5 Best Live Poker Rooms in Canada

A virtual tour of Canada’s best live poker rooms.

Live poker rooms come in all shapes and sizes across Canada. Some of the biggest casinos are home to the smallest poker rooms, while the reverse is true of the biggest poker rooms; having no casino gaming floor to speak of.

Today, I’ll guide you on a virtual tour of the five best live poker rooms in Canada. These are the rooms where you’ll find the most action, the widest game variety, and of course the biggest live poker tournaments in the nation. They span the country, so no matter where you are, you should be able to get to one of them.

Canada’s Best Live Poker Rooms

If you’ve been playing poker for any length of time, I’d be willing to wager you can guess the number one destination on our list…

#1 Playground Poker Club – Kahnawake, Quebec

The Playground Poker Club is, by far, the largest live poker room in Canada. It’s located in Kahnawake—the same Kahnawake that provides regulatory oversight for many online poker rooms—just south of Montreal across the St. Lawrence River.

There’s no casino here—just a vast floor of 72 poker tables. In fact, it’s been described before as a poker table warehouse, and that’s a pretty good description of it. Tables line the immense space, where hundreds, sometimes thousands, of poker players gather for the largest tournament series and guarantees in all of Canada.

Playground Poker Club has a lot of major partnerships, including one with PartyPoker. Members can compete in the PartyPoker Live Millions, as well as World Poker Tour events like the WPT Montreal, and WSOP Circuit (WSOPC) events, awarding seats in the annual WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.

It’s not just a destination for major tournaments, though. Playground Poker Club is open 24/7, hosting cash games of NL Hold’em, PL Omaha, and pretty much any other variant players are interested in opening a table for. Stakes range from $1/$2 up to nose-bleed levels.

#2 Casino de Montreal – Montreal, Quebec

The live poker room at Casino de Montreal is another hot spot for poker players. Home to 26 tables, it’s open 24/7, hosting NL Holdem cash games of $1/$2 and up. It’s also home to a number of major tournament series, like the $250k GTD Poker Classic coming up in November, and WSOPC events. Smaller, regularly scheduled events take place throughout each week.

#3 Casino Niagara -Niagara Falls, Ontario

The newly renovated LEV2L at Casino Niagara is home to a 26-table poker room with breathtaking views of the natural wonder that is Niagara Falls. We didn’t just pick this one for the view, though. Open 24/7, this poker room has non-stop cash games, weekly tournaments every Tuesday and Sunday, and is home to the annual WPT Fallsview Poker Classic, as well as WSOPC events.

#4 Caesars Windsor – Windsor, Ontario

Owned by the globally renowned Caesars Entertainment Corp, proprietor of the World Series of Poker, you can expect a lot of great action at Caesars Windsor. It’s located along the Detroit River in southern Ontario, and features 14 live poker tables, open 10am-6am Tuesday-Thursday, and 24 hours Friday-Monday.

Cash games include NL Holdem, PL Omaha and Seven Card Stud, with stakes ranging from $2 to $300. Caesars Windsor hosts nightly tournaments with buy-ins of $65 to $120, and $75 Bounties every Wednesday. Bigger events are held on occasion, including—of course—WSOPC events.

#5 River Cree Resort – Enoch, Alberta

While it’s nowhere near the biggest live poker room in Canada, River Cree Resort is about the best you’ll find on the west coast. That title once belonged to River Rock Casino in Richmond, BC, but their poker room shrunk to just 5 tables earlier this year.

River Cree’s poker room has 12 live tables, and is open from 10am to 3am daily, when there’s always a good game to join in. The casino hosts a few larger tournaments throughout the year, including the popular King of the Felt Deepstack Tournament.