Update Panama

From my viewpoint, Panama poker continues to be a game of cannibalization. For years now we have had the same people running and promoting poker in basically 4 locations...the Veneto Casino and Poker Room, The Majestic Casino Poker room, the Royal Casino Poker room and what was formerly at the newer Princess Casino has now moved to the brand new Golden Lion Casino located in the "El Dorado" area outside of downtown Panama City. It seems no one can truly corner the Panama poker market for any length of time. Here are some reasons as I view or hear it...

First problem is that we have 4+ poker rooms vying for the same estimated 70-80 regular players in Panama City. Of these 70-80 regular players, you probably have only 20-25 that could afford to play regular live poker at any level above 1-2 No Limit Holdem over the long haul. Most of these players in my observation have little loyalty to anyone or place. And reasonably so as I seen very little consistent management or supervision of Panama poker games, whether cash or tournament play, over the long run. It takes disciplined execution both to play and to manage poker over the long haul. I hope no one takes offense here, but consistent longevity of anything doesn't seem to be a focus of hardly anyone in Panama. Management teams come together and fall apart based on monetary conflicts or difference of opinion that cannot be resolved. Emotions runs higher than reason in most of these places and that makes the poker scene very volatile and inconsistent in execution.

There is an obvious cultural divide between the players as well. We have 3 main factions as I see it...the local Panamanian players, the Asian players and the foreign or "gringo" players. Historically there has been a lot of collusion in the live cash games and even early on in the tournaments...primarily between some of these factions. My first couple years playing in Panama, the Veneto poker room which had just opened was the juiciest, most profitable game I have probably ever participated in. The first year I won...well, THOUSANDS of dollars per month in that game...playing 8-10 hrs per week. Unfortunately, that game never had solid management and pretty soon the Asian coalition took over with tremendous amounts of collusion, and they lost many of the potential gringo players who wanted to play at that time. Between the Greek friends and Asian coalition who play in that bigger game nightly, there is little chance over the long haul that a solo player can beat that game...especially with an UNLIMITED rake of 5% disappearing from the table every hand.

RAKE...that is the biggest barrier to playing or making a living in a cash game in Panama. Unless you are on one of the "teams" or getting rake back...you cannot over the long haul beat the drop in a 5% unlimited cash game. If you measure for example the amount of money disappearing from the game for every pot of between $500-$1000 dollars...of which there are many...the poker rooms here are taking an extra $100-150 per hour out of your stack that COULD have been yours, especially in a 2-5 or 5-5 game with bigger pots and stacks. Compared to the USA and most other jurisdictions I have played in, these rakes are just highway robbery...yet few people here tend to understand or care about that issue. I dont know, maybe they are all getting rake back and I am just out in the cold. Or, they just have more money to burn than I do. And a $1-2 blind game with 5% unlimited rake is even WORSE in trying to beat the game. The sad thing is that if one poker room decided to go with an international style rake and promote that...I dont think a majority of Panamanian players would even respond or support that difference. Who knows, maybe when global poker matures over the next 10 years, Panama will be forced to get "competitive" about rake and professional administration of Poker.

Yet, all is not negative about Panama poker. There are an increasing amount of medium size tournaments where money can consistently be made at 3 of the 4 venues currently going. Many of the better players make the rounds at each of these venues when they have bigger guarantees and deep stack tournament promotions. This is where we are starting to see some good competition between the poker rooms and this is also improving the overall talent pool of Panamanian poker players.

What I personally look for are tournaments where the buyins (usually including rebuys and add ons...which is the typical format here) equal a potential 20X return for first place. In other words...the first place purse should be at least 20X the total buyin for the tournament...and should be reasonably deepstack (12,000-18,000 chips) and feature 20 minute minimum blinds. This format to me is the optimal for maximizing talent differences and being able to wait through those long desolate times for cards to come your way. Panama does have a nice mix of player types...grinders, run and gun, online players, and novices. This means that there is still decent expectation for tournament play in Panama...as long as you have time and patience. Again, the only downside to the tourney side are the heavy fees-rakes taken out of tournament purses. They average between 15-20% depending on the time and place. While I wish there was a strong Casino commission in Panama to enforce some sort of accountability and limits...it doesn't appear there is much of that nature to fall back on here. And don`t ever expect a tourney to start on time. EVERYBODY knows if they say 7:30, it won`t start until 8:30. It is just another reflection of the Panama culture and we are not going to change it anytime soon.

