Should You Move?

More than a month has passed since Black Friday. Most of what can be said about it has already been said, so I’ll try not to rehash things you’ve already heard. Instead, I’ll focus on the future, and perhaps your future.

For most Americans, life will go on without online poker, or at least without the three biggest sites. But for those of us who take poker more seriously, certain important decisions must be made. If you live near one or more cardrooms, perhaps you will try to ply your trade there. But as we all know, the high overhead is what led so many of us to play online in the first place. Then, you lose the ability to multitable [play multiple tables simultaneously], along with rakeback, and suddenly it seems strange to even consider returning to brick-and-mortar casino play.

If I were 10 years younger and unattached, I’d probably move to another country. I love the U.S., and I consider myself patriotic, but I chose poker as my profession. If I were a lawyer, and the U.S. abolished all lawyers, I’d have to move elsewhere. This is really not very different.

As it is, I am in my mid-30s and married, so instead, I’ve chosen to stay and find a “real” job in a different profession. Luckily, it seems that I will be able to do so. But, speaking to the 30-and-under poker-playing crowd, I can give at least three reasons why I’d probably move if I were in your shoes:

1. Living in another country is a tremendous life experience. All of the people I know who have lived elsewhere have considered it time well-spent. In many cases, they might lament the things that they missed having in the U.S., but none of them expressed any serious regrets.

Maybe you would not have considered such a drastic change had Black Friday not happened, but it did, so there’s nothing wrong with making the most of it. There is, quite literally, a world of possibilities. There are plenty of English-speaking countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, where life would not be very different. Or, if you’ve learned another language, perhaps now is the time to put it to use, since there are many other countries where you could live extremely well on a typical U.S. salary. There’s never a bad time for an adventure, and now is a better time than most.

2. I’m fairly certain that online poker will be restored to the U.S. market sooner or later. We just don’t know when. As we’ve seen in U.S. history, Prohibition didn’t work, but it took 14 years for it to be officially repealed.

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s extremely unlikely that an Internet-poker ban would last that long, but the point is that we don’t know what the timeline will be. The stage is certainly set for an American online-poker site to emerge. The problem is, with so much red tape to cut through, it could take a lot longer than some people think.

I hear a lot of professional players talking about what they are currently doing with their time, and much of it is very worthwhile. Some are doing work on their houses, others are taking college courses. However, what many of them have in common is that they are undertaking projects that will last six months or a year. They seem extremely confident that the status quo will be restored within that time frame. Perhaps it will be, but there’s too much uncertainty in the online-poker world right now to know for sure.

So, once again I say, why not consider an adventurous relocation? You can always come back once online poker is legalized. Maybe you’ll like it so much wherever you move that you’ll decide to stay. Either way, you won’t have to sweat the timeline of online poker’s restoration in the United States. Furthermore, at least as far as online poker is concerned, you won’t be subject to the whims of politicians and lawyers.

3. If you stay in the U.S. in hope of online poker coming back, you still have to consider whether it will be nearly as good as it was before April 15. Let’s say that it’s legalized, so that one or more U.S. online-poker rooms can open for business.

They’ll essentially have a monopoly on the U.S. market. Then the question becomes, will we play on U.S. sites because we want to, or because it’s our only option?

Given the choice, I’d much rather play on a proven site such as PokerStars, rather than a new and unproven site. Furthermore, I want the right to play against players from around the world, and there’s the possibility that foreigners won’t be allowed to play on U.S. sites. That would seem illogical to me, but from my point of view, nothing about the online-poker crackdown seems particularly logical.

Whatever the case, we’ve lost the freedom to play at the site of our choosing. Even if decent new U.S. sites open for business, sooner or later we’ll be looking for the right to play anywhere we want, whether the room is based in the U.S., the Isle of Man, Ireland, or wherever. There’s no guarantee that we’ll ever have that right again.

With that in mind, it’s likely that American online poker will never be restored to what it once was. And if that ends up being the case, you’ll probably be glad that you decided to try living elsewhere.

I had a tough time deciding whether or not I even wanted to write this column. I truly love living in the United States, and I’m thankful for all of the freedoms that I have, including the freedom to write a column such as this one. Nevertheless, I asked myself what I would do if I were 23 years old and single, and I knew almost certainly that I’d move to either Montreal or Melbourne. I’ve visited both cities, and know that I could live happily in either place.

A good number of American poker players have already made the move to one country or another. If you haven’t, perhaps it is worth considering. ♠

Matt Lessinger is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker, available everywhere. You can find other articles of his at www.CardPlayer.com.