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Relocating Professional US Online Poker Players - Is Canada The Best Option? |
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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 23 June 2011 09:31 |
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After the Friday 15th April closure of PokerStars, FullTilt, and you know the story…We have been hearing what professional online poker players have to say regarding their options to remain professional plaayers. Some have expressed the desire to play in more live games; but the competition is stiff and it’s a lot easier to make a living online. Some have expressed a real desire to relocate and we have seen, Europe, Costa Rica, the Caribbean and Canada mentioned more than a few times. But is Canada the best option – heck, is relocating the best option?
One professional poker player we have heard of is an accountant. He makes a little extra money during tax season; but after playing live poker games for a while, found he could make a really good living playing poker online. He left his day-job to play high-limit cash games online at both PokerStars and Full Tilt. A 2010 tax return revealed he earned $180,000 playing poker – twice as much as the full-time career he had been originally trained for. The fact that he was declaring his earnings was also something.
Playing poker online is his chosen new profession; but for him to continue playing and earning a good living; he has no choice but to leave the USA. He depends on PokerStars and FullTilt for his living, and no new-start-up site in the US (in the case of legalization) would have the same liquidity as either of these sites. Less liquidity, means less opportunities to win and smaller prize pools. These two sites are essentially his tools to make a living, and as we all know, they are no longer allowed to offer games to US players. Any online poker site in the world which believes it is going to cash in on the US closure of these two huge operators in this industry are going to be sadly mistaken. PokerStars is still regularly hosting up to 200 000 poker players simultaneously and massive volume such as this, means massive liquidity too. In essence a lot more money to go around!
Relocating for this player - if he wishes to continue enjoying the same lifestyle and earning opportunities; is the only option. He is not sure where to go, but being close to home and with no language barriers; Canada is his first choice. It seems almost ridiculous to change the country we live in just for the sake of a job, but if the work that you do is banned, then what would you do? For example; if cars were banned off the roads in this country, auto-mechanics would have to go where the cars are.
The system is blocking proxies, and players have to be able to prove to PokerStars and FullTilt, that they are not in the US and have an external bank account. We also have to remember that these sites are being overseen by DOJ appointed auditors, or whatever officials they use to make sure no US players are given access. Twoplustwo has even listed a series of countries which might be suitable for poker players to relocate…and we shall continue with this article….
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