There are some bigger events starting to come to Panama...which I welcome. I hear there is a $300K guaranteed coming to the Majestic in October, but it sounds like it is scheduled the same time as the LAPT in Medellin which I plan to attend, so that could be poor planning if that is the case.

I am compiling my remaining list of known bigger tournaments in Panama and beyond for the balance of this year. I will share that in a separate blog when I have it together.

Sr. Suerte...over and out.

TIme for a fresh start

It has been more than two years since I first initiated this attempt to blog on my poker life. Yes, poker LIFE is a good description for those of us who have forever discovered the world`s best sport- game of skill. I have previously called it the "game of life" though I was probably not the first in that regard. Poker is a sport-game a sane person can play all their life and compete no matter what their physical attributes, age, sex or religion (well, I guess SOME religions forbid it. Risk taking is against some peoples religions). Since my last posting here almost a year ago we have seen some revolutionary changes in the poker world with probably the most disruptive event being the USA governments highly ill advised attack on online poker via the shutdown of Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars USA, and others on "Black Friday" in April 2011. I still have not recovered MY funds from Full Tilt...apparently no one has. This is simply a travesty of justice and in my opinion a totally unconstitutional powerplay by an inept and financially strapped USA government. Alas, desperate governments do desperate deeds. What this means to me is a FRESH START for "Latin American" poker playing. While all is not utopia in Latin American poker either...it still is more freewheeling and "juicy" than the USA scene right now. With LAPT, and other Latin poker tourneys growing and sustaining in size, I believe there is money to be made in the Latin Poker market(s), So...stay tuned...I have a few blogs halfway written that should help analyze a few issues related to poker...and playing in LATIN AMERICA! If only to help keep myself sane and analytical in the ups and downs of the poker process, I restart this blog... I hope you can benefit in the process from my experiences and observations.

Panama Poker, Part 2

OK...so my last blog illicited ZERO comments or responses at the blog though I did get a couple emails from friends of the blog supporting what I said. So...I guess everyone must agree who read it, right? :)

Well, part 1 focused on all the challenges and problems I have seen with Panama Poker...now lets focus Part TWO on my suggested solutions or recommendations to make things better in Panama...both for players and the poker rooms themselves.

1) I suggest that we promote a more talented approach to Panama poker. By that, I mean offering tournament structures that reward talented players, not just moneyed ones. More specifically, I would like to see less rebuys. Make more tourneys one time buyins...with longer blind periods and bigger stacks. To be more specific, for a $30-$50 buyin, have starting stacks of 5000 or more chips versus the 3000 or 3500 currently...and make the blind periods at least 30 minutes per level. And don't REDUCE the blind periods later in the tournament! If anything you should INCREASE the time so that skillful play has time to rise to the top. The current structure rewards the wild, luck oriented player since it is all about accumulating as many chips in the shortest amount of time when you have these multiple rebuys and short stacks at the outset. Make it so the player has to WIN his stack, not BUY it. Reward patient and diligent skilled players no matter what bankroll they bring to the game. Over time this will produce a more controlled playing environment where some skilled players have a real chance to make steady money off of their live poker time in Panama.

