Disappear to Pokerland

A fun and rather silly discussion this evening about which parts of the world we might like to ‘disappear’ to (not entirely unconnected to Trump’s presidential victory it has to be said) brought up some interesting suggestions – but it also begged the eternal question:

"Can I play poker there?"

Well, it seemed like as good a time as any to find out, so here are the top 3 destinations we came up with and their poker-playing possibilities!

1. Switzerland

The land of cuckoo clocks, Alpine peaks and Toblerone, was my own choice. Still in Europe, but somehow detached from all the shenanigans going on around it, Switzerland is as neutral as a country can be - the Swiss Guard a token military force found mostly in the Vatican city as they aren’t really needed back home!

A chalet in the Alps sounds perfect, but where do I get my poker fix? Well, it just so happens that Switzerland is a land of casinos – more per head than any other European nation – and although they tend to be small affairs, you’ll find poker at 10 casinos spread across the small nation.

The Mövenpick Hotel and Casino in Geneva may not be as close to my dream of hiding in the Alps as some others, but it’s not so far from the ski slopes and has a private gaming room too, just in case you want to keep it a family and friends affair.

The Grand Casino Baden in Zurich, to the north of the Alps region, is also a favorite place for locals and tourists. Considered to be the Poker Capital of Switzerland, Baden has also hosted many regional and international events –perfect if you want to try your hand at a bigger tournament or event.

For online poker players, the great news hit just over a year ago when a ban on online gambling was lifted, with plans for liberal regulation, tax exemptions and shared player pools on the near horizon. So, if they have wi-fi in my mountainside chalet, I’m sorted!

2. Vietnam

My friend Anna–partner-in-crime for our ‘great escape’ dreams – plumped for Vietnam, an exotic and lesser-known version of the popular Thailand escape route for poker players.

If you have Vietnamese friends who tell you that playing poker is illegal, don’t worry – that rule only applies to locals. If you are a tourist or foreigner, or even Vietnamese with a foreign passport at your disposal, it’s actually very easy to crawl out of your ‘hidey-hole’ and indulge your passion at a number of places across the country!

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the center of poker action in the country – good games to be found at many of the city’s hotels, while capital city Hanoi boasts the Hanoi Hotel Casino - overlooking Giang Vo Lake and open 24/7- the only venue in the capital to offer poker, and it’s run on an electronic table, but poker is poker!

If you prefer to be away from it all on the southern Vietnamese coast, but still enjoy the felt, The Grand Ho Tram Strip hotel in Ba Rian Vung Tao is the place to be. Besides some great No Limit Hold’em action, you can try the local specialities of Ho Tram Hold’em Poker Progressive and Ho Tram Stud Poker Progressive.

Online poker in Vietnam? No problem, again with the proviso that you’re not a local, but times are a-changing in the country of 90million citizens and this may not be the case for much longer.

In any event, since we’re not local, just escapees from the lunacy of the Western world, we’re sorted – hook up the internet and play to your heart’s content!

3. Uruguay

Doubtless fed up listening to my and Anna’s constant whingeing and dreaming, Martin – our trusty friend and bartender here in Prague – decided to leave us both behind and plump for far-off Uruguay!

Although not a poker player himself, I decided that if I ever visited him in his ‘new homeland’ I would need to sate my appetite at the tables – but where are they? Not as easy to find as the first two choices unfortunately, but poker does exist in the small nation squashed onto the coast between Brazil to the north and east, Argentina to the north and west and the Pacific all points south.

With 18 casinos you might think Uruguay would have a thriving poker scene, but the only full-time poker room exists in Punta del Este’s Conrad Resort Casino. Just a couple of months ago, the casino played host to the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) but it may be difficult to find a decent game outside of this. Fortunately it was the non-poker player who chose Uruguay!

Online poker in the country is the opposite of the live scene! It is thriving even in the face of government regulation being mooted to cash in on the boom. Local poker hero Fabrizio Gonzalez has racked up more than $3million in online poker tournament winnings which has helped to fuel the popularity of poker in the country –so the future, though uncertain, looks quite healthy.

Currently you can play when and where you want online for the most part, not pay tax on winnings and you can’t ask for much more than that!

So, not bad for a trio of random escapees dreaming of far-off lands – we can hide from some of the madness we’ve been seeing recently and still play poker!

If you have a favorite destination in mind and want to know how its poker scene is, just post below and we’ll try to fit it into our next article on the subject.