Poker in Romania, part 2: the Best Poker Clubs
The second part of story of poker here is about poker clubs in Romania. There are over 20 of them all over the country and they are very much parted. Below are the most interesting facilities with commentaries of expert about them.
As we’ve already notices in Part 1, where we mostly talked about Romanian players, about half of the poker clubs closed several years ago in Romania. This fact is not comforting.
“There are no streams of new players. The average age of a poker player is 30 years old and it doesn’t get younger, 10 years ago everyone was 5 years younger on average. There are still many poker clubs and play in them in Romania in comparison with the other countries of the region and this comes from liberal laws and low rent cost,” explains our expert.
It is not all that bad like it seems. Romania has many excellent places to play in, though they are not that big. Romanian poker clubs are spread all over the country
The most interesting poker clubs in Romania (in no particular order):
This is a rather big facility situated in a town Timisoara (Western Romania). It has non-standard atmosphere and high-quality approach of the owners towards games organization. By the way, big fans of poker and real pros are managing the place.
The club is situated nearby the campus, but students are rare guests here – older people of 30 and more play here more often. People play Hold’em and Omaha in Gentlemen's Poker Club; there are eight poker tables and daily tournaments.
“In addition to daily tournaments there are some tables of cash games. They seldom play 2-4 leis, the most common stakes are 1-2. There is no Mississippi-straddle, which inflates and distorts the game.
The squad is very different, but the most players are regulars. In general, it is a decent place for a constant play”, comments our expert.
By the way, guys have a responsible way of informing their players about current and upcoming games. In particular, they regularly update info about active cash tables (read about it in the end of the article).
Another small club is situated in North-Western part of the country, not far from the border with Hungary and Ukraine – town Baia Mare. This is a rather standard room offering cheap tournaments (with guaranteed prize pool of several thousand leis). And cash games. Stakes start from 1/2 RON (~$0.25/$0.50) and reach 5/10 RON. Pretty much standard for Romanian poker clubs.
“I suspect this is the place from where in the end of 2000s Mississippi-straddles were incepted to the Western Ukraine. That quickly destroyed the pool of the players and they started to massively lose their bankrolls,” claims our poker specialist.
Phoenix Poker Club managers, just like the ones of Gentlemen's Poker Club also constantly update information about poker games in the club – including via our web-site.
Place of residence is Cluj-Napoca. In 2014, new Royal club opened and was quickly beloved by locals. They usually play Hold’em and Omaha here, minimum stakes are 1/2 RON (~$0.25/$0.50) and higher.
“The club has a nice fund for organizing little series and a nice pool of tournament players. It also has competent management and convenient location – in the city center. The players aren’t that good in cash games, there is only single Hold’em table, where they occasionally play Omaha”.
The club hosted PokerFest series and a couple of some other tours. Rake is 1% to 3%
By the way, there is another noticeable club in the city – Rounders Poker Lounge. The emphasis there is on cash games, most of the players are regulars.
There are four poker clubs of All-In brand in Romania: the one in Bucharest, Sibiu, Craiova and Pitesti. The most popular is the one in capital, of course. Many tournament series, like Romanian Poker Series or PokerFest take place here. Perhaps, this is the biggest chain of Romanian poker clubs
The club in Bucharest opened in 2013 and was meant for hobby-players – here one can find cheap tournaments and cash tables. The stakes begin at 1/2 RON (~$0.25/$0.50).
“Decent good network. They emphasize on tournaments so they always have a stream of cheap cash games players. Cash games not have full squad in Pitesti on a daily basis. There are days in Craiova when there is no play, usually in the beginning of the week or on Sundays.”
The most common game for All-In Poker Club is Hold’em. Sometimes they play other game, the rake is 2%.
One of the oldest poker poker clubs in Romania and is one of the most expensive. It is situated in the capital. IT is completely oriented on tourists and few local moneybags- that’s why it is so pricey. The service is good, but you expect it for a price this high.
“There are about ten local regulars who come here to “tear the filed apart”… One active table tops. Two on the weekends. One needs a good bankroll and realize that the competition is high. There is no stream of player, the club isn’t connected to mass poker and usual Romanian middle-classer won’t be able to play here.
They mostly play Hold’em, Omaha, and some other kinds. The stakes begin at 5/5 (~$1.25/$1.25) или 10/10 (~$2.5/$2.5), the emphasis is on the cash tables, the number of tournaments is not that big.
The city Brasov situated in the middle of Romania has a noticeable Spoker Brasov poker club. It is noticeable in that it has poker club, sports bar (with sportsbook) and casino (slots). The facility is situated in a city with rich culture and historical heritage of the city.
There are no more than 10 tables in the club with tournaments happening every day. One of the most expensive tournaments happens on Thursday and is called THE BIG 550 (20,000 RON guaranteed).
The commentary of an expert:
“The club is very good, and has competent management, 70% of the players at cash tables are tournament regulars, there are local casino players. Spoker Brasov often hosts local tournament series. This is a rather old facility with traditions and big tournament base”.
Cash games are usually organized on Hold’em at stakes up to 5/10 RON (~$1.25/$2.5).
Another noticeable Romanian poker club is situated in North-Western part of the country, right at the border with Hungary, in Oradea city. Eldorado 777, which is stated on the second floor of the casino has about 8 tables with regular tournaments (not so regular in times) and cheap cash (1/2 RON+ to 5/10 RON (~$1.25/$2.5) maximum).
“Quite normal and comfortable club. Tournaments gather not every day, cash games are usually played at two table, Mississippi-straddle in action. There are 7-8 very aggressive regulars, who quickly empty the pockets of the few recreational players. The entrance costs 30 leu.”
The facility is praised for an excellent atmosphere and quality service. One of the best Romanian poker clubs
We can’t leave aside Poker House club, situated at the shore of the Black Sea in the biggest port of Romania – Constanta.
The facility isn’t that big. But some rather big regular tournaments take place here – like the ones with guaranteed prize fund of several thousand leis. Stakes at cash tables start at 10/20 RON - $2.5/$5 (with the most popular at 1/2, 2/5 and 5/5 RON).
The best season to visit the club is summer.
The list can be continues. Poker facilities are placed all over the country, including the following facilities: Poker-Room, Club 5 Poker Satu Mare, Club 5 Poker Zalau, Poker Arena Iași, Club Poker Face, Queen Poker & Casino and others.
How to find cash tables and tournaments in Romania
For the players’ comfort we decided to show you hot to look for/search actual cash games and any other events of Romanian poker facilities at PokerDiscover.com.
A lot of Romanian poker clubs cooperate with us and use our resource (to sufficiently ease up the life of players), but unfortunately, not every club updates the info about their events on a regular basis. We really hope this article will make them do just that. Your players will thank you!
To browse all the clubs of the country, start entering the name of the country in search tab (in our case, it is Romania) and select it of proposed suggestions (use our app or mobile browser to do that).
The system will show all the poker clubs of the country.
Here you can see announces of poker events, at the right part on desktops and below in the mobile version or browser as scrolling text, which is clickable).
Then to see the today’s or nearest tournaments and relevant or planned cash games click on the outside tab.
You can subscribe to any cash games. In that case after the start of the game you will have push-notice on your mobile device (if it’s on Android and iOS) and e-mail.
The clubs are able to announce cash games for several days ahead. That way you are able to plan your playing day in advance. The announce has the date and the time of start.
You can filter all this not just by the country but also by the city and by the club!
More interesting and useful articles from the world of poker you can read in our blog. Also search for poker clubs in the country or city, get to know about upcoming poker tournaments or cash games at PokerDiscover.com portal.
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