History of Snake's Poker

To the avid poker enthusiast it might seem like Kahnawake is the place to be when in the Montreal area. Well you can thank Snake’s Poker Club and a few other Poker players from our community for the huge impression that we have when it comes to top notch “Live Poker”.

Back in 2006 Poker was picking up in all areas of Montreal and across Canada and the United States. The Current owner of Snake’s Poker Club, Stan “Snake” Myiow was a regular at all the games that could be had in Kahnawake and Chatauguay. He had been an Ironworker his whole career, and had played poker at different places and times in many of the cities that he worked. Stan had actually been waiting for the right time to make a change in his career. Well after only a month or two of playing regularly, he decided to move forward with his idea to somehow get a Poker Club going on our reserve. This was not going to be easy but was not looked at as an impossible task. There were some hurdles that would come, and at the same time there were a few good reasons why it was possible to accomplish this on our territory. Poker had been frowned upon by the government for no legitimate reason other than political close-mindedness.

Poker was on TV day and night. Professional Poker Players were all the rage in Magazines and TV with no criminal or unlawful entities to be had. Poker was considered common place when played in the basements and garages across the country, but somehow the powers that be, put it into the same category as most casino table games. I know that all poker players know this to be erroneous on the politician’s part. Poker is a game of skill and has a various degree of luck that is always fluctuating according to how the game is being played.

Luck plays a part in most things that have skill involved, not only Poker. And for this project to proceed to the present day, we were going to need a little luck as well as some intelligent and open minded leadership. Stan had petitioned the leadership of his community as well as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) to grant him permission to open a business that allows poker to be played within the Kahnawake Territory. A few other individuals had also asked the same from the KGC so there was some pressure that helped to push the Mohawk Council and the KGC to allowing the game of Poker to exist at specific locations in our territory.

The Batting Cage was the 1st place that Stan used to hold his own poker tournaments. Earlier some friends had asked Stan to help run the Friday night Tournaments at the Legion Hall, so he had learned from there, the basics of the poker tournaments and gained some small cash game experience.

Stan never hired any outside players or hosts to run his games, even though it could have been a quick way to bring bigger dollars to his games, Stan chose to keep the regular Joe as his main clientele, and learned through trial and error how to care for his blue collar friends, To this day, this holds true and this is where he coined the phrase “Blue collar poker”.

With the help of his first “Dealers” Desiree, Sandi jo, Candace and his daughter Jamie lee. Stan started his poker club in the upstairs part of a local bar named the Batting Cage. Stan had always believed that for his business to be looked at in a positive light by his people and leadership, local Kahnawake people would have to be the majority of his staff, as the business grew non natives were hired as needed and to this day all work together as a family. He also hired his second daughter Kiersten as a dealer, then years later his son Evan to work in the kitchen. Family is the main ingredient in Snake’s Poker Club, all of Stan’s children work at Snake’s, but he considers all of his staff his children and family.
His Friend Roddy had agreed to allow Stan to run his games upstairs. This was a rather good space, except on the weekends the bar grew rather loud as the night wore on. It was good that the players that participated were always understanding of their surroundings, and really there was no other decent place to hold a regular nightly tournament without fear of legal reprimand. There were other places poker was being played, but Snake’s had the low and reasonable buy in for the working class.

Well the business grew and Snake’s Poker was getting more players, Stan decided to move downstairs in the same space that was used as a catering hall below “The Batting Cage”. The clientele changed throughout the first two years, non natives that were friends and family of local Kahnawake players had been participating from the start and with the help of a few loyal friends, more and more non natives were coming to play on a regular basis.

As the times changed and poker was growing all around, a larger space was needed to hold bigger tournaments but also needed to be in an easier convenient location. In March 2009 the current building was built and “Snake’s Poker Club” was moved in and put forth the charge that helped push the Montreal poker scene to where it is today. Stan has held strong to the idea of serving the “Blue Collar Poker Players” while hosting larger buy in tournaments as the demand comes, but always keeping in mind where he would be without his working class players and friends. Some poker rooms will come and go and some will change their names, but Snakes Poker Club will remain the Original Poker room that it started as, and will move into the future with the same morals and friendly family atmosphere that has been the standard of this wonderful business. As the times change so we will our poker club but never losing site of the original idea, and always catering to the “Blue Collar Poker Player”.