After “Black Friday” caused the vast majority of online poker sites who were still offering their services to American-based customers to cease doing so, many players lost their livelihood literally overnight. The full effects were not initially felt due to the World Series of Poker taking up everyone’s attention but now that the dust has settled on that front many have come to realise that they no longer have online poker to rely on for income.
The only way for American-based players to continue playing online poker is to move to a country that the sites allow, which may seem drastic but if they are earning good money from the game then it would be worth doing. Daniel Negreanu, Olivier “livb112” Busquet and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond have all recently moved to neighbouring Canada so that they can continue to ply their trade at the virtual felt.
Another player who has recently attempted to follow these players is Daniel Cates, better known as “jungleman12,” one of the best No Limit Hold’em heads up players in the world. Since starting his career in 2008 playing $0.25/$0.50, Cates has gone on to win more than $4,000,000 and is a regular in games ranging from $50/$100 up to $500/$1,000. Last week Cates informed his legions of loyal fans via Twitter, that he was “leaving for Vancouver tomorrow, time to crush online again.” But hopes of seeing their hero in action once again were soon dashed as Cates wrote, “In a ridiculous twist, I have been deported from Canada for being an illegal immigrant.”
He then added, “Going to Seattle tomorrow to try and get temp visa,” and “Apparently I need a visa to play poker for a living in Canada? Wtf? Anyone know about the immigration laws here?” It turns out that Cates was not actually deported but instead he was refused entry into the country. What makes him different from the aforementioned Galfond and Busquet remains to be seen but some of Cates’ peers have advised him to hire a quality lawyer to help him with his case.
Will we see jungleman12 back in action on the largest online poker sites any time soon? Only time will tell.
