Paul and I visited Copenhagen recently. We spent an amazing castle-filled week in the capital of Denmark. I strongly recommend Copenhagen for a summer vacation. (If you go, be sure to get the Copenhagen Card – it was a definite game-changer for our trip.) While we were in Copenhagen, we, of course, had to visit the Casino Copenhagen and see what poker in Europe looked like.
Casinos in Copenhagen
Copenhagen has three casinos. Casino Copenhagen, small as it is, is actually the largest of the three. The Casino Vesterport offers “poker-based games”, but no live poker as such. The Casino Marienelyst offers poker, but is even smaller.
As I said, the Casino Copenhagen is small, it fills only two large rooms. On one side, is a room entirely consisting of slot machines and a few table games. On the other, is a table game room that includes a small poker area with five poker tables. When we visited, a tournament was playing out on two of the tables, cash was running on a third, and the other two sat vacant. There were also blackjack tables, “Ultimate Texas Hold’Em”, and something called American Roulette, which just looked like regular roulette to us. A bar lined one end of the table game room, and the entire place connected to a large DoubleTree hotel.
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Entering the Casino Copenhagen
Interestingly, there is a fee to enter a casino in Denmark. At the Casino Copenhagen, it costs 95 kroner a person to enter (about $13.50). Fortunately, the entry fee was included on our handy Copenhagen Card. There is also a dress code. No shorts or sleeveless shirts are allowed. Finally, you will need to hand over a form of ID (driver’s license or passport) just to walk through the front door.
What the Poker is Like at the Casino Copenhagen
During our visit, the cash poker table was full, with ten players, and there was an eleventh player eagerly waiting for a seat. The tournament was in full swing, with two full tables of 20 players. Every Thursday Casino Copenhagen holds this 1,150 kroner (about $160) tournament, which is limited to 20 seats. You can sign up in advance, and seats start selling well before the day of the tournament. For your buy-in you receive 15,000 tournament chips. Blinds are an impressive 30 minutes, and progress at a reasonable clip.
The players on this particular Thursday were all well-dressed and appeared very serious. There were two women in the tournament (and another two playing cash). The dealers seemed competent and the play was fairly standard. There was little small talk between players, and the overall mood in the room was just this side of somber.
Our primary question walking into the Casino Copenhagen was whether the cards would be those we were familiar with, or an alternate Danish set. We have previously played in Montreal and noted that at the Casino Montreal, the facecards are French (Roi, Dame, Knave for King, Queen, and Jack respectively), while at Playground Poker outside of the city, they are in English. The cards at Casino Copenhagen were, in fact, in English, although all dealer instructions and play were in Danish.
Final Word
We were sad to have missed our chance to play some poker in Copenhagen (as both the tournament and cash tables remained full for the time of our visit), and will definitely try our hand if we have the chance to return. But overall, poker in Copenhagen looks to be similar, if quieter, to poker here in the States.
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