Once Poker is passed in US. Cash vs MTT

Got to reading a thread on the other big site and an interesting thought was being passed around. Once poker is legalized in the USA it will be probably intrastate and (this would also apply to ROW since they are talking being all intra country).

The thought is that MTT's will be very small or even non existant. Now when it does become legal in the US, I want to be READY, and feel the time right now is just to get my game right. before all other sites are closed or US shutout

So if MTT's on INTRASTATE site are few and far between, Im thinking I might be better off to total focus on cash, maybe even try to do this mad volume stuff yall talk about. But I want my game to sharp as I feel if it does get legalized a lot of Zynga and Sweepstake site players will get in. What Im saying I want to say I was in it during the next boom

What do yall think. If MTTs are country's only and INTRASTATE in US they will probably be small bigger buy in type deals. Im all over the place here but just like to hear some thoughts on this

As an MTT player, here are my thoughts: play what you love.

What state do you live in? I live in California. With roughly 37 million residents, I expect to see some serious MTT action. Maybe if you live in a less populous state, things will be different. But I just can't see changing my game. It seems to me at the very worst, you'd have to try to work around a more restrictive schedule. But it shouldn't be as restrictive as a live tournament schedule in a small town, for instance.

Anyhow, I don't plan on changing my game. I love MTT and for various reasons, I'm much more suited to that than cash games. Even though I hate the idea of having to play intrastate, I'm sure I'll fall in line. I do hope that sanity ultimately prevails and we end up being able to play each other all over the US along with players from other countries.

Why do you think it will be intrastate? The legislation I'm aware of allows for states to opt out, but if they opt in, they will be playing with all other players from opt in states.

If no federal legislation is passed, I can see some states wanting to legalize it and that will have to be intrastate to appease the DOJ dogs. That will totally suck for us in small states where it probably will not be legalized.

It will be interesting to see the costs for intrastate sites. I think we will be missing the days of reasonable rakes given the propensity of government to suck the life out of every possible chance at getting $.

If they don't have micro-stakes, they will be missing out on a lot of potential customers which makes no sense for an online site.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Washington will do something right for a change and we will at least be able to play nationwide. The population of the US is about 5 times that of Italy, and almost 5 times that of France so we are in a better position than they are.

From what I understand, it's because interstate gaming is subject to the very federal laws that shut down poker for us here in the US to begin with. If states make their own state online gaming networks, the federal government can't touch them as long as they remain contained within their own state. However, once they cross state lines, they are subject to federal jurisdiction via interstate commerce laws.

It is possible that the federal government could create new laws allowing poker and other gaming, but the states apparently aren't going to wait around for that. We've now had both Republican and Democratic administrations that are clearly not favorable to online poker, so I wouldn't hold my breath either.

I think anything at this point involves at least a little bit of speculation, but that's my take on it. We'll see what ultimately happens.

All that is true. I thought you were saying that most states would pass legislation and we would basically have 50 individual intrastate venues. I can see only a few big states possibly getting online gaming passed like calif. I don't see it being widespread.

Ah, got it. That's an interesting questions in its own right. I honestly have no idea how many states will allow online gaming. We should all wager on it. But keep our wagers within our respective states.

It's lame that we have to go this route, but it makes me glad that we still have states' rights. If enough states are successful, then federal law might be changed. That's usually how it works.

Good point on sticking to your game. Im in Florida so Im sure we should get a lot of folks. But who knows if they would even want to opt in since we have so many card rooms and now they want to build the BIGGEST MOST WONDERFUL GAMBLING LAND in MIAMI

OK yall 2 are confusing me (not hard is it) are yall saying that even if its intrastate that all opt in states will get to play against each other or are yall saying the opposite. The way I keep hearing is 50 or wahtever number of states opt in number on venues. I think it will be intrastate with a mega game every week or month like the powerball. Which could be good the MEGA MILLIONS MTT.

BUt also. When it does go legal, will we will get the same online stakes or do you think they will not want to undercut brick and morters and your lowest stakes might $1/$2 NL and MTTs could be $35 buy in as the starting. Maybe lower but for some reason I have a feeling if you cant afford to play in card rooms, they arent gonna do much to make it cheaper to play online. Even if smallest cash games .25/.50 Nl thats still can make it an expensive night of poker. or $20 in buy MTT's NICE Payoff but you gotta make it payoff LOL

What if you cant even keep a roll online, You do it just like live. You buyin to a game, they can have your banking card on file but you can only buyin for each game you want and then when leave you have to cash out when you quit playing cash game or MTT's they just pay your card direct . Either with taxes alright taken out of winnings or you print a recipet for the game for tax purposes.

I'm saying that as long as the federal government doesn't want people to wager online, people will NOT be able to play each other across state lines. Federal law will have to be changed in order for that to happen. At least that's my understanding. I suppose the whole thing is convoluted enough to allow for some type of exception, but who knows.

Good question. My hope is that whoever is tasked with running these sites will actually want to make money. If that is the case, then they will offer what players want, much as FTP, etc. did.

Ugh, that would be lame. Like I said, hopefully the companies running the game will have the profit motive at work and thus be able to offer what players want. Otherwise, people are going to be more apt to try to play online underground.

We'll see what happens.