Best Poker Room in London Award

As poker players, we don’t ask for much. All we really want from a poker room is reliable game availability, a range of stakes and formats, reasonable rakes and charges, and a decent dealer.

There are other nice to haves as well of course, but those are the basics.

London has several prominent poker rooms that tick all of those boxes, but they all offer a slightly different balance when it comes to games, tournaments, and playing conditions. So in order to choose the very best one, we need to concentrate on what’s most important, and only then factor in the extras.

With that in mind, here are the best poker rooms in London, with one overall winner that you will probably have heard of.

Winner: The Grosvenor Victoria Casino – The Vic

The best poker room in London award goes to The Vic, or to give it its full name, the Grosvenor Victoria Casino.

The Vic has been at the centre of British poker for decades now. It’s a real institution, and that strong reputation has been earned by consistently operating as a serious dedicated poker room that players can rely on.

The Victoria opened back in the 1960s, and since then, it has hosted major tournaments and welcomed many of the best known faces in poker from Britain and around the world. You can really feel the history of the game here, despite the £15 million refurb that took place in 2025. The venue is associated with a number of prominent modern day players too, such as Victoria Coren Mitchell, John Duthie and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, to mention just a few.

The Victoria is a fully operational casino as well, but the venue is poker focused, providing regular cash games and a substantial tournament programme.

Cash Games 24/7

The Vic’s greatest strength is its cash game operation. Cash games are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so you can just turn up on a whim even if it’s the middle of the night.

The most regular action here is built around No Limit Texas Hold’em, and the entry point is usually £1/£2 games, but higher stakes Hold’em tables open with demand. The venue adjusts to the people who are there.

Pot Limit Omaha is also more common here than at many other poker rooms. It’s a noteworthy point that makes The Vic stand out. Four, five, and six card variations are all offered, as well as mixed Hold’em and Omaha games.

Obviously, you can’t guarantee that every format or stake limit will be available the second you walk through the door, but the Victoria has the opening hours and large player base to support a wider variety than pretty much anywhere else in London. A useful tip is to use the Grosvenor Poker Live app to see which tables are active plus any waiting lists before making the trip.

For regular cash players though, the reliability at The Vic is a huge selling point.

Serious Tournament Programme

Tournament players have plenty of reasons to visit the Victoria too.

The venue runs several weekly competitions, usually No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha games, but with different structures and buy in levels across the schedule. These make up the regular tournaments.

Then there are the larger championships and multi-day events. The Victoria Championship is a good example. It’s a six leg series culminating in a Champion of Champions play-off. The room has also played host to major Grosvenor events and other prominent series.

It’s a substantial programme, but it doesn’t go so far as to give the venue a tournament only feel. Cash games are central to the identity of The Vic, but the tournaments provide a nice balance.

The Poker Community

A poker room is nothing without the people who regularly play there, and this is what sets The Victoria apart for us.

The venue’s poker first approach means that it attracts a great mix of experienced regulars, tourists (be they experienced or not), professionals, and everything in between. They attract them in larger numbers than other rooms too.

This established poker community helps to ensure games across different stake levels and formats can be played regularly, which in turn keeps players coming back. It’s something of a virtuous circle.

You could say it gives the room a more serious tone sometimes, but recreational players do come here as well. And they are welcome. That said, if you want a proper card room environment, this is the place to come.

Runner-up: PokerStars LIVE at the Hippodrome Casino

For players that want more of a statement venue to play in, PokerStars LIVE at the Hippodrome Casino is the place for you.

The main card room occupies the Hippodrome’s 3rd floor, with 17 tables, it’s own cash desk, a bar, and a smoking terrace. So it’s basically a self contained poker area inside some of the most expensive real estate in central London. It also means it has a different atmosphere to the rest of the casino.

Cash games are extensive in range, with No Limit Texas Hold’em starting at £1/£2 but soaring much higher when high stakes players are in the building. Pot Limit Omaha and mixed Hold’em/Omaha games are also available. These standard cash games come with a rake of 5% capped at £10, with session charges replacing the rake over £5/£10.

Tournaments are available but tend to happen on a monthly basis, so they aren’t a strength of the Hippodromes poker room. The schedule is event led, but it includes some higher buy in events plus the Women’s Classic.

This is an excellent poker room in its own right, which comes with lots of other benefits by way of its location and the facilities around it. It’s flashy, comes with a big brand attached in PokerStars, and has the wow factor.

Best for Big Tournaments: Genting Casino Stratford

The Genting Casino in Stratford, formerly known as Aspers, is one of London’s leading destinations for tournament poker.

The one big strength this card room has over the others, is capacity. It can hold very large fields and multi-day events, and the regular competitions held here are backed up by the London Super Deep Stack, not to mention visiting series like the British Poker Series, Prestige Poker Series and Redtooth Poker League.

When those big tourneys come to town, the Genting in Stratford can handle lots of tournament tables, multiple starting flights and very large fields without the room feeling squashed. For example, the 2026 PartyPoker Tour London Summer Edition was held here, with the £500 main event attracting 190 entries for a £100,000 prize pool. This gives you some idea of the scale the Genting can manage, and they themselves call it the biggest poker room in the country.

Cash games are available here too, but if you needed a reason to choose the Genting’s poker room over somewhere else, it would be the tournaments. Not the best for everyday poker, perhaps, but some of the most exciting action in London takes place here when the tournaments are running.

Best for Recreational Cash Games: The Empire Casino

The Empire poker room is a smaller and more accessible alternative to the others on this list.

Its regular cash selection includes but is not limited to £1/£2, £1/£3 and £2/£5 No Limit Texas Hold’em, as well as £1/£1 and £1/£2 Pot Limit Omaha. Although the most reliable action is at the lower end of the range. Use the Bravo Poker Live app to see current games.

This is another Leicester Square casino, so its location means many tourists and recreational players stop in to play. This gives the room a more relaxed feel than some of the more serious venues, which should suit newer players and those who are happy to chat.

It’s another 24/7 room, and it holds daily tournaments alongside the cash games. These are usually accessible in terms of buy in, and offer a good way to get started for anyone new to tournament play.

The room itself is very player friendly too. All the tables have automatic shufflers and phone chargers, and the room has its own bar plus HD screens showing sports to keep you entertained during downtime.

It can’t compete with the other venues on many fronts, but for recreational players or those just getting started, it offers an awful lot of benefits with little of the pressure you might feel elsewhere. A great poker room if poker is all about fun for you, and you don’t want to spend a weeks wages just to take part.