Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 148
Just want to start out by saying that I perused the 2 + 2 website, wasn't sure the best place for what I am trying to communicate, i'm not really asking for anything and not particularly interested in getting any kind of investment or putting myself into debt with anyone, so I think a blog is as good as any to start off with. I'm more interested in just starting a conversation specific to Poker, its future in the U.S. and more specifically an emphasis on my own opinions which when I put into writing helps me focus more.
Little background on myself: 25 y/o male living in Kansas City, KC, have been playing NLHE online since 2003 and live since 2009 recreationally.
Seems fairly obvious, especially in light of the fantasy draft boom that has exploded across the U.S. that the emphasis on poker being a game of skill rather than gambling is the only way to get poker legalized in the U.S.
I'm taking the time to write this because as a Kansas City native I feel I can adequately explain why Kansas City would be an ideal starting place for generating the next Poker boom if it's even possible to match the last one. The biggest emphasis on KC is that it is a city that spreads across 2 states, so especially when pushing an emphasis for taxation and being business friendly its not only possible but necessary to negotiate between the 2 states for which one wants your business more.
KC has rediscovered its love in the last year with sports in general, especially with the success of the Royals this year (they are playing in the World Series tonight in case you live in a bomb shelter) but the fact that daily fantasy sports is finding so much success here is directly related to our ingrained home town pride. Anything with a KC logo is worth as much as it weighs right now, and continuing that momentum seems like good timing if the "next big thing sports thing" were to originate out of KC.
Local businesses will literally sponsor anything to reach a wider audience. I could personally name 5 to 10 18-25 year old men that would be willing to travel the entire KC area at minimum wage with a very basic sales commissions going door to door to get crowd funded and business sponsorships.
KC is going to be an ideal area for hosting servers reaching a wider audience driven by social media, peer to peer, and twitch tv specifically due to Olathe KS being the first location to receive google fiber. My residence is already signed up for it, and the deadline to receive first service is going to be November 12th. Basically as far as an online broadcasting point of view i'm not convinced there is a better area to start in the U.S, not even just for poker but just twitch gaming in general.
KC has already established and convenient local casinos, poker rooms on both the Kansas side and Missouri side, as well as a huge audience for everything sports related, so the potential for ANYTHING sports related and even gaming related is peaking in an area that has a huge middle class, high class, but also even high standards of living for a large part of struggling paycheck by paycheck average joes. Add that with a huge transportation / freight market, a plethora of college towns within a reasonable distance, and very very business friendly counties ( google Johnson County KS ) it has amazing potential.
Starting any sort of Poker training, hosting Poker tournaments, finding local poker clubs has literally never been easier in this area, but it's mostly untapped potential with no sort of professionalism unless you are dealing directly with Casinos.
No real summation i'm just testing the water on a respected Poker forum, i'v been bouncing these ideas around in my head and writing ideas for Poker, twitch, and games of skill in general, have a notebook and a half of ideas for content ect.
Not asking where to start or what people think the numbers would be, literally just seeing if I can generate more interest than just what I can drum up from local business owners and family members already interested.
Typed this out freehand so if my ideas don't seem very ordered or if anyone wants to continue the discussion, would be happy to clarify or if you think you have valuable insight I would love to hear it.
Edit: Also forgot that I am certain that if a poker interest was coming out of Kansas and/or Missouri, which is pretty obviously one of the most conservative states in the nation, that just that by itself would probably make a poker market easier to spearhead.
Last edited by verycrooked; 10-27-2015 at 10:00 PM.
Reason: forgot something
