If you’re in Adelaide and you want to set down that mouse and take to the real, rather than virtual, felt then what are your best bets? There are some great spots to play poker, and we’ve looked at some of the best below.

SKYCITY Adelaide – Adelaide’s largest casino

The obvious port of call is SKYCITY Adelaide in the historic Railway Station building. South Australia’s premier casino destination is the city’s tenth largest employer and the main venue for live poker in a professional setting you’ll find in Adelaide.
In SKYCITY Adelaide you’ll find the appropriately-named Poker Zone. Located on the casino’s first floor next to the Grandstand Bar, this poker venue offers both cash games and tournaments all week. Their flagship tournament series, the Adelaide Casino Poker Championship, is a highlight of the casino’s tournament offering and features a $2,400 buy-in Main Event.
Other tournaments on offer range from $20 rebuys to a $125 deepstack freezeout and the monthly “Big $2,500 Tuesday”, guaranteeing a first place prize of $2,500 for a $125 buy-in. The tournament calendar keeps things varied, so phone ahead to find out what events are coming up when you plan to head down.
Cash game players will find Hold ’em, Omaha, and Crazy Pineapple on offer. Typically these are $2/$2 blind games with a minimum buy-in of $40 and a cap of $200. You’ll also find a refreshing “Express Table” option with a 20-second shot clock on all decisions – no more twenty-somethings taking six minutes to check back the river! These tables are $2/$3 or $5/$5 for Hold ’em, or $1/$2 for Omaha games. High rollers can find bigger games on occasion, with $4/$8 up to $5/$10 No Limit and $10/$20 Limit running on an irregular basis. Occasionally, $10/$20 No Limit games will run.
Note that the Poker Zone is closed on Sunday and Monday (so you can get your Sunday tournament fix online without missing any live action) and open from 18:00 – 03:30 on weekdays, 18:00 – 05:30 on Friday and Saturday.

Other Adelaide poker games

Fancy something a bit more cheap and cheerful, perhaps away from the bustle of a big casino?
Rivered Poker Thursdays at the Verve Bar & Kitchen, run by the Rivered Poker League, take place at 17:30 each week with a $25 buy-in. Alternatively, 888 Poker Thursdays for $20 at Watermark Glenelg kick off at 19:30, while on Wednesdays the Seaford Hotel runs a $10 game, as does the Emu Hotel.
It’s well worth looking for local poker groups on Facebook – you’ll find many smaller tournaments such as the above running throughout the week.
If your penchant is cash games rather than tournaments then you may not be out of luck, as many cash games tend to spring up around the tournaments above as the early bust-outs get together for more poker fun.

Start your own home game!

Your last recourse is obviously to take matters into your own hands – why not add to the poker games going on around Adelaide?
All you need is a deck of cards, a set of chips, and a table – it doesn’t even need to be a specialised table, though if you want to add to the atmosphere and professionalism of the game it wouldn’t hurt to lay down some green felt, or even buy a poker table if you can.
A few home game tips – if you’re hosting a tournament, make sure to use a sensible blind structure; that is to say, one that doesn’t accelerate too quickly but also won’t take all night to reach the ante stages. It’s helpful to look at the WSOP or similar tournament structures and take inspiration from there.
Also, remember when it comes to chips that less is more – there’s no sense having chips worth $1 and $2, so try to go up in increments of four or five: $1, $5, $25 chips should cover any low stakes game. The less is more mantra also applies to the quantity of chips. It might look cool to have hundreds of chips in each stack but it fast becomes a nightmare to count and stack pots.
Any deck of cards will serve, though ones with large indexes (big numbers) will help. Make sure everyone is familiar with dealing, and remember to have the player to the dealer’s left cut the deck before each round – it’s traditional and safe.
After that you of course need people – again, Facebook is a great resource for finding likeminded players if you don’t have a group of friends interested in playing.