2) As players, lets show more respect and grace at the table against our fellow players. I have never seen rudeness or aggressive behavior against other players ever be a profitable move in Poker. Sure, there are times you have to put some people in their place, and some players CAN be intimidated into giving you their chips. But, if your goal is to bust every new player that comes into the game by team play, collusion, or just pure intimidation...how does that help you in the future to have more people and games to choose from in Panama? And I have always been amazed at the short sightedness of grumpy poker players worldwide who are snide or condescending to a player they are winning from at the table. If you have a "client" who is feeding the game with their losing money...you should make them your best friend and try to keep them in your game as long as you can. And yes, even the bad player that goes on a lucky streak at your table and is temporarily running over the game...your should do everything in your power to keep that player at your table so you have a chance to get your money back. Remember, the odds are the same over time...and eventually a bad player will lose their money back...and you want them to lose it back to YOU. So...just be "nice" instead of aggressive with a player that is temporarily running over you. I especially think its stupid when good players start trying to reprimand a bad player who has just won a pot. I know it is sometimes hard to keep our mouths shut when someone is beating us with 8/3 offsuit against our solid starting hands...or rivering us 3-4 times in a row. Almost every time I play I hear tight players that got beat saying "how can you call me with that hand", or "how stupid was your play?". A pro player will usually just keep a tight smile on their face, say "nice hand", and wait for the inevitable opportunity to take their money back and MORE.

3) Some advice for the poker rooms in Panama...first, find professional poker personnel to run your room. Poker players will have NO respect for a manager or staff person who does not know the game or the rules. No one I have seen running a poker room in Panama has more than 3-4 years involvement in Poker...and I swear some of them have not learned a damn thing in those 3-4 years. Some of the best I have seen...at least the best attitudes of administration...have been from FOREIGN management. Why can't Panama produce a professional, knowledgeable, caring poker room manager or administrator? Is it a cultural thing that no one wants to lead the charge to first world poker management? I don't mean this as a put down of my Panama friends...more like a "challenge". Also...why are all the poker rooms promoting the same kind of tournament or cash game structures? I have seen few attempts at differentiation between the 3-4 active poker rooms in town. Do you really think the only game we want to play is Holdem and rebuy tournaments? Why is it so hard for you to promote a consistent live game at the same hour everyday or week? Maybe because you make no consistent effort to call players and invite them to a game? Emails and facebook are a nice tool...but people still respond to the "personal touch", whether they are Gringo or Latino. And while we're at it...how about announcing all aspects of a scheduled tournament upfront along with the invite to the tournament. I think to make a decision to participate or not, I want to know how many rebuys and/or addons are going to be allowed, how many starting chips and how long are the blind periods? Way too many times in Panama tournaments, the rules and numbers are changed while the tournament is in Progress! Why? Because you make guarantees you can't live up to just to get the players there...then you force the players in to rebuy and addon commitments they did not plan on. This would be ILLEGAL in most legal Poker jurisdictions in the world of Poker.

4) And finally a word about bringing international competition to Panama. Why have we not had any major WSOP or for that matter LAPT events in Panama yet? From my conversations with various parties, what I have arrived at is that Panama casinos and poker rooms don't see the value in sharing and cutting revenues with the outside tour agencies. I won't go into details of some of the things I have heard here, because much of it is hearsay...but there has to be some merit to what I am hearing because these tours are bypassing Panama for Costa Rica, and even Uruguay and Argentina. Someone here needs to wake up to the potential revenue and market building potential that major international events would bring to Panama. Of course, part of our problem is that there is not enough cooperation between the casinos and the hotels attached. In most cases you have separate ownership and therefore often times big conflicts between hotel and casino management teams. Most big tournaments need a commitment of more than 300 rooms to support an event, and none of the local hotels can support that demand I guess.

Let me try and give the shortest summary version of what I recommend to improve the business and enjoyment of Panama poker. The poker rooms should compete by having more realistic rakes. You are breaking the bank for a majority of your players and not looking at long term income and prosperity possibilities. But, until the players unite on this front and demand lower rakes in Panama...the casinos are not going to change. And the rooms need to promote less buyins but more chips and longer playing levels. This approach will not make the tournaments longer to play...just more just to the quality player. Players need to be nicer, play by international rules and etiquette, and welcome better the international players who come into action here. Don't drive them away with your cheating, collusive ways or aggressive, team playing approach. Sure, you love getting one over on the Gringos or other foreigners...but they are key to your future growth and profit in Panama...and not just at the Poker table.

