Was wanting to get away for the summer, have a change of scenery and grind some live 1/2 for an income. As Im 19, the obvious option of Las Vegas is out the window of course!

Can anyone share there opinions on the best city for doing this? Softest games, most regular games, most liveable city etc ... Was thinking Barcelona could be ideal but doesnt seem to have too much regular action going on below the 2/4 limits which is too high for me.

Any advice much appreciated!

London or Vienna. The problem with Spanish casinos is they r high rake and the games don't run so often. I've been playing really good games in marbella but they run so little that if you make a marginal mistake or get outdrawn then its hard to put the volume in to get out of it.

Thanks, ill look into Vienna! I'm sure London is one of the best but it's just I was planning a "working holiday" sort of thing so wanted to get out of England for a month or two!

Can you still get a full table of low stakes every night in the Marbella/ Puerto Banus area?? It's just that I thought of there already as out there Id have a contact for some bar repping work should the poker go tits up or I fancied a break from it for a while.

Anywhere in France worth a mention?

+1

Swiss is another option for 5/5+

No. 4% uncapped, 1/2 good WR not possible

Viage Casino in Brussels has 2/2, 5/5 and if there are enough players, also 5/10 and 10/20 if I'm not mistaken.
The 2/2 game over there is like playing 2nl on PokerStars ... And from there on you can visit Holland Casino in Breda, Netherlands. Breda is like a 45 minute drive from Brussels ...

in vienna the rake is quite high, I have not played there recently but heard the games got tougher. I just returned from wiesbaden, germany and played in mainz and wiesbaden. the area is very livable and has superb public transport and you are close to the airport if you want to do a stopover, stay for a 5 days and go somewhere else. I think your main problem though will be the money you will have to spend on accommodation. even small hotel rooms will be expensive in the summer season.

no first hand experience but heard ibiza has a poker room and obviously would be great for vacation.

Marbella would get a game going a night though last Friday I turned up at 1am and there was no 2/5. Games will pick up from the middle of may once the beach clubs open and the weather is hotter.

They run 2/5, 5/10 and sometimes 10/20 if one of the mega Russian fish makes an appearance. The 2/5 plays quite small as lots of people will buy in for 200-350euro. The rake is 5%cap 20 and they rake split pots. The dealers aren't very good and the culture of the casino is let's not pretend we care!

If you go in the middle of june then ukipt/estrella is on so there will be loads of games.

Softer 1/2 and 2/2 that I recently played at :

Spain : Palma's casino run 1/2 and 2/2. Avoid Barcelona.
Belgium : Viage in Brussels run 2/2
Holland : Holland casino in Amsterdam run 2/2
Austria : CCC in Vienna run 1/1 and 1/2, but room is smoking
Germany : Spielbank in Berlin run 2/2
France : Cercle Cadet (2/2) and Clichy (1/2)

I would chose Palma, cost of life is very low and the place is quite nice for low limit grinding.

Are there any updates about poker rooms?

Somebody wrote that Barcelona is pretty unsafe, thieves may rob you after game, you may need a taxi every time. It was written somewhere that Belgium is full of scary guys from black markets. Austria is tight and very very smoky. Spielbank is the tightest 1/2 I've ever seen live about 3 years ago. I heard Rozvadov, Nova Gorica, Venice, Campione, Madrid, London (except for the regheavy Victoria) are pretty good, with loose games. Somebody wrote that French casinos have 4% uncapped huge rake and yearly entry fees like 50-100 euro and fishy, but very slow, regular-colluding games. Are there some good games in Spain (Murcia, Zaragoza,Valencia etc) or in the UK (Bristol, Birningham, Sheffield etc) or elsewhere, with no smoking around the cash tables? Why did you write that Spain has big rake, London is the same, just with higher accomodation fees, no?

No the rake in London is much less than Spain with better dealers and staff. The Barcelona casino is really badly run. The Barcelona EPT is the nut worst organised series.

London games can be abit reg heavy at times but there's usually tons of money in the games and the punters who stroll into the vic bring a lot of cash.

Are there any updates about poker rooms?

