You’ll notice a brand new yellow link at the top of PocketFives that says “Local.” On Tuesday, PocketFives launched local poker communities. Dubbed PocketFives Local, this new feature provides a unique way to view local activity and interact with players in your area. PocketFives considers this project phase 1 of its efforts to reach a broader audience of poker players throughout the world. Check out the United States poker community as an example.

Right now, we’ve launched PocketFives Local pages for every country in the world and all 50 U.S. states. You’ll see a big red graphic at the top of PocketFives prompting you to select your Local page and enter your correct location in your profile. If you need any assistance or have any questions, please e-mail support@pocketfives.com.

The central feature of this page is a column that displays updates on players in your area. Any time a player in your location does something noteworthy, such as cash in a live or online tournament or win a new PocketFives badge, we’ll automatically generate a post to this column. All you have to do is visit your own PocketFives Local community page and check out the feed to see what’s new.

You’ll find filtersat the top of the main Local column that allow you to view specific updates in your area. Filtering options include toggling on and off wall posts, live cashes, new users, PocketFives badges and awards, poker site name changes, poker forum posts, Off Topic posts, and a minimum amount for online and live cashes. Just hit “Save and Close” when you’re done changing the filters and the main PocketFives Local column will refresh accordingly.

You can post your own updates to your location’s community page. If you have a question or comment about anything local, this is the place to ask it. Our content team will be posting news updates that affect your area, which will make these pages solid resources as state-by-state and country-by-country poker legislation news occurs. The example next to this paragraph affects the Australia poker community.

If you like an update or post, click on “Raise” to show your support. In addition, feel free to leave a comment by clicking the word “Comment” and then typing your response. Hit “Enter” when you’re done writing and your comment will appear in the main Local column. Commenting on any post will bump it back to the top of the page just like in the regular PocketFives forum.

We’ve included detailed country- and state-specific stats within PocketFives Local. By clicking on “Member Stats” at the top of the middle column, you can view the total winnings for your state or country, total winnings in the last three months, total cashes, total cashes in the last three months, largest cash all-time, largest cash in the last three months, most cashes all-time, and most cashes in the last three months.

Next to the above paragraph, you can view the statistics for our Canada poker community, which is one of our largest Local pages.

On the left side of every PocketFives Local page, the total number of registered PocketFives members in an area, that country’s worldwide ranking, and several tournament-related stats are displayed. On the right, you’ll see several members of each location recognized:

Ambassador– Member with the most referrals
Chipleader– Member with the biggest cash in the last three months
Grinder– Member with the most cashes in the last three months
Table Captain – Member with the most wall posts in last three months

For those states with live poker tournaments, a “Poker Near Me” link at the top of the main PocketFives Local page exists. This shows upcoming live tournaments at any casino in a state, which makes finding a live game a breeze. We’d like to extend a special thanks to Poker Near Me for making this feature possible.

Finally, we’d like to grow the PocketFives community and Local. Therefore, we’ll be rewarding PocketFives members for referring their friends, family, coworkers, and anyone else they know to our site. You’ll see a “Help us Grow” ad on the left side of every Local page and when you click it, there’s a unique referral link that you can share via Twitter and Facebook.

As a thank you for referring others, PocketFives will run a monthly drawing for five PocketFives t-shirts. You will get one entry into the drawing for each new member you refer to PocketFives, and five members will be selected from all referrers every month.

Check out your own local poker community by clicking the “Local” link at the top of PocketFives. Visit our official forum thread for more details and to post any feedback you have.