OK...I hope that provides balance to my views...that I am not just bitching about Panama Poker. I think my ideas have merit, and I welcome any input or collaborative effort with any poker leaders in this market to whom I can be of service.

Sr Suerte

Buenos Aires Poker

Upon arriving to BA (Buenos Aires) after my 5 day Uruguay sojourn, I was impressed with the energy and size of this city of 11 Million people. Much different than Montevideo, Uruguay.

I called up a couple of my poker contacts I made in Punta del Este,Uruguay who were from BA and at the tournament over there. Sure enough, that night they were going to have a poker game from 9PM on. While I am trusting second hand info from these guys, it seems that casinos in Buenos Aires either don't have poker, or have a strange form of running the games. Apparently all players at the table have to ante up BEFORE seeing their first two cards in Holdem. Sounds very strange to me and would obviously be at a disadvantage to play in a "blind betting" situation. So...instead the knowledgeable players play in various private club games throughout the city. It reminds me of Florida home games I used to play in when I lived there since at that time there was no public poker in the Indian casinos of Florida (that has changed significantly in recent years).

So...with private information address in hand, I set out for my first BA poker adventure. The address ended up not being very far from my hotel. It was a little disconcerting when I arrived by taxi because I didn't see a number for the address over a door where it was supposed to be, and there are no signs signifying these "poker clubs". Fortunately I had invested in a local cellphone chip and was able to call my contact back who came out to the door to find me and bring me in. It is pretty secure with a heavy locked door and doorman...which is probably what you need for protecting a "home game" setup.

Coming up the stairs it was like I was in some small office complex or similar to small language schools I have seen in Latin America. As it turns out, this 4-5 office mini complex was all for the poker club...and they had a chess room as well. I met "Pato" who manages the club and is a world class chess player who has even traveled to my town of Chicago to play in chess tournaments. I was ushered in to the poker room which was already full and in action. All guys with a mix of ages though half of the players were around my age or older I would say (50s).

You have to have a bankroll to play in this club, because the smallest buyin is 3000 pesos (currently around $800 US). I was able to watch for about 40 minutes before getting a chance to play. It is a very different concept than what I have ever seen before. They play in two hour rounds. Everyone starts the round with 3000 chips (pesos). No one posts money up front as everyone's credit is apparently good until proven otherwise. The blinds are 25-50 pesos (around $8-16 current exchange) which is a healthy blind setup. The action was quite good and there seemed to be a decent balance between tight and loose players. Most of them sure didn't seem too concerned about the stakes or look at the chips as money.

After the current round finished at the 2 hour mark, Pato comes in and they tally up chip status. Those who lose have to pay up the balance of what they don't have in chipcount. Winners get paid cash for their profits over their 3000 buyin. I had only brought enough cash for two buyins at this level...which is short of what you should have for this game. I usually don't want to play if I don't have 3-4 times the minimum buyin available...and in most games I limit my downside losses to 3 buyins, as bankroll management is the key to winning poker players. But in this case I felt the play was soft and I would get my feet wet with my new Argentine poker friends with what I had in my pocket.

Oh...the rake. As you sit down with your 3000 chips, the house immediately takes 300 (10%) from your stack. At first I thought this was quite a high rake...but as I quickly calculated in my head what the Panama poker rooms take as a rake PER POT (5% up to $50!), I figured this rake is actually a bit less than the money that would disappear in the game in Panama. It also moved the game faster and better not having to deal with a pot rake on each hand. I'll have to look at this closer when I have time to compare it with other methods of raking games that I have observed.

I played pretty tight for the first 45 minutes until I could get a good read of all these new poker friends at the table. The game was loose enough that I figured I had better play pretty tight as bluffs were called regularly for big money. There didn't seem to be much "scared" money at the table...and the typical raise was 10 TIMES the blind. That means that to call a raise usually cost you $100-200 dollars! That tightens my game up in a hurry.