Somebody wrote that Barcelona is pretty unsafe, thieves rob you after game if you win, you need a taxi every time and it was written somewhere that Belgium is full of scary guys from black markets. Austria is tight and very very smoky. Spielbank is the tightest 1/2 I've ever seen live about 3 years ago. I heard Rozvadov, Nova Gorica, Venice, Campione, Madrid, London (except for the regheavy Victoria) are pretty good, with loose games. Somebody wrote that French casinos have 4% uncapped huge rake and yearly entry fees like 100 euro and fishy, but very slow, regular-colluding games. Are there some good games in Spain (Murcia, Zaragoza,Valencia etc) or in the UK (Bristol, Birningham, Sheffield etc) or elsewhere, with no smoking around the cash tables? Why did you write that Spain has big rake, London is the same with higher accomodation fees as well, no?

"No the rake in London is much less than Spain"

But its much more expensive, I heard that in London, you have to pay something like 1100 pounds a month just for an average European size apartment, unless you want to live there in a blighty (because of the rain) flat with black, afgan, turkish, indian or other people, in a tiny room with spending a lot of time going to the casino and back to the flat because of the distances. How how much an average live 1/2 gbp regular wins there a month? And why would any poker player live in London in the rain, in the crowd, and with the huge expenses instead of the sunny Spanish cities? London sounded good for me only if you play high stakes like 2/5gbp or more, but if you are that rich, why would you live there, instead of Vegas, Switzerland, Campione, Macau, or any better place?

That's true for Casinos, which BTW dont spread 2/2, mostly 5/5.

Anyway, Cercle Cadet in Paris just changed the rake, it is now a 6 €/h time charge.
Probably one of the cheapest 2/2 rake in the world.

The rent is expensive but there are good games. There's no point being in most Spanish cities as they have terribly run casinos with small games where it would be difficult to win enough to live on.

English is the national language in London and whilst it is not sunny a lot, London offers much more in culture, bars and restaurants than most Spanish cities. Furthermore you can play online and there is a decent tournament circuit.

Another thing that you may need to consider. Is how many actual hours are tables running? Netherlands, its from 8 PM till maybe 2 AM. Was also suprised that the poker Casino in Oostende, Belguim its internet site lists from 4PM, games there start after 8PM there as well.
Would be intrested hrs. tables run from the various casinos that have been listed.

There are nice 1/1€ and 1/2€ games in Zagreb, Croatia + the city is safe and nice to live in

Nice to live in, but for a very short time, because I have heard that the Croatian poker scene is in hotel Antunovic which is so filled with cigarette smoke, just like Austria pokerrooms. You will die very fast if you sit in cigarette smoke every day. Why would you sacrefice about 15+ years of your life, and get painful vascular and cancer diseases because of sitting in smoke clouds if you can do something else or play elsewhere too? Not cold countries with smoking bann in casinos, in Europe are France, Spain and UK if I know well... Hungary and Bulgaria are too poor to go there.

Not going to fine anywhere better than London (other than Vegas). Unless you go somewhere with a festival on, EPT cash games are normally good. WSOPE Paris had the best cash games I've ever played in.

Rake 4% no cap right though?

Yer in Paris, ridic rake. But so worth it, got in 6 sessions while there, all winning sessions averaged 320 euros per hour at the 5/10.

Also played the 10/25 PLO for a while rake was 2% uncapped I think.

What about prague?

"Casino Cezar (in Westin hotel) is best, 1/1€ and 1/2€ cash games run regularly starting around 11pm ... most players are solid with occasional fish"

Somebody wrote that in Zagreb topic it doesnt sound too good, especially with smoking, there are smoke clouds in pokerrooms in Prague too.


London and Madrid has about 5000 person/squarekilometers, Paris has about 23000. I hated the crowd around me when I went there, and French people rarely speak English and I heard most of them dont like foreigners. Do you really enjoy living in that city? And there are big entry fees like 50 or 100 euros for a year. These are maybe also for scaring foreigners to go there, or to rip them off more.


I took a look at hollandcasinos homepage, they list 9 cities where poker is played in their casinos. What is the game like in these, and in other big cities in Spain and in the UK?