This is a giant thumbs up to the Rebuy Stars casino in Luka Prague, Czech Republic.
I play only NL Tournaments there but they do run a cash game while the tournaments run and usually it is PLO 25/50 Crowns which translates roughly to $1/$2.
Like basically all casinos in Prague it is a one story casino with a storefront entrance, though in fairness the entrance is separate from the building it is in. You have to walk up a flight of stairs just before you enter the building. At the top of the stairs is a sign lit up that says "Casino".
To get to Luka the simplest way is by subway (the B train towards Zlicin from just about all the stops - Luka is two stops from the end of the line). Once you get off (and you should be at the back of the train) you walk up the stairs and leave the station. You will be on a platform above the street. Across from the station is a pizzeria which will figure in later. To the right is a pastry shop, which you can't enter, which sells Linzer Tarts for less than $1. They call them LINECKA KOLECKA but the "CK" is pronounced "ChK" here in Prague. To get to the Casino take a left and before you get to the entrance of a building the staircase up to the casino will be on your right.
I tell you this because the first time I came to play in a tournament my GPS on my phone was not specific about how to get to the casino from the train station. So I ended up walking around, following the GPS, for about 20 minutes, which ironically was about the same amount of time as the train took. Fortunately I was early to the tournament because I anticipated potential GPS issues. I have walked the wrong way more than once in Prague. The stop I take the train from is Narodni Trida (near where the giant rotating chrome Franz Kafka head is).
Once inside the casino for the first time you will have to get a plastic casino card for future entry. If you are not Czech you must bring your passport. I bring my passport every time I come just in case and one time they rejected the plastic card and required to see my passport again. Which I had!
So what is it I love about Rebuy Stars in Luka?
I mostly just play NL tournaments. And Rebuy Stars in Luka is the only casino that has regular NL tournaments for over $100 entry (~2000 Crowns - OK their 2000 Crown tournament is only about $87 but still that is over twice as much as any other 1 day tournaments in Prague). Up until this month (and I have been here 10 months basically) their high stakes tournaments run every Tuesday at 6pm. Yes 6pm. There are no daily tournaments in Prague that start earlier than 5pm. This month at Rebuy Stars in Luka there have been some large tournaments on Mondays which has happened occasionally before and the large Tuesday tournaments have basically departed. Hopefully they will be back next month.
Now due to medical reasons I stopped playing 6pm tournaments in the US but I have no choice in Prague. And to be fair I have only 1 time gone into medical emergency mode and i was able to resolve it at home at about 3:30am. The only tournament I was ever happy to be eliminated near the bubble. Though I was all in with AKo.
I will get to the tournaments in a second but unlike the US they charge for drinks most of the time. Its not a lot of money, like $2 for a cup of coffee or Ginger Ale (which they call Ginger Beer even though it says "Ale" on the bottle) or $1.50 for still water. And nobody but me basically tips the waitresses. I do tip the waitresses and its not because they are beautiful, which they are. It's because that's what I do in the US, basically $1 per drink. So here I give 20 or 25 Crowns depending on the change they give which is ~$1.
For their larger tournaments, like 3500 Crowns (~$160) and above they serve free dinners during their crazy long first break. Occasionally the drinks are free too. It is usually a 30 minute break as there can be long lines for the food. The dinners are mostly Czech meat dishes and because I don't eat meat I typically go down to the pizzeria and have two slices for roughly $4. Food in Prague is massively cheaper than in the US and they have a lot of really good restaurants.
As for the casino. It reminds me of Foxwoods. Not fancy just ready for business It isn't about the ambience, though it does look nice. And the ceilings aren't high. It's well lit and warm. The chairs don't have wheels but they are comfortable.
A typical higher stakes tournament has about 10 to 12 tables going although some of the very high price tournaments have fewer (maybe like 7).
