Unfortunately we do not have poker tables nor a poker room here in Victoria yet.Casino expansion is still a couple of years away and that expansion will include a poker room.
For now,many of us either go over to Vancouver to play at the River Rock or at several other casinos in the area or we play locally at cash games at peoples homes.
The only other avenue for playing poker is an almost nightly poker league which is scattered throughout various pubs in Victoria.
This league is called BCAP and the info on this league is available at http://www.bcap.ca/
It is a free poker league and we play for points for a period of maybe 3-4 months.We have about 400 or so members of all ages who play regularly and the top 100 make it to a final tourney.
The winner of that final tourney is awarded a buy in to a tourney at the WSOP.
I play in it fairly regularly(not as much as some of the other members),and find it to be a great learning tool,not to mention a nice social evening with people of different abilities.
Until three weeks ago,these were our only options in Victoria until the local casino decide to bring in something called lightning poker.
I don't know how many members know what it is so...in a nutshell...it is a poker table with screens set up in front of each player.There is no human dealer.This is almost like internet poker except that there are live people who you can talk to sitting all around you.
Cards are dealt.You then look at them and decide whether to play or not.
The game is $1-$2 no limit hold 'em and buy ins are $40 to $200 max and the poker is fast as you only have 30 seconds to decide what to do.A small rake is automaticallytaken from each pot.
I tried it yesterday and played for about 4 hours and turned my $120 into a $327 cash out for a nice little profit of $207. That's a nice hourly of $50/hour.Not bad for a $1-$2 game,especially since I never really has that many great hands to play.I just happened to maximize what I did get.
Now that this type of game has arrived here in Victoria,I suspect that many of us "free" poker players will now be heading to the casino more regularly.
Has anyone played lightning poker before? I just wanted to get some opinions on it to see how you feel about playing in this format.
I know that many of you are close to regular casinos,so this type of game may not even be in your area. Here is another site to visit so that you can get a look at what this format looks like.
http://www.lightningpoker.net
I sure wouldn't mind investing in some stock in this as I think that it will be great for small casinos with no table games as dealers are not required.