Travel With Me … Toronto - Part I

Since I started traveling the tournament circuit back in '96-'97, I've been fortunate to play in some very diverse poker rooms - some more pleasant than others. In each of my travel destinations, there always was something distinctively different about each room. In a previous column, I alluded to the differences between West Coast hold'em and East Coast hold'em. I received several e-mails asking me for an explanation, so I thought I'd devote an entire series of columns to explaining exactly what I meant.

The key difference you'll find when traveling, besides rules, table charges, and so forth, is the different styles of play in the various poker rooms across the globe. To generalize, the newer the poker room, the lower the level of skill of the players. That should be obvious. There is, however, a lot more to it than that.

In my poker career thus far, I've played in Toronto, Windsor/Detroit, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the Bay area, Connecticut, Mississippi, Reno, the Mexican Riviera (on the PartyPoker Million cruise), Atlantic City, Vienna, the Isle of Mann, London, and my all-time favorite, Costa Rica.

When traveling to each of these places, I found that it was very important to be conscious of the adjustments I'd have to make, whether it was playing a different form of poker or dealing with a very unique set of individual players.

In this seven-part series, I'm going to share with you what I deem to be some important strategy adjustments for the various places I've played. Along with that, I'll provide a little preview/review of what you should expect when traveling to the various locations I listed, as well as some personal stories along the way. It should be fun, so what better place to start than my hometown of Toronto, Canada.

The face of poker in Toronto has changed a great deal since I first started playing there in the early '90s. Private clubs have always been the norm, but when the government decided to allow charity casinos to offer poker, the Toronto poker industry boomed.

On any given day, you could travel to one of 20 different charity casinos, each of which had a three-table poker room. In those days, you could find anywhere from 40 to 60 poker games in the Toronto area on a daily basis, all in the $5-$10 to $10-$20 range. If you wanted to play a little higher, the private clubs offered limits from $15-$30 to $50-$100, but, of course, those clubs were quasi-legal.

When charity casinos were first legalized, it was poker heaven. They played 11-handed limit hold'em, and I can honestly say that in my first three sessions of play at Lucky Star (one of the charity casinos), I was the only player who ever folded before the flop. One of the geniuses in the game even laughed at me when I folded, saying, "How can you fold now when you don't even know what cards are coming on the flop?" This guy played at Lucky Star for six months straight, on a daily basis. It's funny, though, I haven't seen him since.

Anyway, as I'm sure you can imagine, the texture of this game wasn't ideal for bluffing. There was no such thing as a brick (meaningless card) in this game. If the card didn't help you, you could be sure that it helped one of the other eight players paying to see the river.

This was the ideal poker game. Not only were my opponents playing every hand, they were also extremely passive, and wouldn't bet unless they had the nuts, or close to it. Having played poker in private clubs before the charity casinos opened up, I was one step … or I should say … one mile ahead of my opponents at the time.

I remember a 30-day stretch in those games in which I won close to $30,000, playing just five hours a night, five nights a week. It was not because I was some great player or anything like that, but because my opponents had little or no understanding of the game.

Now, before you book your next flight to Toronto, I should warn you that these games no longer exist. They were $10-$20 games with a 5 percent rake, maximum of $10. This, combined with more pros around Canada hearing about these games and others improving their play, caused the games to dry up significantly.

Right before the charity casinos closed down, I was playing in probably the toughest $10-$20 game anywhere in the world at Fundtime Games. I've mentioned that game in several columns, and if you remember correctly, there were usually eight or nine excellent professionals playing in that game on a daily basis. Some of them are now Vegas pros.

If you were to go to Toronto now, you'd be able to find legal poker in two locations: Casino Rama and the Blue Herron in Port Perry. There may be another legal cardroom opening in Brantford, but I'm not certain of the dates or the details.

Not having played much in Toronto during the last few years, it would be difficult for me to give you an extensive analysis of the play there these days. I do know that there are still several excellent players in the Toronto area who are left from the charity casino days. Many of them keep their skills sharp by making trips to the United States, as the U.S. brand of hold'em is obviously much more advanced than that of Toronto.

If you do happen to make a trip there, say hello to Zvi, Evelyn, Pat, Evan, Steve G., Jimmy "The Greek," Billy, Danny, Alex, Cannonbob, and the rest of the boys for me!

In Part II, I'll share with you my perception of the games across Canada, as well as a few related stories, as we travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Windsor, Ontario.