Poker. The ultimate test of your skill against your opponents' luck...
CLICK! Help support my gambling problem...
Looking for a home poker game in London?
Play poker in London already but sick of high rakes?
New to the game and just looking to learn the ropes?
Play No Limit Texas Hold 'Em but struggling to find a game?
Having problems getting 'bums on seats' in your own game?
Play online and looking to sit down and play some real poker?
The aim of this site is to provide London poker players a central point from which to organise rake-free home poker games, where they can arrange to get together to play poker for small stakes in a relaxed, friendly,competitive environment where the focus is on the poker - not just another drunken, rowdy get-together with just the odd hand being played*
Seven-Deucey Never Lose-ey...
....so you don't have to pay your host a percentage of your buy-in as a fee to play. Some home games (I name no names) charge their players up to £5 to buyin to a £15 game. That's 30-something percent! Bloody scandalous. Our home games are all rake-free and have no entrance fees or service charges of any sort, so if your host wants your money, he'd better have the cards, or at least be prepared to go through your coat pockets in the hall.
....so no-one's going to end up sleeping underneath Albert Embankment when the game breaks up (unless, of course, they were sleeping there to begin with) but there's always the (admittedly somewhat remote) possibility of taking home enough of everyone else's money to buy a small end of terrace in, say, Barrow-in-Furness. Or Walney. One of those with an outside toilet. And a coal shed out back. I used to live in a two up two down in Dalton, and believe me, you're better off under the Embankment.
...some would say 'a friendly game of poker' is something of a paradox, since whilst we may be happy to engage in pleasant pre-flop banter with one another, at the end of the day we're also trying to win each other's chips! Poker is one of those rare sports that can be convivial as well as competitive however, and that's what our home games are all about. Yes, we play for money, but making money isn't the sole reason we play (which is just as well as far as I'm concerned). I would say that the majority of us play poker to become better at the game, to have a good time, and (perhaps most importantly) to get out of the door quick enough that we don't have to help with the tidying up!
....just because the stakes are small doesn't mean the quality of play has to suffer. We don't play 'No Fold 'Em Hold 'Em'. Most players who sit down with us have a pretty good understanding of the game and know their stuff so you can expect a reasonably high level of play (unless I'm at the table of course). Ultimately our aim is to sit down and have an enjoyable night's poker in a fun, friendly, and informal atmosphere, but we're also serious about our game, and play it to the best of our abilities.
* OK, OK, just occasionally it becomes just another drunken, rowdy get-together with just the odd hand being played out, but Steph promises never to do it again :o)