Canadian Poker Invasion!
The Canadian Poker players are coming to win your poker money, or are they? Maybe they’ve been here for years. This year’s World Series has shown a couple of nationalities invading Las Vegas. The “Redcoats are coming!” was a phrase first made popular in the Revolutionary War and has been repeated by Americans at this year’s World Series of Poker by the poker media. But just as it was true 200 years ago the real threat to Americans was not the Brits, but the Canadians quietly living north of the border.
In history, the Americans beat back the English in a couple of wars, but can’t say the same thing about their conflicts with the Canadians. As it was true then, the Brits may not be the real invading force the poker world should be worried about, it’s the Canadian poker players Americans should fear. They live in close proximity to American casinos. They are allowed to legally play poker online and have a banking system that easily processes payments to their favorite sites. Meaning the Canadian online poker players will continue to improve playing 20 tables at once while the American player’s abilities will be stunted. Then the Canadians will take all their money in live poker.
Already, in 2011,Tyler Bonkowski has won a bracelet and Erik Cajelais has made a final table. That isn’t proof of an impending Canadian dominance it’s just more evidence that the impact of Canadian poker on America is not new. For as many years as the World Series of Poker has been held there have been Canadians winning money in the tournaments or the side games.
One of the five biggest names in poker is Daniel Negreanu. Despite his penchant for wearing hockey jerseys at the table during his career, many Americans think he’s a Yank and not a Canuck. He’s held in such high esteem because Negreanu’s table presence bleeds charisma. His demeanor fused with a showman’s natural panache that he can turn on in a second for television cameras makes him a fan favorite the world over. He has bagged a satchel full of World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour bracelets, trophies and honors.
On the other end of the spectrum, one of the biggest internet poker villains is Canadian poker player Doug Lee, who achieved his fame, less for his accomplishments (mainly one WSOP Circuit ring) and more for his steadfast belief that he was famous. There are poker forums that devote almost entire servers to threads about Lee’s self-aggrandizement and petulance in every encounter he’s had with fans. In essence, he is the twisted epitome of the cliché “fake it until you make it.”
Brad Booth represents the ultimate in another corner of the poker world. The Canadian poker player is the cautionary tale to end all cautionary tales. He rode a meteoric rise to fame and fortune. He’d jump up in games almost daily until he audaciously matched wits with the top players in the world. His brazen bluffs are legendary but then the bottom dropped out. Booth got caught up in the wrong side of a cheating scandal, not that there is a right side, but financially it’s better to do the cheating than to be cheated. If you are looking for cheaters from Canada, they got one of the best there too, Sorel Mizzi is also a Canuck.
Jonathan Duhamel is the reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champion, and Scott Montgomery and Darus Suharto are recent November Niner, so younger and younger Canadian poker players are finding success in Vegas. Not to be forgotten are: Nenad Medic, Greg Mueller and Gavin Smith who are winners many times over. Whether the Canadians are coming or are already here, they are a force to fear in poker.