Canadian poker forums.
Has anyone else noticed that new Canadian poker forums are coming out of the woodwork lately? Here are two examples:
http://www.thepokerresource.com/forum/
and
http://pokerpoker.ca/PNphpBB2.html
Both of these forums are virtually identical to this one, except they have barely any users on them, likely because they are new. My question is: where did they come from, and why? This site has a lot of users posting here every day, and seems to be growing rapidly. I'm not an investor in this site, and I wish nothing but success to the "competition". I guess I'm just wondering why people wouldn't just post their Canadian poker issues here, where there's already a solid base of users. Doesn't it make more sense just to have one Canadian poker forum?
The Canadian poker community--particularly those who think about texas hold'em enough to post about it--can't be that big. I think the players would be better off if there was one place where they could go to post about Canadian poker, and poker in general. There would be a lot more posts, which by extension would mean that the forum would appeal to a lot more people. Having three or four small-ish Canadian poker forums is nowhere near as good as having one big one. With three or four, you'd feel as though you had to check them all so as not to miss any hot Canadian tournament news, for example, which would be a pain in the ass. I prefer one-stop shopping in this regard. Sorry if that makes me sound like a fan of conglomerate chains like WalMart and The Home Depot that have put smaller stores out of business, but I just don't think that the market in Canada is big enough to sustain a whole bunch of relatively small forums.
Just my two cents... not meant as propoganda even though it may sound like it... my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the administrator or the moderators of this site....
Regards,
all_aces
http://www.thepokerresource.com/forum/
and
http://pokerpoker.ca/PNphpBB2.html
Both of these forums are virtually identical to this one, except they have barely any users on them, likely because they are new. My question is: where did they come from, and why? This site has a lot of users posting here every day, and seems to be growing rapidly. I'm not an investor in this site, and I wish nothing but success to the "competition". I guess I'm just wondering why people wouldn't just post their Canadian poker issues here, where there's already a solid base of users. Doesn't it make more sense just to have one Canadian poker forum?
The Canadian poker community--particularly those who think about texas hold'em enough to post about it--can't be that big. I think the players would be better off if there was one place where they could go to post about Canadian poker, and poker in general. There would be a lot more posts, which by extension would mean that the forum would appeal to a lot more people. Having three or four small-ish Canadian poker forums is nowhere near as good as having one big one. With three or four, you'd feel as though you had to check them all so as not to miss any hot Canadian tournament news, for example, which would be a pain in the ass. I prefer one-stop shopping in this regard. Sorry if that makes me sound like a fan of conglomerate chains like WalMart and The Home Depot that have put smaller stores out of business, but I just don't think that the market in Canada is big enough to sustain a whole bunch of relatively small forums.
Just my two cents... not meant as propoganda even though it may sound like it... my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the administrator or the moderators of this site....
Regards,
all_aces
Comments
The "now that there is a Canadian Poker tour let's cash in on it" train. lol
I'll stick to this site only as well. I've seen that greed scenario already, back when I used to be a satellite hacker. lol I am now reformed btw, and pay for my TV like everyone else. lol
And it appears that www.pokerresource.com (I didn't even know that one was Canadian) is a whole bunch of things (online store, etc) which includes a forum.
In reality, I think that Josh and DJP nailed it on the head. Advertising. Money. This is kind of ironic, because I'm working pretty hard to keep this forum *free* of excessive advertising and spam. I'm amazed that we even allow some advertising in the Advertising section, and a couple of posters so far have *still* managed to abuse that privilege.
As for having several Canadian forums, I don't see anything wrong with that. It's great that people have many choices. And eventually people will migrate to the forum with the best people and content.
This one.
[Just so no-one misunderstands, that last comment is meant as a joke.]
ScottyZ
Wal-Mart r00lz.
The way I look at it, Wal-Mart has *significantly* lowered the cost of living for the average citizen in Canada. Stores like Wal-Mart, Dollarama and Food Basics are almost single-handedly keeping Canada's basic ecomomy (I'm talking consumer products here, not stocks & bonds etc.) accessible to lower income Canadians.
