Portland Poker
Poker is a huge part of the community in Portland. Kathleen Butler, regulatory division manager for the city of Portland, says there have been some complaints about the poker clubs. As a result, she says the city is looking at updating its code.
I often get acquaintances who visit Portland and ask me for recommendations of where to play poker in Portland, so I thought I’d write a short post about what poker games are running in the Portland area, and give an update on the new “players are required to deal” rules. If anyone spots any wrong info in this or wants to give me some info to add, use the Contact form to let me know; thanks!
On Oct 28, 2017, a Saturday night, at 7pm, I called around to the main poker spots in the area, asking what games were running, and this is what I found:
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Last Frontier casino, in La Center, Washington
Games: $4-8 Limit Hold’em, $4-8 Omaha Hi-Lo
Portland Meadows Poker Club
Portland Meadows, in North Portland
Games: $1-2 NLHE, $1-2 Big O, a $45 tournament that started at 7pm
The Game, in SW Portland
Games: two $1-2 NLHE tables, with report they had sometimes been getting a $2-5 game later in evening
Portland Poker Club
Final Table, in east Portland
Games: two $1-2 NLHE tables, and a $50 buy-in 7pm tournament
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Spirit Mountain, in Grande Ronde, Oregon (1 hr away from Portland)
Games: $3-6 Limit Hold’em, $1-2 NLHE, $2-5 NLHE (full table)
Claudia’s Sports Pub, in SE Portland
Games: $0.50-$.50 NLHE
Bryce Burt Portland Poker Dealer
Seems like $2-5 is only spread intermittently these days. There was fairly recently even a good regular $5-10 game, but from what I’ve heard most of the $5-10 action has moved into private invite-only games.
The Game Portland Poker
PokerNews had an article from Sept 2017 with a good look at what the Portland poker scene is currently like. And I just talked to a local dealer, asking about the new rule that says that dealers must be players. She said that the scene is still mostly as it has been, with set dealers throughout the games. The only difference is that in order to deal, the player must first play in the game themselves, so the dealers just play in the games for a few minutes and then become the designated dealer for the rest of the time they spend dealing. The dealer told me, “No one is forced to deal, but if you want to deal, you are allowed to.”