2011 Bar Poker in Review

2011 was a year of change in the bar poker industry in the St Cloud area. The year started with hopes high about the second season of the Central MN Poker Players Association and I believe ending on kind of a down note. The year started with a big open event CMPPA at McCann's with real nice attendance with a lot of new members signing up, but in the end I was very disappointed with the CMPPA membership. The organization did manage to grow slightly but not as much as I had hoped. The 2nd annual Jim Wang Memorial Tournament had a small turn out but still managed to raise $1000 for the American Cancer Society. The team event was also a success again this year and the addition of the heads up event was a good thing. For the second year in a row the same player took down the POY for both the CMPPA and the St Cloud Series of Poker events. That is not an easy task, so congratulations to this year winner Amanda Mock. Attendance to the events was very poor throughout the year with many events not even having 50% turnout. This is a discouraging sign for the organization itself. If numbers don't continue to grow it will be difficult to host as many events as in past years. I guess only time will tell. The biggest changes this year was in the actual bar games themselves. My selling out of my poker business to Dustin and the many changes to the people running games has brought about significant changes to the area games. The biggest change is how poor the play has become at so many of the games. For a variety of reasons many of the better players have stopped or cut back on games played. That along with the increase of weak players added to the games has made many not that much fun to play anymore. I have always looked at bar poker as a learning experience to make me a better player but it is hard to keep the interest if you know that whatever you do someone on the table will call and usually many will call. It creates an unrealistic game that doesn't help you to become a better money player. It also doesn't help that the professional tournaments have changed so much. With television you see only the big hands and aggressive play, which leads bar players to think that is how they should play. What they don't see are the 1000's of other hands that were folded leading up to the TV hand. It was very refreshing being able to see all the hands of the November 9 on TV this year. To the average viewer, I am sure it was very boring, but to me it great to see all the back and forth play that leads to those big hands. The other thing that I believe has hurt bar poker locally is the amount of starting chips given at most tournament. Unfortunately, I am big part of the blame for this. The bar owners want people to stay in their bars as long as possible to increase the chances of them selling more drinks and I get that. Giving a bad player more chips just gives them more opportunities to increase their chances of winning hands and the less likely hood of people folding. It takes away the integrity of the game. maybe we need more games with 2000-3000 in starting chips forcing players to use their chips more wisely, but then again maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.

The other big poker story of the year is the end of the big three online poker sites. The demise of Full Tilt Poker should have been the end of the online poker industry but instead may be just the beginning as Nevada has passed legislation to legalize online betting. I am not sure how the whole thing would work, but it almost surely will involve the casino industry. With the mess that our government is in though it seems unlikely that online gaming would be much of a priority to anyone. I have started playing again recently on Lock Poker, but can honestly say that I haven't missed it that much. I prefer the social interaction of live poker and being able to look someone in the face before making decisions. But, when there is nothing else to do it's something.

I hope that the decline of local bar poker doesn't continue into 2012. If it does more bar will stop running games and it will be more difficult to play. I also hope that my passion for poker will return once again. I am trying to regain it.  I hope to see you all on the tables in 2012!

Have a happy holidays and a safe New Year!