I won the first hand that I played and a small pot with AQ that I raised with one caller and flopped the Q...the other player folded to my 3 times blind bet. Then the next two hands I played I lost. One on the flop where my AK raised with 4 CALLERS and no AK on the flop. I got bet out of the pot by a player who had flopped two pair...something like 8-3 offsuit. You learn alot about a player when they call a raised pot before the flop with 8-3 off. You don't mind having 1-2 players at the table playing that way. The next hand I played I had JJ in the small blind. There was only one other American in the game who I had met briefly before starting the two hour round. He had played the round before and then introduced himself before I started playing. He was sitting to my immediate right (you draw cards before the game for seat position) on the button and raised what in this game seemed a "moderate" raise, 3 times the blind. I just called, putting him in AK or KQ, or a medium pair. There had been 4 callers preflop so I didn't think he was bluffing necessarily, but since I was new to all these people, I still didnt have a solid read on him as a player (sometimes I will be more aggressive with JJ when I know the other players better). The flop came 3 small rainbow cards. Since I didn't want the raiser drawing to an AK or something like that, I bet my jacks pretty heavy...don't really remember exactly...but I think like $100 worth of chips. The middle guy folded behind me but my American new friend went ALL IN behind me! I'm figuring he doesn't know my play yet either, so why would he put us both all in with this flop? It took me a couple minutes of thinking and trying to read him. I even asked him "do you have aces or kings somehow?". He didn't flinch. I didn't think he would have any of the low cards on the board, but then maybe he had a suited Ace with one of those low cards? I looked at the pot which was now 450...and with the all in I was going to be looking at winning over $1200 if I called and won the hand. I decided it was worth the chance and called...only to have him turn over the AA! UGH!. OF course the turn and the river didn't improve me and I had just had an expensive lesson from my fellow American player. He's pretty tight and hard to read.

I requested another set of "fichas" (chips) and now I was all in with what I brought to play with cashwise. I felt the game was good enough that I could win back my first buy and hopefully profit still. Without going into further hand details, lets just say I locked in and grooved with the table for the next 80 minutes and by the end of our 2 hour session I won back the 800 of the first buyin plus around $230 profit. To be quite honest, I was relieved to do so and even though they were going to play a couple more rounds through the night, I figured since it was 1AM already and I had traveled all day to get there...I would take my profit and call it a night. I like writing profits in my book...even if it is a small one. And when you come back over $1000 in an hour of live cash game action, it feels like a BIG win.

Now, when play was done everyone once again cashes out...losers paying, winners receiving. I felt really good to take away $230 without ever having to reach in my pocket for my bankroll. After settling up, they all signed in again for another 2 hour session while I waited for a taxi to take me back to my hotel.

While it is a strange system of playing from what I am used to, I came away feeling like I could make some regular money out of this game if I lived in Argentina. It was much friendlier than the regular cash games at the Veneto in Panama City. The players are probably more aggressive and a little better quality overall than the Panama competition, but everyone seemed relatively "nice" playing the game. You don't get many "niceties" at the Veneto in Panama. And the more I think about it, the more I like that you "reset" the game every 2 hours. That way no one can have a lucky streak and just run over the game all night long. And it also protects from the "hit and run" kind of play you see in some public poker rooms in the world where some strange player comes in...wins a couple pots on luck in an hour and then runs with the money. I definitely felt these players were all going to be here for the full two hours...and a couple of them were down 2-3 buys/rebuys. So...I think I will be back there next week after my current side trip over to Mar del Plata for the finale of the LAPT tournament tour this year. I should get a blog report on here the next day or two from Mar del Plata.

Get lucky everyone...just not against me!:)

On the poker trail in Uruguay

Well, I just spent 5 interesting days/nights in Uruguay. Poker was dead in Montevideo the capital city, but alive and well on Easter weekend in Punta del Este which is one of the most popular beach resorts in South America.

First, Montevideo. Very nice, laid back city. Surrounded by a beach on the "Rambla", lots of old and new buildings everywhere but very few skyscraper types. Lots of cafes and bars dotting the whole city and overall clean, tree lined streets in safe neighborhoods. Hardly see any police anywhere over 5 days...that says alot for the relative safety of the country...much SAFER than the USA in general I would say.

