I read it the other day in Amarillo Slim’s autobiography I think. It was a quote from Johnny Moss which said “Hold ‘Em is to Stud what chess is to checkers”. Coincidentally, I was rang the same day by the manager of the Luton card room, asking if I'd put up some information about a 7 Card Stud tournament they are hosting in November in memory of a deceased poker player. With that came the genesis of an idea for a blog entry. So bear with me... I was asked the other day whether I thought the game has reached a popularity peak, as some pundits think. Card Player magazine, which calls itself the 'poker authority', has been testing the waters of poker's popularity (online) for a while. They conducted one online opinion poll to which 1,387 readers responded. The question: Has television poker coverage reached saturation point? Results indicated that 51.77% (718) of the respondents thought they'd seen enough poker on TV.
Granted, this poll wasn't scientific and the question kind of floats in space on its own but it might have some validity when it comes to the decision-making in the upper echelons of the entertainment media. Personally, I think perhaps the game has peaked as far as TV coverage is concerned, probably related to the poor quality of much of the made for TV poker content, but not as far as individual interest goes.
The questions I found more interesting had been asked previously. Voters in the poll preferred No-Limit Hold ‘Em overwhelmingly over all other forms of poker, although Omaha (especially high-low) was also popular. Few people played Stud, fewer played draw and lowball and fewer still played the triple-draw games.
This makes it appear as if the only future for poker is in the flop games where manipulating and reading an opponent can be more important than the fundamentals of reading cards. That is, the shift has been far, far away from the intellectual thinking requirements of the non-flop games and into the direction of the 'muscle' and 'bravery' that the flop games can require.
Yet a backward direction could be the salvation of poker's possibly plateauing popularity.
Yes, Hold ‘Em is a great game. Hold ‘Em is the game that the old time rounders, the grifters, the old-time cheats, pro's and thieves as well as the good guys played. Hold ‘Em is the game specially introduced back then to fish to reel in the money. (Later they did it with Omaha and Omaha high-low.) This is not a condemnation of pioneering poker players, this was their way of life.
Eventually the public caught on and began to understand the community card game, and helped by the WPT, Moneymaker, Late Night Poker in the UK and the advent of poker going into the mainstream it became a game of exponential growth providing a sweet spot for existing providers as well as new entrants. Now, however, maturity for the industry appears to be upon us. Players have been going broke in terms of online bankrolls and unlike before, data from the industry is showing that they are not now necessarily coming back. Player numbers online are static, in some rooms falling. The online space is crowded, over competitive and ripe for consolidation.
Now, the same question that was asked way back before the poker era is being asked again:
Is there an infinite supply of new players available to contribute to the pot?
Maybe. Probably not. The house will grind the players down, keeping the rake and encouraging losers to go back to the cashpoint or the credit card advance machine and hurry back. Sooner or later the word will get out that somebody other than the millions of new players is scooping up all the money and the game will begin to suffer.
What we might need is more attention to the other version of poker. We need to see these pro's compete for big money in the thinking-man's game - Stud. We need the online poker rooms and the brick-and-mortar outfits to go back to offering Stud as well as Hold ‘Em. Interestingly, some sites are now offering H.O.R.S.E tournaments, and these are growing in popularity. We need the WPT and the WSOP to host a $10,000 and $25,000 buy-in 7 card Stud competition. And while they're at it, they can reintroduce draw poker and lowball. I'm thinking that showcasing these versions of poker will bring even more people to play. At the same time, it will suck out much of that luck element and give newcomers a real chance at excellence through intellect as well as 'all-in' muscle.
Returning back to Luton, I spoke to an old timer. He told me about the times, twenty years ago, when THE big game at the casino was the Sunday night 7 Card Stud tournament that would attract hundreds of players each week. Hold ‘Em tournaments were nowhere. The last Stud tournament was about two years ago, and the old timers miss it. Nowadays, apart from calling it in a Dealer's Choice Cash game, you can’t play it anywhere live as far as I can see.
I profess I don’t play it well, I began playing Poker in late 2004 and I am a child of the Hold ‘Em generation. However nowadays my online cash games of choice are Hi-Lo Omaha. Hold 'Em online can bore me. Live cash Hold 'Em can bore me. Dealers Choice cash fascinates me, probably because I have so much to learn about the Non flop games.
So I think on the 13th November at 8pm I’ll be in Luton for the 13th Annual Gerry Freed Memorial Trophy, a £50 rebuy Seven Card Stud competition preceded by a Champagne Buffet and attended by Gerry’s widow, Connie Freed, who plays tournaments at Luton to this day.
It might be a long shot, but Stud might just be the path to the next growth leg for the poker industry.