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Most of my high limit stud play is done at Foxwoods Resort casino in their spacious poker room. But I've written about that place dozens of times in this column. Let me give you a picture of the local Boston poker scene.

Boston, as with many cities in the United States today, has a large poker scene. There are no legal clubs. Poker is illegal in Massachusetts. Though it is rare, illegal clubs are occasionally busted, the owners fined, the players losing their chips and their corresponding cash buy-ins, and the clubs shut down.

There is one exception. Poker is legal if it is part of a charity tournament of if there is no cash prize. There are a few operators who regularly run 'charity' poker tournaments in the Boston area — though as of this article none have figured out away to offer cash games. The prize pool is usually consists of half of the buy-ins, with the other half going to the game operators and the charity. I run these charity games from time to time. Attendees enjoy them, charities make money, and they are fully legal.

Last year, however, the Attorney General issued an advisory, severely limiting how these games may properly operate. Without going into too much detail in this article, let me just add that many tournament operators have found these guidelines burdensome and do not abide by them. They include such requirements as forbidding rebuys, not allowing a prize to be based on the number of people participating in the tournament, and not allowing the person or company providing the chips or other equipment to actually be on site for the tournament. Cash prizes are not allowed (though gift checks are).

Charity Poker Room Near Me

This all being said, poker is alive and well in Boston. Let me give you a rundown of the games I know about.

There are two nearly identical games in the heart of downtown Boston. Each offer $1/2 blind no limit hold 'em, one with a maximum $200 buy-in, the other with a $300 max. One charges a $4 rake, the other $5.00. The level of play is comparable at each — intermediate to excellent with only a few guppies gracing the tables every so often. I should note that the number of rank beginners seems to have thinned in general in the past year.

One of the clubs offers regular tournaments. The other sometimes has a slightly higher limit game. Both have good house dealers, security, and waitresses willing to walk the extra ten or twenty feet to the well-stocked refrigerator. One has a cook who will, for a small $4.00 charge, whip you up a sandwich, pasta, pancakes, or other dish as you wish — provided there is food in the refrigerator to cook. All have convenient delivery service from nearby eateries. These clubs run from about 7PM until the game breaks — often not until 5 or 6 in the morning.

I know of another $1/2 game across the river in Charlestown. But I haven't been there. I hear it runs very much like the other two I described earlier. It used to be in Chinatown but has since moved. I suspect there are more — and just a little probing at any of these games I'm sure reveal other venues for poker.

There's a private club in Cambridge, an abutting city to Boston that offers a weekly $10/20 SH game — that's Stud/Hold 'em for those of you unfamiliar with the abbreviations in HORSE — the classic rotation game that has become a centerpiece of the World Series of Poker. This game is very lightly raked — at $4/hour. It runs from 8p-1:30a. And if you want to play you need to arrive by 7:45 or so to lock up a seat. I can't comment on the level of play, because I haven't yet been there. But knowing a few of the regulars I'd say that it is a relatively tight and passive game.

There's a high limit place to play as well in the Greater Boston area. They offer $75/150, $50/100 and $20/40 Stud and Hold 'em as well as twice weekly no limit hold 'em with $2/5 blinds (one night with a $500 max buy-in and another with a $1,500 max buy-in). I'm a member, have played many times, and can say that the games are filled with a couple of pros, some good regular players, and a few huge donators. I've played in the no limit games only and have managed to have a couple of awful sessions and a few small winning ones. There's a membership fee to join the club of $200/year and the house takes out a $5.00 maximum rake.

As I mentioned earlier, there is also regular 'charity' tournament action in the area. You can find a tournament within 30 minutes of Boston just about every night of the week. The Boston Herald lists the games in a special classified ad every day. It also includes notices of games in nearby Nashua and Manchester, New Hampshire — the largest of which is at the Seabrook Greyhound Race Track. Run by Capone's, it offers not just twice daily no limit tournament action but the charity equivalent of cash games and sit and goes. Without going into too much detail, leave it to say that the house takes a 25% rake — very high for a public card room but much lower than the standard rake of a charity tournament. I've played in these games and can say they are fair and at least moderately well dealt. The room is exceedingly well run.

Finally, I should add that there are always home games that are not open to the public. To find these I'd suggest that you check out the home poker game directory on this site, or that you use your own personal networks to link up with friends of friends of friends — as I always do when I visit a new city. I can honestly say that I have never failed to find at least one game in every city I have visited in the past two years.

Good luck. And if you'd like more information, please email me.

The build-up was tremendous. Way back in 1947, Lincoln Downs, a dog-racing track, opened in Lincoln, Rhode Island, then 30 years later was renamed Lincoln Greyhound Park. Eventually it became a slots-only casino, and poker players driving through Rhode Island to play our favorite game in Connecticut's Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun wanted to know when this more convenient spot might start spreading poker.

In 2007, Lincoln Park became the Twin River Casino, with a Class I gaming license that allowed table games and poker. We were disappointed once again, however, as Twin River would spread blackjack and offer roulette, craps, and other table games, but opted not to have poker.

But then, at the end of 2015, they finally opened a 16-table poker room. The excitement and buzz among New England poker players was intense.

Introducing the Twin River Casino

The Twin River Casino is a more convenient place for poker players located in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and most of Rhode Island than are the two excellent, well established rooms in Connecticut. Twin River is just 10 minutes from Providence, 10 minutes from the nearest major airport, under an hour from all parts of Boston, and just a bit more than a half-hour drive from Worcester and Framingham.

But there’s a price to pay for this convenience, to be sure. I'd characterize the casino in general as a grade C establishment — surely not failing, but not competitive with the full-service casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Connecticut, California, and elsewhere with which many of us have become familiar.