The only poker that I could discover being played publicly in Montevideo is at the casino at the Radisson Hotel on Plaza Independencia...in the "old city". This is an interesting part of town and definitely worth seeing. According to sources at the casino, they have poker most days from 2-10PM. Some players I met in Punta del Este said that it is an inconsistent, weak game. They said they would rather play online. I stopped two different evenings and they never had a game going. Bummer, because this city has many nice features for things to do when poker players aren't playing.

I took a one day excursion to Punta del Este on Saturday where I had read there was a major tournament. I was bummed that all my emails to the Conrad hotel and casino which was hosting the event were never answered and they never posted details online about the tournament. When I got there Saturday, it turned out they were late into the second day of a 3 day structure. Kind of their own little "world series of Poker" I guess...but a baffling structure to me. They must have spent too much time in Panama during one of Panama's terrible high stakes tournament promotions. This tournament was apparently $1000 buyin with two rebuys. There were two flights over two days and then the top however many from each flight would play for all the marbles the 3rd day. The blinds went up every 15 minutes and it was NOT deep stack. This type of format is perfect for building big pots on rebuys and rewarding bad players who have all the money in the world. Skill is a much lesser asset in this format. Money/buyins is king. Not my kind of tournament, so glad I missed it. Still, I dont understand all these Latin poker promoters putting out web content and then not answering emails. Stupid in my book.

Fortunately though, I was rewarded with a lively poker room up in the main Conrad Casino (tournament was in the ballroom) and three tables had plenty of chips clacking about. They room features 3-6, 5-10 and sometimes 10-20 NL Holdem. All three tables playing when I arrived were 3-6...and there were a bunch of huge stacks in these games. Minimum buyin was $200 I believe, and it appeared many were buying in for 500+ at a time making for the big stacks in play. I only have to wait 10 minutes for a seat to open up and I found myself seated at a full table with a wonderful mixture of players. We had young and old, Spanish speakers, Portugese and English...and all languages were allowed during play. At my table to my immediate right was a young executive banker from Rio, Brazil who spoke perfect English. Another young player at the other end of the table from me was from Spain. The rest seemed to be a mix of Uruguayan and Argentinean players of all ages. The average flop saw 5-6 callers and made for plenty of action. I was never down in this game and after 2.5 hrs I decided to pull out with a $500 cash. Not bad for my first session in the deep south of South America.

Now its on to Argentina on Monday and checking out the LAPT tournament in Mar del Plata. I also met some Argentinean players at the Punta del Este tournament who invited me to their cash game in Buenos Aires...so I am licking my chops already and looking forward to making lots of new poker friends in Argentina. Hopefully I can win a satellite for the $5000 buyin at the LAPT. If not, I will probably just try to take down some major live cash games and I think they will have smaller "second chance" tournaments as well.

Ah...how I love poker adventures..

Status of Latin American Poker

I have lived and played poker in Latin America for over 8 years now. I guess that makes me one of the "older" players in the market...especially since many of the players I see here were still in 3rd grade when I started playing here. It is exciting to see the fast growth of poker in these countries...especially since I believe the game teaches young and old alike a lot of life lessons that extend to most other aspects of living. It also offers a more productive activity with a profitable upside than standing on street corners smoking cigarettes or pushing drugs. I suppose to some people, poker itself is a "drug"...a form of high or addiction that can drive one to levels of at least temporary insanity. As for me, I like to see a little "insanity" at my table...it can be highly profitable...as long as security is somewhere nearby.

