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.