The Rivers Casino Philadelphia poker room is one of three large rooms in the Philadelphia area. We were in Philadelphia for a few days recently and decide to play a Sunday morning/afternoon tournament at Rivers. The casino was a bit of a mystery to us. They consistently get several tables of low-stakes cash games and their tournaments generally get 40 to 80 players. But they are not as well-known as Live! Casino Philadelphia or Parx.
We have recently begun sharing information on our various poker road trips. In 2021 we took a poker road trip to Las Vegas, and then we built another poker road trip through Florida, which we will be partially revisiting this winter. Recently we shared our poker road trip through Maryland. Living in central New England, as we do, we have no reason to take a poker road trip through New England ourselves. However, we thought it would be helpful to those in other parts of the country if we share the road trip we would take, did we not live here already.
Any poker road trip through New England has to come through Connecticut. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are the biggest draws for tournament players, and, along with Encore Boston Harbor, for cash players as well. Foxwoods is hands down the best venue in New England, and one of the best on the entire East Coast, for those poker players seeking a variety of cash games. While $1/$2 NLH can be found throughout the region, and $2/$5 and PLO are also relatively common, Foxwoods is the only venue where you will regularly find games such as stud, limit hold’em, or high-limit NLH games.
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC. And yes, I have been up the Washington Monument and spent many a field trip at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. But you never really see the sights of a city when you live there. It’s only when you return as a tourist, as I did last fall, that you see the glory of a place.
For example, when I was a teenager and could hop a metro downtown with my friends to the zoo, I did not appreciate that in Washington DC all of the government buildings and institutions are free. Yes, free! Now that I have lived elsewhere in the country, I’m amazed by all that you can do for free in Washington DC. From monuments to museums to the halls of government, you can easily fill a week of activities without spending a dime. Sadly, the same is not true for food and lodging, but hey – you can’t win them all.
When you think of poker hotspots, Maryland may not be the first place to leap to mind. Las Vegas, California, Florida, and in recent years Texas are the high-profile poker locations. However, we discovered on our recent trip to Maryland that the state has much to offer to the poker world. In addition, Maryland and the surrounding areas (most critically Washington DC) offer a plethora of non-poker activities. You can sculpt a full-on poker vacation balancing poker, fun, sightseeing, and educational activities throughout the region. Below we outline an itinerary that will meet all of your vacation desires.
Poker Pilgrims is happy to continue our Cash Poker Table Activity analysis. We recently completed collecting data on cash poker table activity in Texas. This was our final region requiring collection. So we now have coverage of cash poker activity throughout the United States.
Our page with Texas cash poker activity is now live. Our US Map of Cash Poker Activity can be accessed via the drop-down menus at the top of the homepage (under Poker Room Information). Note that there are filters on the page for venue, day, or game ($1/$2, $2/$5, PLO, or Other).
Sites such as Poker Atlas and Bravo Poker Live offer users the ability to see the current numbers of cash players at a venue at any given time. However, they do not allow you to plan your next poker visit in advance. Currently, if I want to know how many $1-$2 no-limit tables the Lodge gets on a Thursday evening, there is nowhere to go to find that information. Poker Pilgrims hopes to fill that gap. Whether you are figuring out where to play poker next weekend, or where to plan your next poker vacation, our cash poker table activity pages will hopefully be of help.
As of Fall 2022, there are 44 poker rooms in Texas with 6 or more tables that report cash poker table activity to Poker Atlas. Bravo does not have coverage in the state of Texas. There are few poker rooms in Texas with 6 or more tables that do not report to Poker Atlas.
Surprisingly, many of the poker rooms in Texas offer minimal cash poker activity. There are many rooms which report only one or two tables on a typical weeknight, and even some that report few tables on weekends. The Lodge, the Austin Poker room owned by Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, and Doug Polk and the Texas Card House Dallas are by far the largest cash poker rooms in the state. They each host 8 to 10 tables of $1/$2 and $1/$3 NLH on a typical weeknight, and up to 12 tables on the weekend . If you are interested in PLO, Legends poker room in Houston is your best bet, and they can be counted on to have several PLO games running pretty much any day of the week. The Texas Card House Dallas and the 101 Poker Club Richmond also run PLO reliably, just in lower volume than Legends.
If you are looking for games other than $1/$2 or $2/$5 Holdem or PLO, you will find that they are thin on the ground in Texas. A number of rooms might have a table or two of Limit or of higher No Limit games (or other Omaha variants) at any given time. But no room consistently hosts a number of other variants on any one day.
Our poker table cash activity pages will be updated regularly. We are currently working on a similar map that will identify regular tournament action, which we hope to debut in January.
Poker Pilgrims is proud to introduce tracking of Cash Poker Activity in TexasClick To TweetWe now offer a map of average cash poker tables across the country. In areas where a poker player has options, this information, along with room reviews, can help you make a discerning choice. Of course, if you are merely trying to identify a “poker room near me” our Map of poker rooms in the US will send you in the right direction.
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