I just moved to Tokyo, and I'm loving it. But it looks like all they have here is stupid Pachinko and slots. Anyone know of any Poker games in the area?

Just catch a flight to Seoul for the weekend. We get lots of Japanese players here since they're aren't any legal places to play in Tokyo as far as I know.

Where is there poker in s.Korea?

http://www.7luck.com/en/index.jsp

http://www.walkerhillpoker.com/

can you play online from tokyo?

I am also interested in online play from Japan. Are there any sites/networks you can't access or join? Can you deposit? Withdraw? I hope someone coming into this thread will be able to answer these questions.

There are definitely some home games with ex-pats in the Tokyo area that play for decent stakes. Try craigslist or Metropolis or something like that. There are also some poker clubs that you pay $20 or $30 to do a tournament and win points, and then after 6 months or so the people with the highest amount of points can win something like an entry in a big tourney (APPT was a prize at one place) or an ipod or something like that. Gambling for real money in Japan is illegal (I think online is ok) so you'll never find anything other than pachinko or slot machines there. Poker is pretty much unknown in Japan, I did a tourney at one of the poker clubs once, there were about 15-20 people.

Here's a report someone did about one club: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5rdovCjmVY
And the website for the club: http://www.japan-poker.net/

What is the casino like in Seoul? What limits do they run? How many tables do they have going?

I only played at 7 Luck, which is at COEX (one of the biggest underground malls, with easy subway access). Games are reasonably loose, usually with a few fishes at the table. They have about 5 tables but usually only 1-3 are in play. IIRC blinds are approximately 1/2 and 2/5 (converted to USD).

Free drinks (non-alcoholic IIRC) and food which you order from a menu and eat at the restaurant in the casino.

The biggest negative is that the rake is 10%, capped at 15000KRW (about USD12).

Since Koreans are not allowed to play in the casinos, you get a mix of young American-born Koreans, Caucasians, older Koreans and tourists.

AFAIK, any form of gambling is illegal in Japan (other than state-run sports betting or fund raising lotteries)..

there are also Zero casinos in the entire country..

for now I think online is the only poker option, if you have an account oversees where you can deposit/cash out from.

Or Korea.. but just for fun, unless games are so big there that you can profit after the rake, airplane tickets and foreign exchange fees