The dealers are outstanding. Which surprised me. They have a few Ukranian women dealers who are all amazing. In fact basically all of their women dealers are amazing. So are their men dealers. When they make mistakes they own them immediately and rectify. When I am wrong in correcting them they are very straightforward in their explanations to me which is incredible since most of them aren't fluent in English (but they all translate all bets into English). I have had zero times where I feel upset about the behavior of a dealer.
The Floors are awesome as well. In the 61 tournaments I have played in so far (and yes that includes some rebuys) I have seen the Floor come to a table to resolve a dispute exactly 4 times. Twice it was a guy who was upset at a dealer who had ruled against him (both times same guy same dealer). The floor ruled correctly for the dealer both times. The second time after seeing how emotionally distraught the dealer was I told her the guy had made a huge mistake. Instead of getting mad I told her he should have asked her to marry him. I am married so no I am not in the running. One dispute wasn't really a dispute but I was at a table where a female player was on her phone while she was playing hands. Typically that is forbidden but the dealer wasn't enforcing what I think was a rule and so it worried me. I went to the Floor and explained it and she came over to subtly observe and after about 3 hands let me know it wasn't an issue. The woman was watching some kind of stream. I would say a movie but it could have been you tube, tik tok, whatever. It wasn't a solver. The 4th one was interesting because there is a current thread on this in Brick and Mortar (OK its not called that anymore but it should be). A guy folded in turn not facing a bet on the turn. He was given a warning by the dealer and called the Floor over for a ruling. Per TDA rules according to the Floor its not allowed. Personally I think it is ridiculous especially for someone like me with medical bladder issues. But a rule is a rule. And the guy talked English and was happy to have one supporter at the table though I had arrived after the incident. He said we had played together before...
The Floors aren't awesome just because they are correct all the time. They quickly pick up open seat cards. They balance the tables very well especially towards the end where there are 4 tables or less. In the US casinos are spectacularly bad at that. Often having 6 at one table and 8 at another. They walk around the room observing each table and looking for open seat tickets on a regular basis. And they speak English. There are basically 5 people in Prague that I can speak English to. One is a regular at the larger NL tournaments and is a young Czech native - so it is hit or miss. One is an Albanian woman who works at a fast food restaurant where I have to wait like 7 minutes for my "Falafel Donor" to be made, though her English is not perfect. One is a Waitress at Rebuy Stars Luka who is absolutely lovely and laughs at my jokes. And the other two are the regular Floors who are basically at every large tournament. The guy doesn't like me which is understandable. The woman though talks to me even though she doesn't necessarily like me. She is extraordinary because how many people do you know where English is their second language that make jokes in English?
In fairness there is often a player at my table who speaks English. Much of the time I have to tell jokes and peripherally check to see who is smiling (trying not to laugh out loud) to see who it is that speaks English. Many people in the Czech republic hate Americans. Which is fair. When the USSR invaded in 1968 with tanks rolling into Prague, the US did absolutely nothing. The other thing is that older people in the Czech Republic learned Russian in school as a 2nd language not English. Even though a lot of younger people did take English in school, they don't like talking in English. It could be because of potential embarrassment but mostly its just not natural for them. But some do try after smiling at one of my jokes.
Some of the dealers do speak English and those where it is a challenge often rise to the occasion because they appreciate the attention I give (and my compliments). It may be a rule that the dealers shouldn't talk to the players and it may just be a cultural thing but i get along well with every dealer.
Having said all of the above, that is not why I play as many highish stakes tournaments as I can at Rebuy Stars Luka.
It is because of the field.
There are basically 1,600,000 Prague residents. Anyone over 18 can play in a NL Tournament at a Casino. Only once a week is there a one day tournament that is high stakes. So basically every Solver oriented under 25 person in Prague plays in these tournaments at Luka Rebuy Stars. And when I make a mistake and go to a 900 Crown tournament (OK their website needs a bit of upkeep) there were a ton more under 25 Solvers. But most players are older men. Imagine living in an amazing international city and being really good at tournaments. Imagine growing up in a country where being fierce and smart is a prerequisite. Now maybe you can see why the fields are so incredible. Two days ago I played in a 3500 Crown tournament (~$152). If this was in the US I would be one of the better players in the field. But this tournament had a field the equivalence of a $600 tournament at the Venetian. Or an $800 one. The field was far superior to the WSOP Senior $1,000 tournament. The field was better than the $500 post Covid Foxwoods Sunday tournaments. The field includes some international players. French, English, Asian, Dutch, German, and yes now US. Thankfully they all speak English.
