Moscow

Hey all, I just came back from Moscow, where I was on business travel. I had no idea until I was there, but Russia appears to have more casinos than we have Starbucks. I even had one in my hotel!

Unfortunately, most casinos are little slot halls and that's it. Even those that have table games don't offer poker, except lame versions where you only play against the house.

One large-scale casino, the Shangri-La, does have two seven card stud tables, but these are only used for tournaments, not cash games. I was told there is a private poker club at the Shangri-La where players decide amongst themselves on the betting limits, but it was empty at the time.

As a side note, if you are interested in just playing table games like 21, craps, or roulette, be aware that most casinos have some catch involved. For example, at the Shangri-La, you had to buy $200 worth of play chips to enter the casino, and these play chips were unredeemable. You could only cash out chips of a different color that were awarded when you won a hand. Quite a scam.

ChezJ

Haha, I just re-read my old post and couldn't believe I didn't mention the funniest part of my poker-seeking quest in Moscow. When I visited the casino in my hotel, which claimed to be one of the top 10 casinos in the world, it was the size of my apartment and had about 15 people there, 11 of whom were casino workers! When the manager asked how he could help me, I mentioned that I was looking for a poker game. He said they had a table upstairs but it wasn't open at the moment and I would have to round up some of my friends to get a game started. I'm like, uh, I don't think so, they don't play and I don't want their money. Then the guy said, "I play a little poker. Maybe I could interest you in a short handed game of $10/$20 with me and that guy over there?" He pointed to some fat old Ruskie playing a table game called Russian poker for $50 a hand. This was wrong on so many levels that I didn't know what to object to first. Play against the manager? Play three handed against a rich Russian? In some back room?? It's not like I'd be able to just get up and walk away if I pulled ahead by a few bucks. I'd be stuck there until I was bled dry... monetarily or literally... Fortunately, when the manager asked the Russian guy if he wanted to join us for a game, he took a quick look at me and said nyet. So I quickly said thanks for trying and hightailed it out of that joint like there was no tomorrow!!!