From here on in though, I think my posts will be mostly about different poker venues and events in Canada, across the country.  

I want to keep them current and you can expect quite a few.  As we speak there are a couple of well received poker happenings in Montreal Quebec, specifically on the Kahnawake reservation, so I will start there.  

For those of you that don\’t know, the Mohawk nation of Kahnawake have maintained their sovereignty through many trials in Canadian history. How this is applies to poker plays a much larger role to poker than those who are not familiar would think.

The Kahnawake Gaming Council current \”licenses and regulates interactive gaming and terrestrial poker rooms that are located within the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake.  Those online gaming operators that are licensed by the Commission must be hosted at MIT, or \”Mohawk Internet Technologies.\”   The data center operated by this nation of only around 8,000 people may not sound like a \”big deal\”, but in reality it currently hosts over 400 of the world\’s poker and gambling sites.  This amounts to over 60% of the entire world market, including several of the biggest and most played sites.

Beyond that, they also have several brick and mortar poker venues; Playground Poker Club, Snakes Poker Club and 4 (four) Aces Poker Club. These establishments deal only in one form of wagering, poker and poker alone.  There are no table games or slots, the goal is to provide what the players want.  Action, food, drinks and a ton of variety of disciplines and formats for card players. 

Since the arrival of Playground Poker Club, competition between the venues has really heated up.  What this has meant to the player is that the perks and services offered continues to grow, in an effort to gain the loyalty and patronage of the poker player.  Going far beyond the efforts of the  traditional casino outside the territories borders, meals, drinks and even transportation are often on the house and prize pools guaranteed.  Omaha, Dealer\’s Choice and Texas Hold\’em are all spread, from fast paced re-buy NLH turbo\’s, to short handed, deep stacked Pot Limit Omaha. Limit\’s vary from standard 1/2 NLH, all the way up to high stakes PLO, played usually in private secure rooms.

While it is hard to say who will come out on top between the three clubs, Playground Poker Club seems to be breaking away from the pack already, having only opened on December 17th of 2010.  On their opening weekend, Full Tilt \”red pros\” in the form of EPT legend Mike \”Timex\” McDonald, WSOPE bracelet winner Erik Cajelais, Nenad Medic and  Marc \”the Myst\” Karam were all on hand to kick things off.  Player reports raved of the clubs food from The Rail Coal Fire Bistro, an attached five star restaurant responsible for an extensive and high end menu.

The other clubs have answered back, offering rake back to players and other promotions and at the end of January, the area will play host to the Poker Pro Canada Classic II, a $1500+150 multi day event.  At the same time, Playground Poker Club has already sold out 200+ player field for their $200 Deep stack, so clearly the final week of the month will see a ton of cash game action.  Since the December 17th opening, PPC has seen literally hundreds of players a night and have been sure to let everybody know where the game is, running television ads during peak poker show time slots, radio contests and print media from coast to coast. Some players seem to be maintaining loyalty to their daily grinds, so clearly the race is far from over.   

In the big picture, Canadian players are taking note of what can be provided to the player, with just a little leeway on varying strict provincial gaming regulations.  Better comps, better variety and a little liquor at the tables, far from asking the old school law makers for a free for all. Online sites also tend to see the potential poker holiday attraction to players, taking chances on satellites not normally extended to Canadian events, as well, dollar for dollar the prize pools just aren\’t as big as other destinations usually.  Offer a Vegas style atmosphere however, now there is something on put on the table again….

I\’ll wrap it up today with a video showing the atmosphere of Playground Poker Club and let readers judge for themselves;

Those interested in reading FAQ\’s from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and how come it\’s can be just that much better for Canadian player should visit:http://www.gamingcommissin.ca/faq.asp