In short I failed to cash in the first 28 tournaments I played at Rebuy Stars Luka. I mean partly it was because i got rivered 5 times with hands like AA vs TT all in preflop for basically the chip lead. Although several times it was AKo vs KJs.
But mostly it was because they are that good. The two best players I have ever played against in my life are regulars here. One of them is a lot like me. He jokes around with the players to get them relaxed and off their game. But every tournament they have huge stacks early (or are knocked out and rebuy). I've almost never seen anything like it. One time one of them who raises virtually all the time after a raise and calls was sitting to my left. So with AA I just called the UTG open preflop. Three more calls and he just calls in the SB. I win the hand with a bet on the river and I ask him why he didn't raise pre-flop. Now he had never spoken with me, I had no idea if he even understood English and I was fairly certain he hated me from prior encounters where no I didn't win a hand but got upset when he sucked out on me. But he said "I Small Blind" and that was that. The other guy was sitting to my right one tournament. I had about 200,000 chips and was close to being the chip leader. He raised UTG and I almost 3 bet with KJs but he had been respecting me and had not been raising much so I just called. Flop is KT5 with a flush draw. He bets small I call. Turn is 2 no flush. He bets small I call. River is like a 7 or 8. no flush. He bets big like 48,000 chips big. All I can think of is that he bluffs all the time and turns over like 94o in these spots. So I called. Before turning over his cards he pushes 2,000 chips towards my bet and takes the two 25,000 chips I had bet. He smiles and says " I win" in English which is the first thing he has ever said to me. Then he turns over K5s. Even though I have about 130,000 there is no way I can function. I get knocked out like an hour later and I'm sure he cashes and possibly wins.
But the thing is my choice is to learn from them. To see what their hyper aggression does. To learn how to be hyper aggressive. As a result I decided to increase the % of my pre-flop 3-bets. If I am being honest my range now includes 50% bluffs. Yes I get eliminated sometimes because the other guy wins. But you might be surprised at the difference it makes. I won 3 hands with large 3-bet raises from the SB in a single Venetian tournament where my best hand was AQ. If I hadn't chopped a different hand when I had AQ on a A22 flop where AJ called my all in and hit yes an A on the river I probably would have made it to the money.
Two days ago I met another guy who plays like that. Early on chip leader. His 3-bet sizing was too much. But he effectively was getting folds and when people called pre-flop he was hyper aggressive post flop with sizings that would be crippling. So I think a lot of top pairs were folding. I immediately stopped raising PF in EP and even MP with my normal range. He had made me fold pre-flop twice. I am in the SB with AQs. He raises to like 2500 preflop with blinds at 400/800 (or possibly 300/600). Two callers. And I jam for 35,000. Which I would do ordinarily now anyway because my pre-flop sizing would be like 15,000 which is too high an effective stack %. But I am partly relieved because of four things: One is that he is opening wide so I expect a fold. Two is that I don't have to play post flop OOP against him. Three and this one is slightly embarrassing, I am the worst player at this table of 9. And have been for awhile. How is that even possible? I have been a professional poker player since 2006. I have played tournaments basically all the time since 2012. I have finished 34th in the WSOP Senior Event in a field of 5,900. I finished 27th in the WSOP Super Event in a field of 3,120. And yet I am the worst player at the table. We have some solvers. We have some older GTO guys. We have some foreign pros. So four is that I don't care if I get knocked out here. I will rebuy for slightly fewer chips and start over at hopefully another table.
