Online poker is not dead by Robbie Strazynski

How did cardplayerlifestyle.com come to life? Share your poker journey with us.

I started my cardplayerlifestyle.com website in late 2009. It began on a lark as a nights-and-weekends project. After six months, the first bit of revenue came in, and simultaneously I began to truly understand my audience and who I was writing for. Slowly, but surely, both my audience and my site’s revenues began to grow.

Though the site’s original goal was to try and make a little extra money on the side, it morphed into my creative outlet and conduit via which I was able to take an active role in the poker-playing community. As the months and years passed, my site’s traffic and revenues continued their upward climb in tandem to the point where I really began investing serious time and effort into growing the “side hustle” into something more.

That all took place during my free time away from my full-time job. My nascent journey into poker media became what I REALLY wanted to pursue; that’s what I really enjoyed and wished I had more time to work on.

So, in March 2017, I took the leap to full-time self-employment, with a minimum earnings target set to determine the business’ viability. In year one, I was thankfully able to exceed that minimum viability threshold by 20%, and I’ve never looked back. Each year has been better than the previous one ever since.

Is online poker dead? We know the answer is no but the rise of AI poker bots and having professionals being caught playing with multiple accounts makes me wonder if poker is either dead or we’ll have something that perhaps integrates a more live poker experience with webcams similar to what we see in online chess play.

I wouldn’t say that online poker is “dead”, but rather than it continues to evolve. As far as the AI poker bots and professionals being caught multi-accounting, there unfortunately have always been nefarious individuals with malicious intent looking to cheat at online poker. It’s a never-ending cat-and-mouse game that they play with the top-notch cybersecurity teams at the main online poker sites. Naturally, that reflects poorly on the entire industry, but it’s essentially unavoidable; when there’s big money to be won, people will always be looking for an edge, and sadly some will be breaking the rules in search of said edge.

With all that said, I don’t believe recreational players competing in lower stakes cash games and tournaments have too much to worry about. The amounts of money being dealt with in that realm “aren’t worth the time” of those aforementioned nefarious individuals. In general, so long as you’re playing on a reputable, licensed, regulated online poker website, you shouldn’t have to worry much about game security.

There are plenty of great online poker websites and they’re (literally) raking in plenty of money every minute of every day. People still love playing online poker and there’s enough of a worldwide player pool to support tons of games running 24/7 on many sites. Will online poker ever be as big a money generator for operators as online casinos and sports betting? No. But the people’s desire to keep playing online will always be there, and so long as good companies cater well to the players, they’ll do plenty of business.

Now let me put my foot in my mouth and say that poker seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity, and I know you can see this from the growth in traffic on your site. What is happening in the poker world today and what are some of the positive things you see? 

Traditionally, in the poker media space, we look to attendance at the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas as our “bellwether”. Indeed, the numbers tell the story, with ever-increasing attendance (pandemic years excluded) over the last few years. While dozens upon dozens of major tournaments take place during the WSOP, many of which are seeing upticks in player numbers from years prior, the $10,000 buy-in Main Event is “the biggie” and the 8,773-player record has stood since 2006. With 8,663 entries recorded last year, pretty much everyone is predicting that a new high-water mark will finally be set in a few weeks’ time.

This all bodes well for the industry as a whole, as we’re likely to keep seeing growth of this nature in live poker arenas not just in Las Vegas but also around the United States, Europe, and the rest of the Western world.

The surge in popularity is being fueled by a number of things including “a new generation” of eligible players having turned 21 years old, numerous poker streams and popular poker vlogs on YouTube, PokerGO and other platforms attracting excellent viewership, and of course online poker. When you see exciting poker happening on your screen, it’s only natural that that translates into an increased desire to get out there and play in a brick and mortar poker room or casino. 

Hustler Casino Live has some interesting players and characters on the show, despite the drama that gets featured on the show, has this been a good thing for poker?