If you don't like living in a place where the best, most efficient, companies (e.g. Wal-mart) succeed in the world of business, and the least efficient (e.g. Air Canada) fail, you'd better go live in a country where capitalism has been banned.
And you damn well better go uninstall your Windows OS.
ScottyZ
Now imagine this ... if all Poker Playing Internet Reading/Writing Canadains all religously went to one site (such as this one) read and posted their thoughts, insights, event info, etc. how much traffic there would be. Imagine the great discussions that would happen. Imagine how many more tourneys you could be involved. I regularly see Canadains posting lots of great information at some the larger American forums but I like Aces hate shopping around for information and discussions.
So spread the word!!! Let everyone know that the BEST damn Canadian forum already exists and we need to see the traffic here.
Just my thoughts.
Jamie.
:confused:
:spade:
I find the timing ironic though. And the topic could have been a hundred other things besides poker. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking them for their initiative here. If it turns out to be something legit and successful, all the power to them. I'm just a cynic at heart. lol
What other games or tournaments are available in Ottawa?
Personally, pokerpoker.ca was the first forum site I found when I started looking. I've just now stumbled across pokerforum.ca. I've been playing poker for about 6 years or so, but only started taking it "seriously" recently, so never really thought to look online for forums to chat in.
a) It's great to have a forum for cross-Canada discussions.
b) It's even better to be able to find games or discuss the local poker scene. It's not likely that I'm going to go from Ottawa to BC for a small poker game.
Andrew
Good question, and I personally have no good answers.
I pretty much stick to playing online, or for live action now and then hauling my buns out to
www.mohawkcasino.com
ScottyZ
Exactly my point. If you're playing online (which I refuse to do), then you don't care about localized discussion on poker, but for those who enjoy live games, having area-specific forums is great.
BTW, how is the Mohawk Casino? I haven't made it out yet, but a road trip is in the plans with some of my poker buddies here in Ottawa.
Andrew
It's just over an hour away from Ottawa (maybe 1h 15min).
It's a small room, usually one or two 3-6 tables, one 5-10 table, one 2-5 (blinds) NL $100-$500 buy-in table.
Here's a thread with a little bit more info:
http://pokerforum.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=1266
ScottyZ
Regards,
all_aces
Here we go...
ScottyZ
Probably for the same reasons that many people wont:
a) Cheating. I can't believe people are naiive enough to think that the people they're playing against aren't cheating. That includes all forms, including people just sitting there using odds calculators, etc. I might as well save my money and play against the computer. Sure, I could probably win some $$, but would I enjoy it? No. I'll stick to my day job.
b) Social aspects. I'm of the Doyle Brunson camp that believes a lot of poker is a mental game. If someone bluffs me online, how am I supposed to tell?
c) A pseudo-reason. I'm on dialup.
Andrew
As for acheyne's reasons, I think they're all very reasonable, and I won't get into the number of reasons why people would actually want--or even prefer--to play online. As Scotty implied, that road has been travelled, time and time again.
The only thing I will say is that I don't think most players are "naiive enough to think" that there is no cheating online. There is, and there's no denying it. IMHO, one way to counter this is to play exclusively multi-table tournaments online. Personally, I play cash games as well, but that's another matter.
In multi-table tournaments, the seating is random, which takes the biggest form of online cheating--collusion--almost completely out of the picture. As for odds calculations, etc... all of the computers in the world won't tell you what to do with middle pair facing a check-raise possible semi-bluff from an aggressive opponent for half your stack.
So, most players know that cheating happens online, but those who are really concerned about can find ways to still play online in situations that are least likely to cheat them. Your other points are 100% correct, IMHO.
Regards,
all_aces
Whether or not I'm naive in terms of the cheating, I'm at least wise to the hourly win rate. :cool:
You don't need a computer for that... muck that dog, bro!
ScottyZ
I'd only call there if it was a semi-check-raise.
"And the award for Worst Hand Analysis Thread of the Year goes to ScottyZ and all_aces for..."
lol
And to smoothly bring the thread back on topic-- the "other" Canadian poker forums can't possibly be this entertaining, can they?
ScottyZ