i happened to come across this
http://www.pokerupdate.com/poker-opinion/01082-the-skillfulness-of-online-poker-is-leading-to-its-downfall/amongst other points it argues
- "Operators have told GamblingCompliance Research Services that retaining casual players — many of which were quickly beaten by skillful players and have yet to return — has proven to be difficult, or costly, or both."
- "The bigger problem is the casual players didn't improve at the same rate, so the gap between the floor and ceiling of poker skill has widened significantly."
- "the Poker Boom also brought about software and training sites that allowed players to increase their skills at an almost alarming rate, and further widen the skill gap between the players who were unaware such tools existed."
and gives some possible solutons
"What can be done?
This is the question the poker industry will have to sort out in the coming years.
Low-limit heads-up and short-handed games (where mistakes are magnified) might have to go.
Structural changes to the games may be needed to decrease the skillfulness of the game - obviously mindful to make sure the game is still skillful and beatable.
Sites may have to adopt policies that protect losing players from the sharks, whether it be segregated tables, cracking down on third-party software, or limiting multi-tabling to force players to move up to higher stakes games to maintain their win rate.
Sites might also switch to a regressive rewards system with loss-back programs."
thoughts welcome