Only Play in Safe Online Poker Games
After all the hand wringing about Online Poker Games being destroyed by the actions of the United States Department of Justice there are still a few sites never missing a beat. While the folks at UB/AB are experiencing a painful 83% decline in numbers the same is not true for the sites that have been out of the U.S. markets for years. PokerStars seems to be recovering from their losses with an already large International player pool and FullTilt is probably somewhere in between the two, but other than those three it’s been business as usual everywhere else.
The safety of International online poker games continues unabated. Sites like bwin and Party Poker are gaining market share and players have nothing to worry about by putting money on those sites. Sure the state of the game has been affected by Black Friday but the changes are not the most predictable ones that are becoming evident. The sites that once serviced the U.S. are minus the troves of American fish that donated to the game. Course there were a lot of good American players too, that took back much of those donations, but Stars and Tilt have suffered not just in their player base but in their bad player base.
In the short run, without a consistent place to play there will probably be degradation or eroding of some of the American’ players poker skills. The ones that weren’t fish are now without a venue to play online poker games at a moment’s notice. Now many of those online prodigies find themselves in the unfamiliar smoky environs of a brick and mortar casino.
Those kids that are under 21 have discovered that many U.S. states only allow players 21 or older to play in a casino. Short of moving, they’ve discovered their government has taken away their best avenue to make a good living. There have been documented cases of American players moving overseas to gain access to online poker. Granted some are chasing their bankrolls on sites they already played at but many are also trying out newer international sites and some of those new sites are profiting from the U.S. crackdown.
People have drawn analogues to the Vietnam War when it comes to players that have moved north or south, to Canada or Mexico to play, just as kids once moved to try and dodge the draft during the Vietnam War. In both cases, the kids felt like their government was unfairly imposing somebody else’s laws and dictates on them. They felt like their freedom was exploited for reasons not entirely clear or logical to the lay person. While being restricted from playing online poker games is not anywhere on the same level as being forced to risk life and limb for a war a kid didn’t believe in the parallels are still there even if they don’t match in size and scope.
On a micro level, American casino suddenly are subject to kids spouting new terminology and educating their tablemates to terms like four-bet, back-raise, and measuring everything as plus or minus e.v. It’s likely the quality and aggression of live poker will improve, but at the same time the skill level of poker players in general in the United States will get worse. With live games spread so far apart, only a central hub like Las Vegas will come close to mimicking some of the bigger online sites, and it will still far well short of sustaining the elevated talent pool all in one place.
In short, the game got harder for everybody in American and long-run in online poker American players just moved to the slow lane, to let Europe, Asia, and South America put them in their rear view mirrors. One day, maybe one day soon, the United States market will reopen but U.S. players will discover they are more likely the donks than any other nationality that didn’t ban poker.