American online poker players should relocate to Canada. This
is the advice from well known poker professional Daniel
Negreanu. Negreanu is famous for his exploits in live poker
tournaments, where he is tops in life time earnings with a tally
of over $14 million. But he regularly plays at online poker
sites as well. He says, “…because to stay current and stay ahead
of the curve, playing online poker is really a great place to
practice.”
Negreanu is a Canadian who lives in Las Vegas. He is contemplating sharing his time between his home town Toronto and Las Vegas so that he can legally play at online poker sites. Canadian residents can legally access online poker sites for wagering, including ones like FullTilt.com whose American domains have been seized. In fact US online poker sites like FullTilt.com and PokerStars.com were favorites of Canadian players. Now many of them are reluctant to have balances at online poker sites that are being investigated by American authorities. There are other reliable sites like 888Poker.com and PartyPoker.com that operate from reputed jurisdictions and do not serve American players and hence are safe.
It is easy for Canadian citizens like Negreanu to relocate to Canada. But it would be very difficult for most of the thousands of American online poker players who have lost their livelihood due to Black Friday. Negreanu suggests that young players with greater energy and fewer responsibilities should seriously consider relocation as an option. He says, “… if you don’t have a family, you’re not tied down, make an experience out of it.”
There are a number of notable Canadian poker players living in America. Many of them play at online poker sites. Some of the more famous names are Evelyn Ng, Isabelle Mercier and Gavin Smith. If they relocate to Canada as well, it will certainly encourage many of the online poker players to move out of the United States, at least temporarily. This exodus would be good for Canadian online poker as well.
In this interview Negreanu also mentioned that playing at online poker sites was more challenging. Good land based poker players are able to learn a lot by looking at their opponents in the face. In online poker this is not possible and therefore one important source of information is eliminated.