With the World Series of Poker coming to a halt in Las Vegas this month, many pro poker players were left with one underlying question: What’s next?
Some threw in the towel, dusted off their resume and entered the competitive job market. Others, though, have made efforts to move out of the country in order to resume the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to.
Dan “jungleman12” Cates, who won more than $4 million at Full Tilt Poker’s nosebleed cash games last year, is understandably among the pros attempting to continue his poker career. The game’s biggest online earner in 2010 spent most of the 2011 WSOP in Vegas playing cash games — his forte — so naturally his plan was to move out of the country in order to avoid the current restrictions on playing online poker in the United States.
Cates has been keeping his 10,000-plus Twitter followers updated on his voyage into Canada — where playing on the largest online poker rooms is permitted. He began his journey on Wednesday, saying, “leaving for Vancouver tomorrow, time to crush online again :)”
However, Cates hit a snag as soon as he hit the border. “In a ridiculous twist, I have been deported from Canada for being an illegal immigrant,” he wrote. “Going to Seattle tomorrow to try to get temp visa.
He later added, “Apparently I need a visa to play poker for a living in Canada? Wtf? Anyone know about the immigration laws here?”
As it turns out, Cates wasn’t deported; he was just denied entry into the country. But his quandary highlights the complications that poker players are going to face in order to resume their online careers.
Cates’ rejection into the country was befuddling to some poker pros in the industry. Taylor “GreenPlastic” Caby weighed in on the issue in a thread on TwoPlusTwo, saying, “It’s frustrating, but really those guys are just doing their jobs. It’s probably better that they at least give the appearance to outsiders that they are strict about letting people into the country.”
Several others suggested that Cates hire an immigration lawyer to help him through the process. Cates joked on Twitter Thursday that he would be making a video series focused on him “sneaking” into the country. As entertaining as that may be, we’re calling his bluff.
While Cates figures out the next step in his move to Vancouver, other American players have already made the move out of the country to resume their online poker careers. Olivier “livb112” Busquet and Phil “OMGCLAYAIKEN” Galfond are two of the biggest winners in online poker history and both traveled north following the conclusion of the WSOP. Galfond, who plays as “MrSweets28” on PokerStars, announced his departure from the States via Twitter last week: “To everyone asking, I moved to Canada to play.” He later explained his plan, saying that he would stay in Canada for “three to six months” before re-evaluating his options.
Galfond, who normally played No Limit Hold ’em and Pot Limit Omaha games at $200/400 and higher on Full Tilt Poker, got involved in some smaller games than he’s used to on PokerStars this week, and the transition wasn’t quite what he hoped for early on. Galfond faced off against Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, among other high-stakes regulars, and dropped close to $75,000 on the site through Thursday.
“After 3 months off of online poker, I’d forgotten about downswings,” Galfond wrote. “Oh well. Still happy to be playing. I love the game.”
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