irvin wrote:
Organized chess has never had mainstream visibility. Most people see chess
as a nice, good pastime and are not interested beyond the occasional quick
game.

Poker is going through a period of some visibility (mostly the midnight run
with limited audiences) that is being bankrolled by the gambling industry.
I'm not sure it will be on TV for long or that it will grow beyond what it
is today. Time will tell, I guess.
--
Irvin

Time will tell indeed. But for now, poker is at its heyday. I remember
when the World Series of poker is played by less than 20 people. Now
it's in the thousands. Celebrities like Ben Affleck, Toby Mcguire,
Jmaes Woods, and the owner of the LA Lakers, Jerry Buss are some of the
avid poker players.

It's the excitement of the game that differs poker from chess. If
chessplayers will be able to overcome the presence of some noises, then
chess is ready for TV.

It's not about the entry fee. The 2003 WSOP champion invested only
$46.00 and won 2.5 million dollars. Recently, I entered with $11.00 and
won 3rd place for a prize of a couple of thousand dollars.