RE: Forced to Move Away From USA to Continue a Career: Pro Poker Stories Part 1
It's generally about the money. For instance, Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Venetian and other casinos, is very against online gaming. He believes that the proliferation of online gaming hurts his brick and mortar casino business in the long run. So he produces smear campaigns, and funds lobbyists to do his dirty work in attempts to shut down online gaming. Billionaires buying political influence. Daily Fantasy Sports are now illegal in the state of Nevada (where Vegas is) because of lobbyist pushes like his.
And yes, I agree with you, such a cheap form of entertainment. Where else can you play a fun, engaging game with some of the best players in the world with a chance to improve and become a winning player for so cheap? Do you still play nowadays? If not, what drove you away from playing?
With regards to the full tilt fiasco, I was actually a red pro on full tilt. We got paid $35 an hour and 100% rakeback to play on the site. The DOJ used those payments to try and declare us de facto employees of the company (when really we were sponsored players without any shares, say in company decisions, or paychecks) and tried to deny us our money. It took over 4 years, but when I was finally paid, I only received ~40k of the ~102k I had on the site. What a complete mess
I still play a bit every now and than, but back than I was a college student with lots of time on my hands, now I work a 9-5 job, so sometimes I will log in for a small stakes tournament on stars. that and homegames with poker playing friends which I know from back than.
It's not really about money, just about the fun, and ofcourse trying to hit a final table is still as exciting as it was back in college.
These days though, I'm playing more razz, and 7 cars stud, as I find it much more interesting games than texas holdem. Though Omaha hi-lo is still a great game to me as well.
As to online poker being a competition for brick and mortar casino's,... I'm sure in a way it is, but where I'm from, the casino's nearby once a week have 1 1-2$ buy-in table (cashgame) and the other nights, all the tables are 10-20$ or up,...
No way I am going to lay down that kind of money, certainly not before you get to know the game. In that sense, in the long run, online poker might even introduce more people to casino poker, since they actually feel comfortable with their skills.
I transitioned mostly to PLO around 2009. I still play NLHE, but PLO was more fun and interesting.
I've always been pretty weak at the stud games compared to the big bet games, limit holdem, or o8. It was tough to learn a lot of the games because they aren't available anywhere outside of big games in casinos, huge games online, or the occasional tournament. Hard to learn what you can rarely play. What stakes are you playing and do you mostly play them in tournaments or just in cash? WCOOP/SCOOP are good opportunities to get some practice in, but wish something like a 10/20 razz game ran frequently instead of having to play too small or too big for my liking while learning.
Limit games to me are always in cashgames. They just aren't made to play in a tournament form to me, atleast not unless you have very long blind levels.
I usually actually play micro stakes these days, 0,10$-0,20$ razz. or Omaha hi-lo, but there is fairly little traffic at those stakes.