Think about this if you are good at tournament poker: How often are you the worst player at the table? In the US it has happened to me. Maybe once or twice at a final table. Once at Foxwoods before they knew how to create new tables just after the start of a tournament. In the olden days they used to wait until they had 4 entries and then would only seat new buy ins at the new table. It turns out that people who are late to tournaments are notoriously good and just don't care if they are facing the horrible players who get eliminated early. Why? Because to them everybody else is horrible. One time at the Borgota where there were 3 women players who were actually much better than me. One was Varkonyi's wife who even he said was better than he was.
Here in Rebuy Star Luka it has happened to me at least 5 times. And not once was a final table. Now I'm not saying I was much worse than the worst player. But I'm not saying I was better either.
Two days ago I made it to the final table. I could have been crippled with AQs with my 3-bet SB shove because the last guy called with 55. Which ordinarily would be a terrible call. Except he had played against me many times. The last time I shoved (4-bet) all in from a blind that he saw was when he had 3-bet on the button (his habit with a wide range) and I had AKo. He saw what I had because he had AQ and called. In addition he is very observant and really really good. I talked to him about going to the US and playing in the WSOP Senior and Super Senior tournament because I think he would do well. Somehow I won that flip (recently I have been doing really badly in all in spots including a Venetian c/r shove with a set vs KK on the turn). At the final table was the hyper aggressive guy with a massive stack and chip leader. I had about 13 blinds and there were two players who had short stacks who were basically trying to move up the pay ladder. The tournament which had 248 players paid only 17. In Prague basically only 8% cash (10% of the original buy ins plus 5% of the rebuys). We had been at 9 players for over an hour and I personally didn't care about moving up. I wanted to win the damn thing. So hyper guy shoves all in pre-flop. I have AKo and I call. He has 99 (yes!) and I hit a K on the flop and held. So twice now I got lucky enough to survive. Then I am back down to about 14 blinds and I have A3o in the CO. I naturally shove and the guy to my left insta shoves (with AQo it turned out). I had beaten him in virtually zero hands in the past. One time he shoved short stack and I called with A3s and he had A9o. So I packed my stuff and hit a 3 on the flop. The guy on my left stopped talking to me. Which is undertsandable. He had lost in the WSOP Main Event to Ryan Reese. Thats right. He finished 2nd in the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and he is a regular at Rebuy Stars in Luka.
In fact there is a Czech player who won a $2,900,000 first place tournament prize who came to play in a 6000 Crown (~$270 at the time) tournament. he entered in the last 30 minute level before buy ins were forbidden. It could be because the Guarantee hadn't been hit but really is there anybody in the world as cheap as i am? Just ask my children and that would be a no. Or it could be that he knows that in tournaments the highest win rate per hour is achieved by buying in at the last minute. Which he did 6 times (at least). He didn't make it to the next level though he went down swinging.
Are there other Czech players who are super amazing? Yes. And I almost didn't put a question mark after that last question. The Czech guy who I talk to. The first time we met he busted me when he hit a back door flush on the river and caught me bluffing with 88 on a J73J2 board after he had 3-bet me preflop with like A4s. I just didn't see it coming. But I liked him anyway. He is both GTO and a Solver which could be rare in other countries but not really here. His bet sizing is perfect like too many others here. He takes losses well which means he can handle emotional challenges. Again not like other countries. Did I learn from that? I hope so. I have to pay a lot more attention to back door flushes hitting on the river (its not the first time I missed it) and why in the world was I bluffing? Did I really think that after he checked the flop and called my turn bet it mattered? Why not give him a chance to bluff? I had a reasonable bluff catcher type hand and nothing to gain HU by shoving in that spot.
It isn't just that hand that I learned from. I won a tournament here by knocking out one of the two best players I have ever played with by hitting a set on the flop with 77. He had 3-bet me at close to 3x from the BB pre-flop which was maybe the smallest 3-bet I had ever seen from him so I went set mining. Flop was K74 with a flush draw so I called his smallish bet. I don't remember the turn but the flush didn't get there. He bet big and I shoved and he insta called with AA. Sadly it wasn't the river and we were at opposite ends of the table so I couldn't pull in his chips before turning over my hand...
