Forced to Move Away From USA to Continue a Career: Pro Poker Stories Part 1
I wrote my introductory post a few days ago, detailing how I became a professional gambler and included a few stories and explanations on certain subtopics of poker/gambling to commenters.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@daut44/introduction-and-ama-ask-me-anything-about-being-a-professional-poker-and-daily-fantasy-sports-player-cross-post-from-poker
I wanted to tell you guys a small piece of the story of how unconstitutional legislation and the US Department of Justice forced me to move to Canada to continue playing poker for a living.
UIGEA
The SAFE Port Act was a statute enacted by Congress covering port security that passed on September 30th, 2006. It should have been only that, but instead, in the 23rd hour before the Act passed, The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was added to it.
“(The UIGEA) prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any federal or state law.
Apparently no one on the Senate-House committee saw the final language of the bill before it was passed, but who would vote against a maritime and cargo security measure in a post 9/11 world?
The Economist: “(The UIGEA was) hastily tacked onto the end of an unrelated legislation”
Poker sites operating in the US had to make a choice: “Should I stay or should I go?"
PartyPoker, at the time the largest online poker site, decided to play it safe and leave: its publicly traded stock dropped over 50% in a day. Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and UltimateBet chose to stay in the US market because poker is a game of skill and they believed it would be excluded from the UIGEA. Staying initially paid off, as Pokerstars and Full Tilt (FTP) grew to be the two largest poker sites in the world by a wide margin.
Black Friday
On April 15, 2011, since referred to as Black Friday, over 4 years after the UIGEA passed, the US Department of Justice seized the internet addresses of Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and UltimateBet, replacing them with a takedown notice:
Poker is without a doubt a game of skill. Over the long run, the better players make money. Yet online poker sites were attacked while impossible to beat (winners exist, but nobody expects to win money) games of chance like the lottery are left alone because they are heavily taxed, and **the government does not wish to bite the hand that feeds it. **
At the time I had roughly $85,000 on Pokerstars, $102,000 on Full Tilt Poker, and $4,000 frozen on AbsolutePoker. Now 5+ years removed from Black Friday, I have received roughly 2/3 of it back and will never see the other $65,000. But the story of Full Tilt’s insolvency and theft from its players is for another day.
Aftermath
Professional online poker players from the US were forced to make a choice after Black Friday. There were essentially 3 options:
- Find a different career
- Start playing mainly in casinos rather than online, because the remaining online sites had little traffic compared to the major sites
- Move away from the US to continue their careers
Most people chose #3. Many poker players didn't finish college so other career choices are limited and many don't have access to close worthwhile casinos. Moving to another country to continue playing online was somehow the best option of the three for the majority of online pros. Although I have a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, and live 45 minutes from a major poker casino, and despite having a girlfriend who lived in California and was unable to move, it was clear that renting an apartment in Vancouver was the best choice for me. My earning potential in poker was still higher than other jobs and I despise the casino atmosphere and I would likely fall into depression having to play in them every day.
What happened to online poker afterwards was predictable. Most of the professional players in the US moved away to continue playing, but none of the recreational players that played for fun did. The best players remaining and the subpar players quitting meant that games online were instantly harder, which forced people to work harder, and the difficulty of being a professional poker player increased at a rapid rate.
By the end of 2014, I was making more money in a different sector of professional gambling, namely Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS), so I switched over full time and play much less poker now. And while I've done extremely well in these past 20 months, DFS is now facing similar legislation against it from lawmakers who are in the pockets of the wealthy campaign contributors. Every time new legislation is proposed, when we follow the money, we find the political corruption.
"Anarchy is not an absence of order; it is an absence of orders."
This series of unconstitutional events and attacks on personal freedoms of US citizens altered countless lives. I wish I could count on one hand or less how many poker players I know who either committed suicide or died after a spiraling depression due to the events that transpired. The centralization vs decentralization argument hits so close to home for all poker players, and we believe strongly in Blockchain technology and hope that it can change the world.
Ended up here from the poker life podcast! (rocketship)
I played some poker back than (not nearly at your level), I live in Europe, but black Friday came as a shock here as well.
To me it still remains unclear what is the object of these kinds of legislation. In the end they drive away business, and they drive away players, thus actually costing the government.
And in terms of protecting consumers,... If you pick your tournaments, you can easily spend an entire night playing for 3,30$, even if you do not make a cent. Tell me what kind of entertainment you can get for 3,30$ (asides from looking at you TV screen).
Ofcourse the full tilt fiasco came right on top of that to reinforce a negative view of online poker for the general public.
Looking forward to your post on that mess.
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.
Gotta do what you gotta do.. crap I've felt the same about bitcoin debit cards and atms that you pay cash for bitcoin at!
Hey there daut44! I used to play at Pokerstars back in the day, and it was my 'Summer Job' in 2006 (I'm a Music Teacher so I don't do anything during the Summer).
I remember all of the hassles it was to get money in and out at that time. I remember the Netteller account and card that was the only way I could cash things out , or by converting the money to Magic the Gathering Online Event Tickets (Basically, people used it as digital currency - You'd get .90 pokerstars $$ for 1 tix or vice versa with various exchange rates).
