One of the unique things about the game of poker is that it is a social activity (taking money off your opponents is an added benefit!). With that in mind, one of the most popular online poker information sites is offering its members a way to connect with like-minded poker players in their respective state or country.
This week, PocketFives.com, which boasts a 120,000 member poker community and a plethora of poker information, launched a new endeavor with the intention of linking players together via the site. Dubbed “PocketFives Local,” the new tab on the PocketFives site provides a method for players to interact with each other through posts, information regarding other players’ performance in online and live tournaments and, in general, talk about the game that they enjoy.
“The central feature of this page is a column displaying updates on players in that location,” says PocketFives co-founder Cal Spears. “Anytime a player in that location does something noteworthy, such as cash in a live or online tournament or wins a new PocketFives badge, we’ll automatically generate a post to this column to let everyone know about it in his area.”
There are four areas that PocketFives Local gives kudos to in calling them the “Leaders” of a particular category. Those categories are “Ambassador (member with the most referrals to PocketFives),” “Chip Leader (player with the largest cash in the last three months),” “Table Captain (player with the most Local posts)” and “Grinder (the player with the most cashes in the last three months). In addition to these “Leader” awards, players can “Raise” updates from their fellow members to indicate their approval of a particular post and comment on any item that appears in the main PocketFives Local column.
Another nice feature of PocketFives Local is a link to live events at any casino in a player’s particular state. By logging into PocketFives and visiting the “Local” tab, a player is taken directly to their particular state’s poker community. Under this area, a “Poker Near Me” tab is available, which will display the live events in casinos throughout the state.
It only seems natural that the United States would have the most members of all the different nations. There are almost 40,000 registered members of PocketFives in the U. S., with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany also providing solid Local groups. In addition to the national breakdown, each of the fifty U. S. states has their own community to be able to interact with players closer to them.
Players who have already registered on the site have been placed with their particular country and state and new players who register will be automatically slotted into their proper locations. It is important to keep your information up to date on PocketFives, otherwise you might end up in an area that no longer applies to you.
While there may be other poker forums on the internet, PocketFives is looking to provide something to make the experience special for poker’s denizens. Through the new “PocketFives Local” feature, players will be able to draw closer to other players located in their state or country and perhaps build new friendships and/or challenges at the poker tables.
This also looks to be the first step in what is going to be a multi-tiered program for the PocketFives website. Spears stated that the new “Local” feature is simply Phase 1 of an increased effort from the website to reach a broader audience of poker players not only in the United States but also throughout the world. If the new “Local” feature is simply the beginning step in an ongoing process, it will be interesting to see what else PocketFives can come up with to continue to drive interest in the game.