I should mention that I have played with Robert Varkonyi, Greg Raymer, Ryan Reese, and many other amazingly great players. So these guys are truly phenomenal here.
I didn't win the tournament two days ago. 2nd Place WSOP Main Event guy did though I did call him down UTG two hands later in the BB with ATo and he turned over KK. So yes 99% of the time he has better hands than me when we are all in. Right after I got knocked out in 3rd place he won with 88 vs 88. I didn't see it but fitting. The guy he beat was super amazing. Much better than me. His range short handed was awesome. His bet sizing was awesome and yes I should have knocked him out with AQ vs AJ all in pre-flop when he was short stacked but that J on the river thing is apparently still happening.
Here is another thing I am learning. When you take a bad beat get over it. As quickly as possible. As Raymer puts it pretend that you just doubled up. And maybe I should have when I had QQ vs A6o all in pre-flop. It was a short stack at that final table two days ago. He had like 11 blinds and had overbet like 1/3 his stack pre-flop. Why he called my all in with that crappy hand I don't know. Nor do I know how an A appeared on the river. So I went to my he had a 30% chance all in and how it happens doesn't matter. And I had survived a 30% chance so fair is fair. And then it happened. He did it again and I shoved with AA and he called. With ATo. Now in fairness to God I have lost AA vs ATo before when no T hit the flop and then a T on the turn and a T on the river. It was a charity event that was run crookedly so I doubt i could have won anyway and it wouldn't have been worth much. But still ATo vs my AA. Then at Foxwoods there was A6o who shoved pre-flop near the bubble and I called with AA. This was right before the Obama election vs Mitt Romney and Romney had about a 6% chance to win. So I said to God if you are going to give a 6% chance guy the win please make it my Native American friend with A6o and not Mitt Romney (who by the way also lost when Republicans refused to call the ACA Romneycare). And so it goes. 6 on the flop. 6 on the turn. At least it wasn't the river. And now for the flop two days ago: 987. Seriously? Turn a T. At least I'm not going to lose. But the river was a 6. It pained me to have a 94% chance to be a large chip leader at a final table (where there would still have been 8 players) and yet not be the chip leader anymore. But then it was just a $152 tournament. Where first place was actually about $9,000. OK $9,600 if you include the free entry to the 11/20/23 9900 Crown tournament. Third place was about $5,000 (and yes I got a free entry to the 9900 Crown tourney so you will see me there) so aim to win. But accept the loss.
For me I am happy to just go play in these tournaments at Rebuy Star Luka in Prague. Win or lose. I am happy to talk to the only Czech people in Prague who will talk to me. I am happy that I have improved dramatically. My 27th place finish in the Super Senior WSOP this year was directly because of my Rebuy Star tournament learning curve. I should have cashed in a whole lot of other tournaments but bad luck is bad luck. And I am able to walk right past it. In fact next year I will be spending more time in Las Vegas than I have in the past. To get rest. To play in more tournaments. And to put it to them. I am happy that my wife decided to take an accounting job with AMC in Prague. I am happy about the strikes which mean I will be here until December 20, 2023.
If you just jumped down to the bottom to save time here it is: Rebuy Stars Luka Casino in Prague is just like being at a Poker graduate school on a scholarship. The tourneys are cheap. Living in Prague is cheap. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you are wondering where to go go to play in live tournaments and you want to improve the answer is Prague. And of course there is King's casino in Rozvadov which is over one and a half hours away by car (where I haven't been) one of the best casinos in Europe so I hear. The EPT comes to Rozvadov and Prague in December. There is a 500 Euro Senior Event in Prague at the Prague King's casino (at least there was last year). Lots of cash games there at that time. And of course Rebuy Stars runs a few relatively high stakes multi day 1 tournaments to compete and for those of us without cars, its a lot like heaven.