Personally, I’m not a fan of all the over-the-top drama; things really seem to have jumped the shark, in my opinion. Plus, as a webmaster running my own poker media outlet, I don’t really have the time to sit and watch hours-long poker streams (so I keep up via highlights and snippets). With that said, HCL’s production quality is excellent and they are to be commended for it as well as consistently putting together lineups that tens of thousands of viewers want to see. WHY tens of thousands of people want to keep watching these over-the-top shenanigans, I can’t fully explain, but hey, if they’re tuning in to see poker, and that eventually gets them to want to play poker themselves, then I suppose it can only be a net good thing for the game.

To be sure, I certainly don’t think EVERY HCL stream is “a dumpster fire waiting to happen”. Some hands really showcase must-see-poker TV, and it’s a good thing to have those genuinely fascinating poker highlights from featured players like Ethan “Rampage” Yau, Tom Dwan and Doug Polk broadcast to the masses.

Doyle Brunson sadly passed away recently and you wrote a really nice tribute for him on social media. What was he like in person and what do you think people should remember him for aside from being someone that likely put poker on the map as possibly the first poker celebrity?

I only had the pleasure of meeting Doyle one time, and I was admittedly pretty starstruck. He was arguably the highest-profile player in the game; one whose name resonated even among those unfamiliar with poker. My interaction with him was limited to a brief couple minutes-long conversation, but he was exceedingly kind to have taken that time to speak with me while he was in the midst of a high-stakes cash game. 

Every industry has its trailblazers, but there was only one “Godfather” of poker and Doyle was it. His aren’t the type of shoes anyone else can ever hope to fill. However big and popular this game ever gets, we ALL have Doyle to thank for playing an instrumental role in popularizing it and helping to bring it to the masses. 

You’ve started posting about live poker events that you are hosting. What is it like hosting these and what is the feedback on it? I see another one coming up in Las Vegas soon.

Yes, indeed! I’ll be hosting my fifth Mixed Game Festival at Resorts World from July 2-6. The first one, back in October 2021, was essentially an experiment to see “if there was an audience” for it, and it turned out that my hunch was correct.

What we try to do in my live events is promote mixed game poker (i.e., other poker variants besides Texas Hold’em) on a grassroots level by getting rooms to spread the games for low stakes (e.g., $4/8 fixed limit cash games). In a sense, it functions as “the world’s biggest home game” and that’s the friendly kind of vibe and ambience we strive to — and have successfully been able to — achieve.

Thankfully, feedback has been positive across the board, from the players, to the dealers, to the poker room management: they’re happy to host our events and, frankly, we’ve been moving from strength to strength with each new Mixed Game Festival.

Our fifth one is coming up very soon and we’ll be incorporating some new elements, like a poker trivia competition and scavenger hunt, to help keep things festive. From that to pizza parties and book signings with well-known professional players, as well as tons of prize giveaways from a great and generous stable of sponsors, players are assured they’ll have a fantastic time.

Even if you aren’t the supremely lucky player who will get randomly selected to win our grand prize of a PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour prize package to their inaugural stop in Cyprus in October, you stand a great chance of taking home some merchandise from companies like BBO Poker Tables, Faded Spade, D&B Poker Publishing, Pokercoaching.com, PokerGO, and RunGoodGear. As the festival’s host, nothing beats seeing all the smiling faces at the felt each day, knowing the players are having such a great time.

You’ve been in the poker world so long and have a website that seems to be growing month over month, what’s in store for you in the future in poker? 

What’s that saying? “Keep doing what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I do very genuinely love what I do, and I’m grateful to keep seeing steady growth for my site and brand in the poker world. I hope to keep that positive momentum going for a long while to come. 

As my core business grows and I’m able to hopefully keep scaling things up with the assistance of some very helpful people who I trust, I’d like to try and expand the Mixed Game Festival’s footprint a bit more to additional venues outside Las Vegas. Right now, you can walk into any poker room around the world and always be sure that you’ll find a low-stakes Texas Hold’em game. Eventually, I hope that you’ll always be able to find a low-stakes mixed game going, too, and we’re going to keep trying to build that player pool one festival at a time.