Well, I am interested in this as well as I will be playing cash games exclusively during WSOP but I guess if there are, people are not going to talk about them on a public forum for obvious reasons
This thread is way too broad. It's like asking "what is the best food?" It depends. What do you like? What is in season right now? Do you have any allergies? etc.
Also, it's in the wrong place, IMO. Most people come here to talk about a specific venue or community.
I'd recommend trying again in the Casino and Cardroom Poker forum and specifying what level(s) you want to play, what your BR is, whether you prefer a wild gambly game, or less EV but also less variance via beating up on nits, whether cost-of-living and/or entertainment options are important to you, etc., etc.
Best place to play poker I have ever been to: Playground Poker in Montreal Canada.
The main criticism is the rake is high, that is true. But you get so much for your money:
Free Food and Drinks. It's not bullshit food. It's a huge menu of restaurant choices. Food quality is pretty good. If you play 2-5 you get steak and some other premium goodies.
Eye Candy - women are beautiful. The waitresses they hire generally look like models. Some of the dealers are cute too. Montreal is one of the few places on earth where an attractive woman sitting down to play is not uncommon.
well Managed - The Security guards are stern but aren't jerks. Well organized. Great Website where you can check on available tables. Poker dealers are generally good and fast. They definitely lost something after Covid. But still above average.
Great location - not very far from downtown Montreal.
And last but not least - the players.
I remember 5 years ago, before Covid was a things, I first discovered some of the absolute worst poker players on earth. Some calls that were truly mind blowing awful. Tons of fish. lots of new players. I thought this was due to the widespread substance abuse that goes on in Quebec in general and a large number of tourists. Ironically, I befriended a french canadian guy and he turned out to be a poker pro. He totally agreed with my assessment. If it wasn't for him I'd conclude all French Canadians were bad. There are exceptions of course.
So there you have it, bad players, good food, beautiful woman, tons of perks. If only they could fix that darn rake.
What game(s)? What stakes? When? Your 'big' is not necessarily someone else's 'big'.
The first rule of 'travel' poker is you need to like where you are playing since you really should take some down time unless you're only talking about 2-3 days of poker.
Austin and Houston Texas are at the top of a lot of lists right now. Even the lower stakes play deep and the games are pretty loose. Membership and hourly 'seat' fees replace the rake. Plenty of tournaments as well in most 'clubs'.
During the WSOP Vegas is way better than normal since 'all' the rooms should be crowded, so they won't be as Pro heavy and you'll be able to table change your way around a room if needed. I played Aria during the day and Resort World at night with some 'wsop' cash mixed in and I had all I needed in both NL and PLO. You'll need to get around by 3pm or so or the lists will bury you .. use Bravo and Poker Atlas to your advantage.
The opposite can be said for other 'busy' places during the Summer. Lots of the Regs will be out at the WSOP, so that leaves the fish behind to battle each other (and you). Detroit, Philly, Pittsburg, Baltimore, new rooms near Chicago and Indy while LA really doesn't have a down season. Never been, but MS and LA have poker in the south as well.
Heard good things about Playground as well .. just gotta get there in CA, ya know!
If you have online interests as well then you need to look at states that have online poker .. player pools are slowing getting combined which will make the whole pool more attractive for sure.
As indicated .. way too general of a question. And there are other threads you can search for about the same topic.
Oh ya .. and don't forget about FL either. Jacksonville might be a little on the tighter side as times, but Tampa is pretty much a hit all year round with HH chasers as well as all the other potential places. (language barrier can be an issue near Miami .. check those threads) GL
Never had a language issue in South Fla. Been in but never played at a couple of rooms where Spanish likely to be as common as English. But those rooms are basically in Miami. North of Miami, including Big Easy, Dania Beach, Hard Rock, Isle, Coconut I have never had any language issues. With that said, not all of those casinos I listed are going to have big games.
Also as has been mentioned, for the Tx, LA, MS and others, don't let the listed stakes dissuade you. These games are either uncapped or match big stack generally so they will play bigger. I have played a $20K spread over 7 spots in a 1/3 game with the smallest stack north of $1K. Also have played games with a single stack over $10K at 1/3 stakes.
Isn't Poker technically illegal in Texas and you're playing underground? I remember seeing a video of an armed robbery that took place in an underground. Can't stay there long term if the poker isn't legal.
I don't think poker is illegal, per se, it's taking rake that's illegal.
So the TX rooms work in a gray area by charging a per seat (hourly?) fee instead of raking the pot. The rooms advertise and aren't exactly underground any more. But the local municipality generally needs to give at least a tacit approval, and even then periodically some sheriff or prosecutor decides to bust one of them and close them down, and then it gets into the court system. So it's not like they are your typical regulated room.
Historically here in these 2+2 forums we have pushed all discussion of these sorts of gray area rooms into the home game forum, but for the time being we're experimenting with allowing their discussion here. No promises on how long it will stay like that though.
I don't think that one 'uninformed' post qualifies as a derail. The explanation is clear and any other posts along that line should be nipped as they appear. This thread is 'world wide' and should include pertinent information/concerns about the various locales .. like the rake is uncapped 'there' or similar .. which I think membership/seat fees and their explanations apply.
While it's 'interesting' that someone wouldn't know about the TX poker boom and how it works. They certainly can't think that poker is illegal with all the advertising/streams taking place on social media outlets. (You don't know until you know) GL
PS I guess I will make my own derail comment .. I think it's quite bold for PokerBros to have sponsored Pros now.
