Thinking through the reasons I don't play online anymore, I thought I'd post my opinion of poker tracking software onto the PKR site to see what sort of response I get from the readers.
Why I don't Play Online Poker Anymore.
The truth is, I do sometimes play online - but after a break-even period of epic proportions it has become clear to me that playing regularly online is just not that lucrative and thus not that much fun anymore. I've had a lot of conversations recently with live players and with those who used to play a lot of online poker in the good old days and the feeling is generally the same: online poker is becoming less and less about playing poker in the "classic sense" and more and more about who has the most expertise and mathematical skills in utilizing the ever-more elaborate and complicated poker tracking software.
Admittedly, I often use PokerOfficer while playing at PKR - but let's face it, this is a very crude and basic cousin of the far more sophisticated Poker Tracker and Holdem Officer Manager which are ubiquitously used by every single pro out there. PokerOfficer, by comparison, is laughable but it's the only one that I can personally use on PKR as I simply haven't got the expertise or knowledge to get the others working properly on this site. (And to even try to use PT or HEM while multi-tabling on PKR just sends my head into a spin.) Laughable.
The even more sinister thing that I am hearing nowadays is that there is even more highly developed software out there that is secretly being shared by the high-stakes pros. Soon enough, all poker players will realise that the greatest edge in this game (that is becoming ever-more tough to crack) will be had by those with a high degree of skill in the area of mathematics and computers - and those who can most effectively go about number-crunching all that data that is spewed out by the ever-more complicated software.
Online poker may have been a true "game" in the good old days. Nowadays it's becoming less of a game to the point where it's not really a game anymore! I don't want to be part of a system where 98% of the players are either big losers, hover around break-even or who are just able to make a few hundred or a few grand over a year - and where 2% pretty much just take all the money cos they actually work hard at it as part of their job! That ain't right.
In a few years, I really do think that the quality players will have taken pretty much all the golden eggs and while they may have not killed the golden goose, will certainly have maimed it so there will be very few eggs left to lay. As people gradually realise that they don't know how to use the poker software as well as the better players, more and more of the lower animals in the food-chain will just abandon the battleground. The stronger animals will then have to feed off each other until the battleground will be a barren wasteland of tyrannosaurus rexes roaming the world in search of the scant food supply left in a desperate attempt to stave off their own extinction.
This is what the poker industry is scared of and why they desperately try to entice us with riches and get us to carry on feeding the system. (Fair enough if PKR remove this post - I'll not be surprised - but it'll be interesting to hear what others have to say.) Unfortunately, it's a system I no longer want to be part of on a regular basis.
So I'm out!!
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