Online Poker for Real Money in Canada
Online poker players in Canada have many different options available. Texas Hold’em is soaring in popularity within Canadian borders, and online gambling is still 100% legal from an end user standpoint. Below you will find the best real money poker sites to play poker with Canadian Dollars. All of these sites are safe and offer easy deposit options such as the eCheck.
Canadian Real Money Poker Sites 2012
888 Poker
888 Poker is our #1 Canadian Friendly Poker Site, accepting eCheck deposits in C$.
Party Poker
Party Poker is the largest poker site accepting Canadian Players in 2012.
While the center of poker is still the United States of America, the game is also quite popular in its northern neighbor Canada. Poker in Canada is as old as it is in the United States. Some people even believe that poker arrived in Canada and the United States simultaneously and, subsequently, developed indigenously.
Canada as a country experienced a poker boom back in 2003 due to a combination of the performance of its poker professionals in global tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and live media coverage of their games. Since this poker boom, the nation has seen numerous casinos with poker tables prop up in different provinces along with an underground and legal pub poker culture that is the hallmark of any poker intensive nation.
However, the poker boom of 2003 can be loosely attributed to one aspect and one aspect alone. This is the rise to fame of the previous nobody Chris Moneymaker. Chris Moneymaker reached the high profile event by way of winning numerous online poker events. In fact, the television debut of Chris Moneymaker was actually at the World Series of Poker. The debut of Moneymaker took on fairytale proportions because he went on to top his run into the competition by actually winning it. Despite the fact that Chris Moneymaker is an American and not a Canadian, his meteoric championship winning run showed Canadians that the game of poker appreciates even unknown individuals as long as they show skills.
This gave the game of poker an egalitarian personality that is the true reason behind its rise in popularity in Canada. The significance of the rise of Chris Moneymaker to the top of the poker industry can be seen by the fact that the media coined the Canadian and global poker boom of 2003 as the ‘Moneymaker Effect’. Now, owing to this effect, online poker for real money is one of the most famous pastimes in the majority of the regions in Canada.
As is the case with most entertainment and sports arenas, stars and players in poker from Canada and the United States are often clubbed together. This is the reason why most Canadian superstars are viewed as Americans by many people. Here is a list of some of the poker superstars that hail from Canada.
Poker Superstars from Canada
- Daniel Negreanu: Daniel Negreanu is an erstwhile World Series of Poker Player of the Year award holder. The man has won four separate World Series of Poker gold bracelets and two championship titles at the World Poker Tour. One of the most well known poker champs of the world, Negreanu who has career tournament earnings worth 14.6 million dollars holds the second position in the all time winnings list.
- Sorel Mizzi: Sorel Mizzi has a big presence in the online poker industry where he plays under the names of Imper1um and Zengbezan24. The total winnings of Mizzi can be estimated to be around 4 million dollars
- Michael McDonald: Michael McDonald is one of the youngest poker players hailing from Canada and would be around 21 right now. Michael McDonald has a nickname of Timex because of his online username. McDonald retired from the world of poker last year after amounting total career tournament earnings of around 3 million dollars.
- Jonathan Duhamel: Jonathan Duhamel is the first ever Canadian to have won the main event at the World Series of Poker tournament. He won the tournament’s main event last year in 2010 taking away around 9 million dollars in the process. Apart from the World Series of Poker, Duhamel has also clocked wins at the European Poker Tour’s High Roller Event and the World Series of Poker in 2011.
- Gavin Smith: Gavin Smith is another poker star hailing from Canada who is well known on a global scale. The man has total career earnings of more than 5.5 million dollars, apart from also holding a gold bracelet from the World Series of Poker of 2011.
While these are the Canadian legends of poker, the popularity of the game in the country has resulted in numerous new players becoming forces in the poker world. These include Isabelle Mercier, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, Nenad Medic, Scott Montgomery, Matt Jarvis, Darus Suharto and many others.
As a lot of poker stars hail from Canada, it is only logical for the country to be a major force when it comes to poker tournaments as well. Apart from smaller weekly and monthly tournaments in the country, here is a list of four tournaments that are worth taking note of on the basis of their global reputation.
Canadian Real Money Poker Tournaments
- The British Columbia Poker Championships: The British Columbia Poker Championships is one of the most well known tournaments in the poker world simply on the basis of the kind of players it draws on a regular basis. One of the best features of the British Columbia Poker Championships is its structure for buy-ins. According to professional poker players, the tournament is the best structured in this regard.
- The Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic: The Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic, as the name suggests, is a poker tournament that provides a brilliant view to the poker players in addition to being one of the biggest poker tournaments in the region. The Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic consists of three main events, namely the 1,000 dollars buy in, the 2,500 dollars buy in and the incredible 5,000 dollars buy in. Needless to say, the large buy ins make the prize money pool of the tournament equally large. The Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic draws a lot of big name stars from Canada as well as the United States. The reason for this is not only the great reputation of the Niagara Fallsview Poker Classic but also its prime location.
- The Canadian Open Poker Championships: The Canadian Open Poker Championships are organized by the Canadian Poker Tour and is usually spread out over more than a single casino. The tournament debuted in the poker world back in 2006 and has since raked in numerous poker stars from Canada and the United States. The prize money pool of the Canadian Open Poker Championships easily overshoots the million dollar mark on a regular basis.
- The Miriam Foundation Montreal Open: The Miriam Foundation Montreal Open is a charity event and can, debatably, be called the largest charity poker tournament in the whole of North America. This tournament is pretty famous amongst the poker players not only because of its charitable intentions but also because it acts as an entryway into the World Series of Poker. The Miriam Foundation Montreal Open itself has numerous online satellites through which players often qualify.
While these tournaments say a lot about the poker scene in Canada, the country, like its neighbor the United States, has a thriving underground poker culture with numerous small clubs and pubs hosting poker games on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. In addition to the local and underground pub poker culture, the country boasts of no less than 42 casinos that offer poker tables within its borders to locals and tourists alike.
In terms of the legality of poker in Canada, the country is a little ahead of the United States because, as per many legal and poker experts, it is on the verge of the legalization of online poker. However, only the first steps towards legalization of the online variant of the game have occurred. Notably, some provinces have already legalized the game of poker on the internet and even established their own government-run poker websites. The country’s online poker scene sees three main contenders i.e. Poker Stars, Lock Poker and Titan Poker.
If the legalization of online poker does occur in the country, then it is expected that it will take the whole poker scene to the next level. In fact, it is even possible that the legalization of the online poker industry in the country would make Canada one of the leaders of real money poker as a game on a global level. Regardless of where the future of poker lies in Canada, it can be expected to always have a major role to play when it comes to providing great poker players. Online Poker for Real Money in Canada is here to stay in any event.
