Black Friday has turned many American poker pros daily life up side down. According to a survey made by a very popular American poker magazine, many Poker Pros have considered to move from the U.S. in order to avoid further hassle. Below you can read what 6 poker pros had to say about online poker's future in the U.S.
Adam "squee451" Sherman - ($1.1 million in tournament earnings)Right now I'm un[...] Read more » American poker pros consider moving abroad
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
with so much money involved for them, they'll definitely find it hard to live without online poker. most of them are young students so maybe they'll like to finish education first and then shift countries for poker.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Well I would feel sorry for them if they haddent won millions, its easy for most of them to up-route and move on, those I feel for is the Joe Bloggs, with 20k BR and using poker to pay his way in life, He has just been made un-employed, and he has a family, not so easy to just pack the bags and go. Not that it matter but Adam "squee451" Sherman has won $2,186,791.37 and Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen £4,130,378.14 But I find it odd that some of these guys live in LV, not as if they will be short of a game to play.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
B1gfoot is right, people that already won over $1.000.000 from poker can easily relocate to europe and start playing again, but as he said there are people with a bankroll under $50.000 that play at 5/10$ limits and win about $5.000 - $6.000 per month and they live from that money. For those people it's a lot harder now to relocate to europe, even harder if they have a family. Many said what will happen with top pros, well it was clear they won't be affected for the moment. The most lucky players are those that live in Las Vegas and can hit the tables at casinos. Still i have a feeling that pretty soon the online poker will be allowed again in United States. We need to wait and see.
Posted by Macubaas: B1gfoot is right, people that already won over $1.000.000 from poker can easily relocate to europe and start playing again, but as he said there are people with a bankroll under $50.000 that play at 5/10$ limits and win about $5.000 - $6.000 per month and they live from that money. For those people it's a lot harder now to relocate to europe, even harder if they have a family.
Well my question is, is it going to be much more cheaper if they move to a nearby country like Canada for example? As for sure moving to Europe is gonna be expensive...
If not I knew that a lot of pros would move country as most of them, it's one of their main option...
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
It depends on what country you decide to move on. There are very expensive countries in europe, countries like united kingdom(especially london) and monaco. Of course top online players like tom dwan, daniel cates would have no problem in moving on these locations but of course for players that have a $50.000 or less bankroll probably the cost of moving would be way too high so the first option would be Canada of course. But again, i don't know the Canada regulations regarding online gambling. I don't know if you need to pay taxes from what you earn online or just for playing live at casinos. Many countries in europe like uk for example don't have to pay taxes for their online profit and other eastern countries too, the exception is Italy and France. On these too you only need to pay taxes on what you cash out.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Denmark
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 48
I definitely agree on you there Macubaas. The big pros won't have any problems finding a new place to settle down and play some online poker. But for the smaller poker players, isn't Mexico an option too?
honestly with their kind of rolls, relocating to anywhere they want will not be a problem at all, but the thought of leaving family and friends just to play poker full time(which from what I heard is really stressful) doesn't sound good.
Joined: Jan '10
Location: Germany
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1379
Posted by Calmplay:
Posted by Macubaas: B1gfoot is right, people that already won over $1.000.000 from poker can easily relocate to europe and start playing again, but as he said there are people with a bankroll under $50.000 that play at 5/10$ limits and win about $5.000 - $6.000 per month and they live from that money. For those people it's a lot harder now to relocate to europe, even harder if they have a family.
Well my question is, is it going to be much more cheaper if they move to a nearby country like Canada for example? As for sure moving to Europe is gonna be expensive...
If not I knew that a lot of pros would move country as most of them, it's one of their main option...
I wouldn´t think the move to Canada would be much cheaper than to travel to Europe. As the costs would be almost even... Maybe houses in Canada are cheaper I dont know...
But of course and that was clear right from the beginning pros will have a look on the action and start thinking about moving elsewhere.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: United States
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 31
Man black friday really messed up ppl lives for real..With bank rolls like that moving or staying should not be an option to me.Thats just me i guess..I mean they are pros, why not just invest in other sites and bring in more beginner players and build from there.I mean they are pros..Just a thought...
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
Posted by B1gfoot: Well I would feel sorry for them if they haddent won millions, its easy for most of them to up-route and move on, those I feel for is the Joe Bloggs, with 20k BR and using poker to pay his way in life, He has just been made un-employed, and he has a family, not so easy to just pack the bags and go.
Those people I wonder about the most. Playing daily just to survive, with no other clearly defined options. I was often thinking last week how many Americans are now facing this problem? More than we know, I think...
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
I'm not sure about pokerstars team pros but i'm sure full tilt poker red pros are allowed to play on other sites too except full tilt poker. The best example is Andreas "Skjervoy" Torbergsen, as we know it's a regular at the nosebleed full tilt poker cash tables but he also plays on pokerstars under the same username. Still top pros like him although they are allowed to play on other sites too, poker platforms like bodog or ipoker network doesn't have high stakes no limit holdem or pot limit omaha tables and regulars for these pro to go and play profitable. But again for them relocating to europe shouldn't be a problem at all.
Yes you can see alot of american players moving abroad but as a few above have said the players that make a living grinding on poker but only earn a few thousand a month and have a family cannot afford to move abroad. hopefully this situation will be resolved quickly so there is no need for players to move abroad.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
I like their replies and if I had a choice to finish my degree or move to another country to continue playing on-line poker, I'd definitely finish my degree first. I know the love for poker can encourage one to pursue their dream as a poker player, but having a dgree in a specific field would have to be my first obligation. After that, of course I would move where I could play poker, but would want to have the degree to fall back on. Poker swings can be vicious and to pursue poker without something to fallback on, personally I'd be scraed. Good Luck to All!
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
What a s**t situation to all those guys that live from poker. This is like they have lost theirs jobs and they have to go to work in some other country. That sucks!
USA is close to the situation from one video on YT, where police is searching flats and they don't care about the ones full of weapons or drugs, they search online poker player. This is sad.
