This is the kind of thread that I would have liked to read before my trip so I thought having scouted out this venue, I would share my experience with anyone travelling to Paris and looking for some live poker over the summer.

I'm a regular at the Vic in London (IMO best live cash venue in UK) so I am always careful when making comparisons, as if you have a favourite room it's easy to talk with a biased view.

I tried to keep an open mind when making my first visit to Cercle Cadet. In the centre of Paris, this card room is easily accessible and in a safe, busy environment. French law requires you to be a member of a card room before you can play in there and this comes in the form of an annual fee. At €30 per calendar year this is on the cheap end of the scale in Paris (the famous Aviation Club de France on the Champs Elysées is €100 or €150 I think) but having not visited ACF I can't tell you whether or not the disparity is justified. For someone like me, here for work for 3 months, it certainly isn't worth paying more than €30 to play poker once a fortnight or so.

So on to the detail. The games spread start at €2/2 and run up to 5/10 but I'm not sure how often the bigger games run. There's no electronic waiting list so it's a case of giving your name to the guy with the clipboard but luckily I didn't have a wait and jumped straight into a €2/2 game. it was a Saturday afternoon around 7pm so there were around 9 tables of 2/2 on the go which were all at least 6 handed. There's a €50 minimum/no maximum buy in on the game but from my experience the average player would only sit with around €100-150 max, so when I sat with 100 BB I covered everyone at the table.

They use standard decks (i.e. A/K/Q/J instead of A/R/D/V) and the dealers were largely competent, and changed every 30 minutes or so. I wouldn't advise sitting next to the dealer if you can help it though, as the section of the club I was in was rather cramped together with not much space between the tables which meant with every dealer change and rake collection you would be bumped or knocked around a bit.

Furniture quality was not the greatest - chairs were uncomfortable after an hour or so of sitting and there was no padding on the table rest either. Chip denominations of 2/4/10/50/100 were odd to get used to, having been used to 1/5/25/100 at home.

Rake is pretty high, capped at €14 I think but you can check their website to be exact. I do remember it being pretty unreasonable though. I don't tip dealers as IMO it's hard enough to beat rake without tipping on top but I think even the most generous tipper would think twice after paying such high rake here.

Punters, well I had to deal with one weirdo at the table but doesn't everyone? Standard of poker was very loose passive and pretty terrible, a good LAG style would almost definitely turn a profit on most if not all visits if you had the roll.

The valet didn't come round too frequently, possibly because of the cramped layout, and as far as I could tell they only had one guy serving 9 tables which obviously proves problematic. €1.50 for a water was not a pleasant surprise either.

To conclude, I would recommend it if you are in Paris and fancy some low stakes beatable cash games, but don't turn up hungry or thirsty or expecting excellent customer service. But if you ask me, you go to a card room to play cards first and foremost, and Cercle Cadet is definitely up to the task of satisfying a cash game craving, as it did mine.

hi, I will be visiting Paris in Aug. for a week. Thank you for all the information posted here about the club. I do have a question about bringing U.S. dollars. Do I need to have all the buy-ins in Euro before I go in or do they have a window where I can convert there? I remember in some European casinos, if I bring them the exchange receipt after the game, they will exchange the buy-in amount back at the same exchange rate when I am leaving. Do any of the Parisian poker clubs do that? Thanks.

I'm heading to Paris soon. Thanks for the review.

They'll change your dollars and change them back at the same rate at the end of your session.

But their rate will be ridiculous, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks. So as long as I keep the Euros that I win, and change my original buy in back at the same rate back to dollars, then I should be okay right?

Yes but that's assuming you win! You know it's possible to lose too right? And you won't be able to change them a following day, they have a 12 or 24 hours frame for you to do it.

But anyways, changing your dollars at a real exchange agent and buying chips with euros will give you more chips per $ - not irrelevant.

Thanks for the heads up man. Great post +1

Is there a dress code at Circle Cadet? I got turned away last summer trying to get into Aviation Club

This is in response to an old post, but for anyone reading this. Yes. Paris has a dress code. Look smart, rich and famous. But not like a rapper.

At "Cadet" and "Clichy montmartre", the two cercles (card rooms) with the cheapest annual cotisation (30 euros), there are no dress code for sure !!!

ACF have one (150€ the annual cotisation). By the way, they don't have anymore 1/2 since this summer. The lowest stake is 2/4.

is it 24 hours? I heard some casinos in France were not?