I live in New York, and we were the first 'State with DFS to not have DFS', until recently when our State government passed the DFS bill. Unfortunately, the Online Poker bill only passed in one of the 2 legislative houses, so we have to wait another day...
I would love to play Poker Online legally again, because I stopped playing all together. Especially now that I have a lot more saved up than I did back 10 years ago.... It's funny how that happens sometimes.
Anyways, I wish you the best of luck in your DFS and may you never get hit with a Bad Beat that isn't rewarding a jackpot.
YEAH BUDDAYYY!!! I UFC'd!!! (Upvoted, Followed, and Commented)
Seeya in the steemit.chat!!!
-bigedude
That summer off teacher schedule must have been perfect for playing poker. Not to mention I assume you had less lesson planning and assignment grading than say an English teacher, which I'm sure gave you extra time to play on weeknights. What were you playing back then?
Yes, I remember the Neteller days. I actually had $100k frozen on Neteller for about 6 months in 2007. The runner up to me at PCA, Isaac Haxton, had over $700k stuck there. They responded to the UIGEA by freezing US balances, but eventually returned them. Would have been nice if we could have cashed out through bitcoin back then huh?
The NY DFS bill is such a triumph. Dean Murray is a hero. Slowly but surely poker and DFS will be regulated country wide, but who knows how long that will take.
There are still a couple sites you can play online. Bovada takes bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. BlackChipPoker too. Both are a far cry from Pokerstars, but if you miss the game you can still find ways to play.
Appreciate that, and love the UFC acronym. Will remember that and yes, will be present in steemit.chat when I'm on the site
OMG - Funny story about Isaac Haxton!!! I met him when he was probably 14 at many Magic tournaments (He grew up in the Syracuse area and I grew up 30 minutes away)!!! He was just getting started and eventually made the Pro Tour multiple times. I know most of the major tournament players all got into Poker - I remember being at Origins in Columbus,Ohio when the Nationals were still held there (1996-9 I think were the years I went) . There were Magic people playing poker everywhere!! This is well before David Williams' well documented run at the WSOP in 2004.
I didn't have much $$ in 2006, but I did very well in Tournaments. Ten years ago this month, I finished 2nd and 3rd in two $3 Re-buys with over 2000 people each - I made about $5k in the span of a week. That was pretty awesome back then.
If Bitcoin had existed back then, it would've been very different, I agree!!
I've played some free Poker here and there - like Zynga and stuff, but I've been busy with my YouTube channel in which I play a ton of games on my Phone, and it's pretty time consuming. However, it's worth it because I now have over 93,000 subscribers, and I make a nice bit of change on that every month hahah!!
Great to see you here and ROCK ON DUDE!!
-bigedude
Yes, Ike originally tried to play chess competitively, but it wasnt for him. Then he switched over to Magic, and the following leap to poker was much more fluid. The two biggest feeder games into poker are MTG and Starcraft.
The small rebuys were a lot of fun back then. I was always a cash game player so I never had the big rushes of going deep in them early in my career, but I had friends who built their bankrolls on tournaments like the ones you final tabled.
Do you ever twitch? It seems like the subscriber system on twitch can be incredibly profitable. Or did you find for your specific content that youtube was more profitable?
As with my other threads, I like to promote intellectual discourse in the comment section, and think a disproportionate amount of rewards go towards the author.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@daut44/steemit-needs-to-change-its-reward-system-to-better-incentivize-intelligent-discourse-in-blogs
Thus, I pledge to give 30% of this blog's rewards back to commenters, 10% each to the top 3 commenters. (first 12 hour payouts, after 12 hours the payouts have been trivial to none)
Wow. What was your initial reaction when you realized you had probably just lost all (or some) of your poker money?
It wouldn't have been all my poker money, but I had roughly 20-25% of my net worth online at the time. I had so many different emotions after this happened.
For one, I was getting ready to withdraw a large portion of the money I had online out (probably 60%) cause the summer was coming and most players go to Vegas and play in the World Series of Poker, so I wanted money to go play in big tournaments.
For two, it didn't just rob me of money I had, but future money I could make. Poker wasn't as easy in 2011 as it was in the 05-08 years, but hourly winrates were still quite high.
In the immediate aftermath, I tried going up to the Commerce Casino to play every day. It was just so much more inconvenient. When I play online I play anywhere from 4 to 12 tables at a time, seeing 60 hands per hour per table. I can join and leave games whenever I choose. If I want to go play live I had to drive 45 minutes, then wait around for 10-15 minutes to get into a game, sit in an uncomfortable chair and play 30 hands an hour away from the comfort of my own home. Some people enjoy it and even prefer it, but it wasn't a sustainable life for me.
tl;dr. cliffs: a mixture of sadness, anger, bitterness, and jealousy of the rest of world players that could continue playing
going to ship .05 steam dollars to @stealthtrader @walkerlv @bigedude @lifeislie for participating. don't spend it all in one place guys