Our recent journeys have taken us to Panama, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Aruba, Colombia, and starting next week...Uruguay and Argentina. It has been fun and interesting to meet the promoters and players of poker from various Central and South American countries at these events and poker rooms. It also has been interesting to note the variety of promotions going on in the regional poker magazines such as Poker Hispano
(http://pokerhispano.com ) and Bluff Espanol (http://bluff.la ) and the various promoters in this region such as WPS ( www.worldpokershowdown.com ) and Latin American Poker (http://www.lapt.com/ ) who are primarily backed by Poker Stars
( www.pokerstars.net ). These are good signs that poker is growing in this region and a few people are trying to bring quality events and purses to poker rooms and casinos throughout the Americas.

As in any new and growing industry, there are always risks and growing pains associated with the growth of poker in this region. Up until recently, poker in these countries was primarily for the upper class, moneyed players…many of whom were first exposed to poker in the USA, online, or in the upper echelons of their various gaming rooms primarily geared to high roller bankrolls. Most of the live action throughout this region has been primarily no limit Holdem with minimally $100-200 buyins and 5-5 to 5-10 blind action. You arguably need a bankroll of $5,000 or more to start playing at these levels and the majority of even your regular casino players in these countries might be hard pressed to have that much cash in their account or pockets to play with. In addition, a novice or learning player will go broke in a hurry playing at these levels. So, the live games are primarily targeted to high rollers while the average young, non moneyed player who wants to learn the game is relegated to low buyin tournaments which seem to be flourishing on the other end of this spectrum. It is our opinion that for poker to reach the masses in these markets, the casinos and promoters needs to start offering lower limit and lower buyin CASH games for the non-wealthy gamers and also do more to educate and create educated and winning players who will add to the houses’ hourly rake rates without going broke. So many rooms we know of seem focused on BIG cash games and then SMALL rebuy tournaments. To us there seems quite the disparity and lack of attention to the middle class and building a consistent and variety of local action.

It is quite noticeable to those of us with international player experience that there is a real lack of knowledge and experience with poker management in these countries. Many of these rooms are run by managers who have no experience or true knowledge of poker. They don’t know how to make correct and consistent rulings at the table, they don’t know how to train dealers and support staff, and they don’t know how to get the most profit out of a poker room or deal with the players accordingly. Hopefully over time, we will be able to positively impact the market with advice and strategy to casinos and poker rooms that will increase their productivity while providing safe places to play our game.

That brings us to another observation down here. The rules and enforcement are all over the place depending on which country and which casino or poker room you play in. There is very little standardization in Latin America outside of the larger tournament events which have to at least make an effort to fall under WPT or other international rules of poker. In some markets such as Panama, the action is good, but the foreign player has to be very careful which game they play in. “Panama Poker” can be profitable, but it also can be hazardous with the large amount of collusion and team playing that goes on. The main room with 90% of the live poker action in Panama is at the Veneto Casino. They regularly get 2 games going 7 nights per week. Many of the players there have big money behind them…and unfortunately the management has not seen fit to enforce international rules or standards of play. Only if the players themselves speak up at the table will there be any kind of controls from the dealers or the house on standard rules such as “show one show all” or premature splitting of pots between two buddies or outright couples at the table. This is like an insiders’ “home game” where only local rules apply. If you cannot flow with that, you are best not to get in that game.

We also need more standardization of poker tournaments, both in Panama and elsewhere in the region. The rake out of tournament purses has been anywhere from 10-20% depending on where you play. There is very little accountability or transparency to the players in these venues which are often times run by novices in the sport…and it seems players are so focused on the action that they are not “counting” the pots or the purse. This is another area that we hope some regional body, whether it be the Latin American Poker Tour or some other association of players that forms, will eventually impact the verity and consistency of poker in this region. It is hard to promote and help develop players and events in this region because we will not knowingly work with those unwilling to be transparent or abide by international standards of the game of Poker.

Even with all the cautions mentioned above, we are high on the opportunities that exist for our favorite sport in the Latin American region. Just seeing the growing international traffic from Europe and North America in the tourneys and poker rooms down here show the potential that is still just trickling into these markets. We hope that the media and poker magazines continue to spread good and balanced information throughout the Latin American region, and we hope the casinos and poker rooms continue to “improve” their game in providing dynamic and safe environments wherein we can practice our game and focus on just the competition.