How much rake is on mtt?

great report, i used to be a regular at the vic but now go to the empire and other london clubs (since they introduced the stupid freeroll based on visits not hours)

anyway, this looks like the perfect place to go for a weekend away and get some poker in

thanks

As a regular of most Paris card rooms, I can confirm that Cercle Cadet is the best place to play.

ACF used to operate 7/7 24/24, but as of 15th july 2012, is now open 14:00 to 6:00, like the 2 other card rooms (Cadet and Clichy).

What are the most common beatable games in Cercle Cadet? €2/€5 €5/€5?

Visited Cercle Cadet today and here are the updates:

1) Membership now is €50/year starting January 1st 2013

2) Rake is unbeatable
Pot of €10 to €49 Rake €2
Pot of €50 to €99 Rake €6 (€6 Rake + €2 Bad beat jackpot)
Pot of €100 & above Rake €10 (€8 Rake + €2 Bad beat jackpot)
For every additional €100 in pot, extra rake of €2 is taken
Cap of €26 (€24 Rake + €2 Bad beat jackpot)

3) Super shallow games, generally between 25 to 70 BB

4) Games that usually run
€2/€2 - 4-5 tables
€2/€4 - 2 tables
€4/€4 - 1 table
€5/€5 - 1 table

5) Super expensive food and drinks
Water bottle - €1.5 for Half litre
Coffee - €1.5
Soda €2
Pizza €10

6) Fishy games, just plain loose passive bad players (couple of grinders each table).

Too tired to type more, will type a trip report shortly.

So i am here in Paris for first time in my life and sat down with 100 BB on 2/2€ table and noticed i cover everybody (min buy in 25 BB). The table is pretty good and played for an hour or so and got stacked. Bought it again for 200€ and my stack is down to 50€ now after a BIG hand. Bought in for another 200€ and my buy in now is 600€. Made it back to around 540€ and its more than 3 and half hours on the table.

By now, i realize there isn't any MEGA fish and just shallow stacks folding everything and table is now 6 handed.

I ask the dealer if i can change a table and he said yes, then he asks the floor and floor said... Only if you are loosing and i replied saying yes i am... Some players objected and said thats not true (Note, they aren't here since i am so they don't know my exact buy in). I don't speak french and everybody (Floor, dealer & players) are talking in french. Dealer then told me, everybody doesn't seems to think you are loosing and i responded i don't care what they think, i know my buy and i know my stack.

Finally floor said... This is the main table and you can't move until you get stacked and i asked, if this is the main table, why is it not 9 handed at all times (There are at least 6 more 2/2 tables running). No response and dealer just started dealing the hand.

Pretty dumb and sooo much attitude in everybody.... 4% Rake with no cap.... actually it gets to even 10% sometimes.... 50€ Pot rake is 8€ (6 +2). Water bottle for 2€ or so.... Annual membership of 50€. I am here as a tourist and might not come again for years but just not happy with the way they run the room.

That funny to here you experienced the same BS as me, I was on super tiltand stuck and wanted to change the table cause there were only grinders on the table. First the floor asked me if i was winning(Wtf) and I Said no and then they said I was the main table and Icouldnt move. I felt really leveled and that this was shady. I since then heard that the games are shady to non french players. The grindrs play togheter against the forigners.

But the games were super juicy, which still makes them a little interesting...haha french players suck!

Cash games are organized with a "principale" (first table to open), a "secondaire" and a "tertiaire" (second and third tables) for each limit (2/2, 2/4, 5/5).

The rule is that you can always go "up" towards the "principale", but you are allowed to move "down" only if you loose at the table. Don't ask me why. Anyway, you should ask a floor if you wish a table change.

Agreed that most regs are softplaying.

Played here tonight. Membership is now 60 euro / year.
Arrived around 6:30pm, and had to wait around 15 minutes to get to a 2/2 table (what they call the "50" game). Bought in for 250, had one 25bb player at the table, rest was almost 100bb up to 350bb.

Level of play was pretty meh. 3 solid young grinders at the table though. Other tables seemed to be a bit weaker.

Bottle of 50cl water is 2 euro. Red Bull 4 euro.

Cercle cadet is currently "provisionally closed" according to sign on their door, and has been for at least several months. Shopgirl across the street says there were police. That's all I know (literally), any further information would be most welcome. In the mean time it looks like it's just Clichy or Aviateurs.