Starting with entertainment, you don't tend to get the kinds of major acts that you get at major casinos like the two in Connecticut. Foxwoods, for example, regularly hosts popular acts like Jerry Seinfeld, Howie Mandel, Bob Dylan, and Lady Gaga, but you'll find no such lineup at the Twin River Event Center. There's also no hotel at Twin River, although one is apparently in the works.

Whereas the Connecticut casinos offer dozens of excellent dining options, including Italian, Chinese, BBQ, seafood, steak, and excellent buffets, Twin River has one just one fine dining establishment (a pretty good steakhouse), a couple of pubs, two fairly lame food courts, and a buffet that is regarded by many I spoke to as 'pretty awful.' The food court nearest the poker room on the second floor, has Sbarro (pizza, calzone, and other 'Italianesque' fast food), Johnny Rockets (a '50s-retro hamburger joint), and Dunkin' Donuts. That's it. The other food court has a fairly good Asian takeout place, but little else worth visiting.

Perhaps the greatest gastronomic deficiency is the lack of a breakfast place. Though there is Dunkin' Donuts with its limited breakfast options, it doesn't open until 9 a.m. So if you've been playing all night and want a full breakfast, or even some tiny breakfast nosh before then, you must go outside Twin River (where, in fact, there are a couple of really nice breakfast places about a 10-minute drive away). But in my book, that's not what I expect in a 24/7 casino operation.

And with no hotel there are no major conventions, and that means there are no major conventioneers gambling it up all night in the poker room.

Poker at the Twin River Casino

But let's not bury the lede here — the big news at Twin River is that now there is at least a poker room.

They constantly spread $1/$2 no-limit hold'em with a $300 maximum buy-in. They also have $2/$5 NL with a $500 maximum, and $5/$10 NL with a $1,000 max. These games all run nearly all the time, although you may not find the $5/$10 game going in the wee hours or early on a weekday.

I've played in each of them, about 50 percent of the time at $1/$2, 40 percent of the time at $2/$5, and even one session at $5/$10. For now, the $1/$2 games are pretty soft, as players new to a casino tend to populate these games. There seem to be a relatively lower percentage of winning regular casino poker players in this room, at least in the $1/$2 and $2/$5 games. There is a crowd of casino regulars in the $2/$5 game, but since there are often at least three tables of it during the busy periods, there is usually a soft version of this game to be found. It will be quite beatable for the serious player.

The room also regularly spreads a $3/$6 limit hold'em game, and even fairly often a $5/$10 or $10/$20 stud game made up of players who have migrated over from the Connecticut rooms. The limit hold'em is very soft, while the stud is a rock-fest most of the time. Note that the room never spreads any split-pot game. There is also no Omaha, and no stud hi-low, HOE, or OE.

Michigan Charity Poker

Though the games have pretty good, soft action most of the time, the room has a few persistent and annoying deficiencies. First, with just 16 tables, and with its convenient location and popularity, it is often nearly impossible to get on a table right away. Do not expect to get a seat without a 2-3 hour wait if you come after 10 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday, or if you arrive Friday night. You might even find a long wait on a weekday night, or during the wee hours when they have failed to schedule a sufficient number of dealers.

Though the management team is welcoming and making a big effort to run the room, the dealers at Twin River are often inexperienced and sometimes completely inept. I have noticed numerous dealer mistakes, with regard to making change, setting the blinds, even dealing the correct player first. As recently as a couple of weeks ago I observed a couple of dealers defer to loud players on how to divide a pot into side pots, which should not happen. If the dealer can't figure out what's going on, he or she should call over the floor, not rely on the most confident-sounding player (who may well be wrong). But from what I've witnessed this room routinely allows players to bully the dealer into compliance — not a good thing.

This situation does seem to be improving, as the worst dealers have been let go. But they still have a long way to go before their dealers are consistently doing a good job.

Additionally, the dealers and floor are often not up to the major task of controlling a crowd that frequently overwhelms the room. I've noticed players often jumping the line, sitting in open seats when dozens of players ahead of them on the electronic sign-in list are waiting to play. The floor doesn't do a good job of policing this, and protests of waiting players usually go unheeded.

The room is adequate for now, though. There are new decks, perfectly fine chips, nicely felted tables, moderately comfortable chairs, good lighting, a convenient bathroom, and adequate table-side beverage service (with awfully long waits thrown in now and then just like every other room I've ever been to).

The rake (i.e., the amount the house takes out of the pot every hand) is 10 percent up to a maximum of $5 instead of the $4 maximum charged at Foxwoods and Mohegan. It should also be noted that unlike at the Connecticut casinos, there is no bad beat jackpot and therefore no additional $1 bad beat jackpot drop at Twin River.

Conclusion

The tag line for the Twin River Casino appearing on signage and imprinted on all of their poker chips reads 'So Much. So Close!' I think that's only half-right. If it were currently accurate, it would read 'At Least It's Close!'

The room is definitely conveniently located for the myriad of players who come from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and northern New England. Unfortunately, the room is one notch or two below the options that are further away. You'll have to judge for yourself how much that shorter drive is worth to you.

The Twin River Resort is located at 100 Twin River Road, Lincoln, RI, 02865. Phone: (401) 723-3200; email: [email protected]

^{Photo: Twin River Casino.}

Ashley Adams has been playing poker for 50 years and writing about it since 2000. He is the author of hundreds of articles and two books, Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington 2003) and Winning No-Limit Hold’em (Lighthouse 2012). He is also the host of poker radio show House of Cards. See www.houseofcardsradio.com for broadcast times, stations, and podcasts.

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Charity Poker Rooms In Michigan

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