Progress for Poker

Whilst there was lots of excellent poker played last year, there are a few things that are better left behind and forgotten about rather than brought into the New Year.

With the arrival of the New Year comes the chance to reflect upon the last ten years of poker events in America and across the rest of the globe. The last decade has seen the industry grown massively, in particular the online poker world but also there are far more land based events taking place and the value of prizes is continuing to climb. Whilst 2010 was an excellent year for poker, there are a few aspects of last year that we’d rather not bring with us to 2011.

To begin with, thousands of players across America would like to forget the failures of the US legislatures to pass a bill that finally legalises and regulates online poker. Whilst it is true that there have been attempts on a state and federal level to make some progress and change the law, at the end of the day the New Year has arrived and there are still many frustrated poker players across the United States. The frustration was made worse after Harry Reid attempted to get his bill through at the last minute in the Lame Duck session but stopped trying at the final moment.

Another new trend that many people would like to see the back of is that of players selling their WSOP bracelets on eBay like they were worthless old junk. Peter Eastgate, the 2008 WSOP champion was the first player to do this, he said that he simply wanted to escape the poker limelight and forget about his win. Whilst his desire is both justifiable and understandable, after he decided to sell his bracelet a number of other players decided to follow suit and more bracelets are appearing at online auction sites all the time. There is widespread opinion that as the WSOP bracelet is the most desired prize in the poker world the sale of the bracelets is simply cheapening one of the most important poker events.
Hopefully over the coming year we’ll see these things disappear and the poker world grow and progress with proper regulation, more players, bigger and better tournaments and of course larger prizes.