There’s been a fair few attempts at staging poker events with a team based structure. Usually sponsored by a particular poker room, and done on a country vs. country basis.The problem is, with so many of them about, which is the real national team? Is it the poker room that spent the most money on the event, is it the event that gets the highest television ratings, or is it the team that contains the most high profile players?
Perhaps this is a case where poker is running before it can walk. How can a country have an official national side when it has no regional sides?
Pubs have darts, pool, snooker, golf, quiz and football teams, with the enthusiasts of the chosen sport or activity competing against their local counterparts. They clash once a week, in organized leagues, over the course of a season. Often, the winning side gets little more than a big-ass trophy.
With the popularity of poker growing exponentially in this country, is there room for local poker leagues?
I think the format for league games should be heads up poker, rather than a single table tournament (where points for your team are awarded according to what place you finish in). My reasons for this are threefold.
Firstly, I believe that you shouldn’t soft play in a normal tournament. A dangerous precedent would be set if the single table tournament was the format as you couldn‘t avoid this - players thinking it’s ok to soft play their mates down the casino because that’s what goes on down the pub.
Secondly, in heads up poker, the side with the greater overall skill level would emerge the victor more often. An odd number of players in each team, say 5 or 7, each playing a heads up match. Given 10,000 starting chips and a 20 minute clock, the more skilful side would win often enough for a decent level of competition to exist. Each match could take place simultaneously, and be over within 3 hours. That’s around the length of time your typical darts or pool team take to complete a match.
Thirdly, heads up poker wouldn’t require special poker tables. Matches could take place on your regular pub tables without too much upheaval. To compete in the league, you’d need a venue for your home matches. A pub would be ideal, but how many have room for a 10 man poker table?There would be a huge amount of mileage in it for a sponsor. If they were to lay on a decent prize, for the champion of champions (when the winner of each local league competes on a national level at the end of the season), then they could provide branded cards to pubs for them to play their games with. Their product could be effectively punted to a very wide base of players.
With a decent enough prize at the end, and a reasonably slow structure for the matches, no money need be involved. This is crucial, as venues where poker can be legally played for cash are severely limited.
The prize at the end for the champion of champions is an obvious incentive, but I believe the slow structure is necessary too. This is so that a decent level of skill is involved, and (in the absence of immediate cash) the teams would need to play for pride instead. I can’t see there being much interest in a cashless bingo league.
Plenty pubs would be happy to host the games. I used to work in a local, on darts nights we flogged twice as much beer. It’s a reason for people to go down the pub, and a fair amount of licensees are desperate for such things since the smoking ban kicked in.
Would you want to play for your local every week during the 'poker season'? Would the craic, a big shield if you win the league, and a WSOP main event seat for all your members, if you became the champion of champions, be enough of an incentive to get you out of the living room on a Wednesday evening? I’d be more than happy to swim in such a pond.
Going through a field of rival pubs over the course of many months, then beating similar winners from other cities. That would be a national team that I would recognize.
Thomas "thetank" Stott