Poker at the Crossroads

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“Standin' at the crossroad, tried to flag a ride
Ooo eeee, I tried to flag a ride
Didn't nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by”

Robert Johnson’s song “Cross Road Blues” tell of his failed attempts to hitch a ride from an intersection as night approaches. Poker would seem to be at a bit of a crossroads with the recent shutdown of the major sites in the United States. The question now becomes, how will we react? I don’t mean in terms of writing your elected officials and signing petitions (although I think you should be doing all of those things). I’m talking specifically about how we will move forward as poker players.

As I see it, we have two options. We can simply throw our hands up in frustration and give up this game that we love so much or we can use this time as a chance improve our skills, improve our live games, expand our poker networks and, overall, find opportunity in crisis.

First of all, there are still US facing sites that you can play poker on. Lock Poker, Carbon Poker and Bodog are all still offering online poker for US customers. I recently opened up an account on Carbon Poker and am looking forward to getting back to the online tournament grind.

Additionally, there are still a multitude of ways to work on your MTT game. I’ve been taking time to review hand histories from some of my last online sessions. You should be doing this as well. And when you find a hand of interest, post it in our forums for feedback.

I have also starting playing live cash games in some underground rooms here in the Raleigh area. While I do not enjoy cash as much as tournaments, it’s an opportunity to make a little money, play some poker with a good group of people and I suspect that playing cash will really help my post flop tournament play in the long run.

I’ve also found that I have more time now to watch the videos we produce here on Tournament Poker Edge. While I know this sounds self-serving, if you have plans to play tournament poker in the future the last thing I would be doing is to stop trying to learn. Keep watching those videos! The game of poker changes fast, and even taking 6 months away from the learning process will cost you in the long run.

I suspect that we will see regulation of online poker in the US. It would only be speculation if I estimated a time frame, but when it does happen the games are going to be better than ever. Stay sharp and be prepared for when this time comes. While I wait, I’ll be heading to Vegas this summer for the WSOP (although I’ll probably be playing more Venetian Deepstack events than anything else). I’m not sure what to expect in terms of field size and quality of play, but I know this…I plan to be one of the best prepared!

Poker is at a crossroads…are you going to let everybody pass you by?