I think the boom is over in the United States and you can only blame it on the UIGEA, how long it might have lasted without the government interfering is anyone's guess.

Jumped the Shark???

It hasn't yet.

I agree with DeltaFlyer - it ain't over.  More people will play the WSOP this year than last year.  And when the UIGEA is finally killed - it will start a second wave.  All the dead money will come back and the all the fishies will be online again.

In Australia the "boom" began with Joe Hachem, so we still have some time to go UP UP UP, we hope.

All the downslide in the poker boom seems to be taking place in the over-commercialized United States in other parts of the universe the boom is in full swing or just getting started. But what fad has not gone up fast and then fallen just as quickly? I mean how many of you can actually find your hula hoop or backgammon set???

In the US it has to be the UIGEA but my friends in France tell me that the even more draconian ban there has not stopped players from playing, so perhaps there is hope of a revival.

Jumped the shark in the last year, whether the shark was avoided or not is still to be determined.

Online bans around the world have hindered the growth of poker everywhere.

I don't know when and if poker jumped the shark.  But it sure as hell took some body blows when Betfair endorsed three online players that were confessed cheaters online.  Obviously these companies are just trying to squeeze money from players and would do anything to the game or say anything that would send just one more cent their way.

Some of the gimmicks on television like a couples night on Poker After Dark or the cowboy hat on Chua Giang.

I gotta go with Jerry Yang, who would have thought we would do worse than Jamie Gold.

Poker is bigger and better than anytime except a brief period in '05 & '06; forget those two years and we are doing just fine, thank-you.