Poker News

Poker in Canada: Eastern Canada
by Steve Horton filed under Card Rooms on 2006-01-20 [Originally appeared in the January 9, 2006 issue of Poker Player]

Poker in Canada: Eastern Canada

Last time, we learned that Canada residents don’t have to pay a tax on winnings. The other interesting thing about gambling up north is that the minimum age is 19. As anyone can imagine, this can skew casino audiences toward the young side, especially when it comes to poker. Live poker used to be a mature audiences game, but the young crowd has latched on to the game in a big way.

Canada also happens to be the home of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, a governing body which regulates many Internet gaming sites, including popular poker sites www.pokerstars. com, www.fulltiltpoker. com, and www. paradisepoker.com. This commission is located just outside of Montreal, Quebec, on the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake.

The commission’s set of regulations is based on a model developed in Australia. The physical computer servers that run and manage the casino sites are located on this territory, making Kahnawake the only Internet poker commission in North America.

That’s not to say that real-life casinos on the eastern half of Canada are anything but insanely popular. Far from the truth. Canada even has its own nationwide poker circuit - theCanadian Poker Tour. The CPT is run by Fifth Street Publishers Ltd., the publisher of Canadian Poker Player Magazine.

Televised across Canada, the CPT finals were held during the 4th Annual Diamond Poker Classic, July 26-30 at Casino Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan. The prize pool was over $600,000 and the blind structure did not escalate quickly, favoring strategy and good poker play instead of luck.

CPT Season II kicked off in September with only a month break, and dozens of events are planned for 2006 across many Canadian casinos. Casino Windsor, in Ontario, has named their poker room “Poker Place.”

Open since Feb. 11, there are 10 tables on weekdays and 15 on the weekend, according to Holly Ward, Director, Communications and Community Affairs for Casino Windsor.

The poker room is a very popular place for our customers, and the wait times have climbed to a peak of three hours on the weekend just to get a seat,” says Ward. “Poker is an extremely popular game, likely made even more popular due to the world poker tournaments on TV, the availability of the chips and table layouts now in nearly every department store, and all the Internet sites, as I’m sure you’re well aware.

When players come in, we find they are very familiar with how to play, and end up having a great time playing with the other customers based on their skill levels. Poker players are well versed in the rules, which makes for a smooth game. Even if someone is new to the game, our dealers are happy to explain the rules to them.”

Casino Windsor is now running tournaments frequently. “We currently have no-limit Texas Hold’em tournaments every weekday at 10 a.m. and they have proven to be extremely popular,” Ward says. “It’s hard to imagine poker being more popular than it already is, but there is likely room for expansion of Poker Place should the customer demand it at Casino Windsor.”

“We offer Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi- Lo 8 or better, Omaha Hi and 7-Card Stud. By far the most popular is Texas Hold’em,” says Lee Athias, casino shift manager for Great Blue Heron Charity Casino in Port Perry. The Great Blue Heron is also in Ontario, but clear on the other side of the province. “Business is excellent - we rarely have empty tables for ring games and our tournaments sell out one to two months in advance,” he says.

Though the poker pit has been open for nine years as of January, it’s always been very busy, according to Athias, but the tastes have changed. “Where we see the most new activity is the dramatic increase in demand for No-Limit Hold’em, both ring games and tournaments,” says Athias. “For the past year we offered sit-n-go no-limit tournaments twice a week, and will continue to do so in 2006, but we will run 2 tables per day. What’s noteworthy is the volume of sit-n-go tournaments runs between 17 and 20 per 24-hour period.” So far, the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker circuits have avoided Canada, but that’s all right for now - Great Blue Heron is no stranger to the Canadian Poker Tour.

“We hosted nine major tournaments in 2005 including five Canadian Poker Tour events,” says Athias. “In 2006, we will be hosting 12 major tournaments - again, five will be Canadian Poker Tour events.”

Athias doesn’t see the poker bubble bursting anytime soon. “I do not foresee any decline in the level of activity in poker in the foreseeable future; the game is becoming popular with a more varied demographic, and will continue to attract new players. After all, it is one of the very few activities where absolutely anyone is able to emulate the best players in the game, and participate in the same game that they are watching on TV. The stakes may be different, but the game is exactly the same. Take any other professional game, only the smallest minority of the population would ever even dream of participating, but truly anybody has a shot in a poker game…or so it seems.”

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