moneymaker winning the wsop main even after qualifying in a satellite and being an unknown at the time. There were a lot of people just trying their hand (pun intended) at a new game. The small stakes MTTs I play sometimes are noticeably a bit tougher overall, and the player pool is much smaller. In my opinion, so many people specialize in MTTs, and have studied the overwhelming amount of information, this is the style of poker that has increased in difficulty the most. The player pools being smaller and the people who have stuck around being more likely to be experienced players is a factor for sure.
Back then there were SOOO many sites to choose from. This is probably the thing I miss the most. This also meant there were SOOO many sign up bonuses to take advantage of. There was also always the exact game you were looking for somewhere. There were some I played on that I can't even remember their names.
- One of my favorites was called something simple like PokerRoom.com or something.
-I had a lot of success on partypoker as well, and I probably played the most MTTs on there.
-bodog was pretty good too, MUCH better than what we have left of it today in Bovada/ignition. That was probably the site I put the most cash game volume in. I played as high as 10/20 omaha on there somehow. That just seems like a fantasy today as i play .05/.10 PLO8 lol.
-The site I probably miss the most was Doyle's Room. I really liked their celebrity tournament whatever it was called. They had famous pros with bounties on them. These were the first bounty tournaments I ever played. Sometimes the GOAT himself played. His son Todd played often. I remember Jen Harman and Hoyt Corkins too. Good times to be had for sure.
What were some of your favorite sites? I'd love to hear about these sites and why you liked them. I also remember playing Absolute, Ultimate Bet, Carbon, FullTilt, pokerstars
I was a young man back then and it's fun to think about cutting my teeth at all the different sites and learning the game from my roomate. We used to play in tournaments together and take turns playing hands lol. I guess that's against the rules, but we didn't know any better and/or care. It's not like we had some crazy advantage or something anyway, maybe the opposite lol. It was just so much fun taking turns and discussing the hands. I was a little different back then so we were usually "partaking" in some other light activities while playing. I ended up making enough money to be helpful with rent, but certainly not pro level or anything. We also held homegames at out place twice a week and I cleaned up pretty good.
Then you just wake up one day and try to sign in and see the FBI screen of death lol. I can't believe it hasn't been legalized nationwide and taxed at this point. It's been so long. It's ridiculous sports betting is viewed as some righteous activity and I can't play a hand of poker, which is ABSOLUTELY more of a skill game than sports betting.
Anyway, what are y'alls memories of the golden years?