The Greater Washington DC area, including Baltimore, southern Maryland, and northern Virginia, is a great tourist destination for poker players. There are restaurants of every description, a decent nightlife of clubs, bars and after-hours places for those in the know. There is professional baseball, football, basketball hockey and soccer. There is the lovely Potomac River and Inner Harbor for boating and fishing. There is beautiful countryside within an hour’s drive. And of course DC, and to a lesser extent Baltimore, is rich in history, embassies, government offices, memorials, statuary, other art, music and museums.
Prior to the 2010, there were no public poker rooms in the Washington, DC area. According to great poker scribe Nolan Dalla, “back in the day” there were regular underground games in some of the fancy hotels in the area, which attracted some celebrity players. There were quasi-legal charity poker games operated sporadically in public venues like Boys and Girls Clubs, and VFW Halls in nearby Prince Georges County, Maryland in the 1990s, until they were completely shut down in 1997. (There was a fictionized account of these games in the great poker novel King of a Small World, by Rick Bennett). But if you wanted to play poker in a public room, your closest option meant traveling to Atlantic City.
The poker scene has caught up to the other attractions in the area. Maryland legalized casino gambling; and the Hollywood Casino in Perryville, MD (about 30 minutes north of Baltmore, and an hour from DC) opened in 2010. At roughly the same time, in Charles Town, West Virginia, the historic Charles Town Racetrack became the Hollywood Casino Charles Town and added 27 poker tables. It was followed by Maryland Live! Casino, in the Arundel Mills Mall, in Hanover, MD in 2012. The Horseshoe Casino Baltimore opened in 2014. And then, at the end of 2016, the MGM National Harbor opened, right outside the city limits of Washington DC, in Oxon Hills, MD.
I’ve played in all of these five poker rooms, each with their own distinct personality.
Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races
750 Hollywood Drive
Charles Town, WV
304-724-4654
https://www.pennentertainment.com/hollywood-charles-town/casino/sportsbook
Poker Room Hours:
Monday-Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 9AM – 3AM
Thursday: 9AM – 3AM
Friday: 9AM – 6AM
Saturday: 9AM – 6AM
Sunday: 9AM – 3AM
This venue is located about 60 miles and a roughly 75 minute drive from downtown Washington, DC.
This is a relatively sedate room, populated chiefly by locals. There is a mixture of good solid locals and regular gamblers who donate to the good locals.
There is always a $1/2 NLHE game running. On Saturday mornings they have a $5/10 game that sometimes gets very large. It’s like a private game, I was told, with mostly the same players getting together. When it is not running, there is sometimes a $2/5 game for those who prefer something larger than $1/2.
Games feature a $6 + $2 rake and promotional drop. Players earn $.50 an hour – good for $1.00 an hour for food and drink. There are free soft drink dispensers scattered around the casino.
Hollywood Casino, Perryville
1201 Chesapeake Overlook Parkway
Perryville, MD
410-378-1074
https://www.pennentertainment.com/hollywood-perryville/casino/poker-room
Poker Room Hours:
Daily — 10 AM until the last game breaks.
Perryville is similar in style and action to the Charles Town Hollywood casino. They get a $1/3 game daily, opening right at 10 AM. And they sometimes get a $2/5 game as well. There were two $1/3 games going at 10:00 AM Saturday morning, when I last visited. Regular player and poker coach Al Spath, had this to say about this his home room:
“The makeup of the table is usually older men, a sprinkling of young studs, a woman or two and the occasional fish.”
I’ve found his assessment to be right on the money, the few times I’ve played there. Relatively tight and timid regulars, some just passing time, none making their living, as there are few tourists to feast on. Al quoted one regular who seemed to go against the grain of the typical grinding local.
“I brought enough money tonight for the $2-$5 and $5 -$10 no-limit game, but not nearly enough for these damn $1-$2 tables.”
From my three or four sessions in this room, I can I agree completely with Al’s assessment. It wasn’t always this way. Back between 2010-2012, the room was known for having many wild and loose players. But alas, much of this action moved down to the Maryland Live! and the MGM National Harbor rooms when they opened.
If you are interested in playing in this room in the morning, and want to get on a table when it opens, make sure to call the room well in advance. You can start putting your name on the list at 7:00AM. I suggest you call right about that time. I waited until I arrived at 8:00 AM – two hours before they opened. There were already 13 names on the list!
The venue features a $6 + $2 rake and promotional drop. Players earn $.50 an hour in comps and get free soft drinks from dispensers or servers at the table.
Maryland Live! Casino
7002 Arundel Mills Circle #7777
Hanover, MD
443-492-3040
https://www.livech.com/maryland/casino-and-gaming/poker
The poker room is open 24/7.
Maryland Live! is one of the two major poker rooms in the Capital District. You can count on a game consistently, no matter the day of the week nor hour. For example, on a Monday morning, when I last visited, they had 11 $1/3 NLHE games, six $2/2 5-card PLO games, and a couple of $2/5 NLHE games for good measure. On the Saturday night I visited, there were 20+ $1/3 games, a dozen PLO games, four $2/5 games, and a $4-8 limit Hold’em game. They also have “featured games” of $6/12 O/E on Monday and Wednesday nights, $8/16 Big O and Stud 8 on Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons, $5/10 Limit Omaha 8 on Thursdays at noon, and $5/5 Double Board Bomb Pot 5-card PLO on Mondays at 7:00 PM, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM, and Saturdays at 5:00PM. Players are advised to sign up as early as 11:00 AM the day of these games to get on the list.
Historically, the action in the $1/3 and $2/5 NLHE games (the games I play) has been excellent. I’ve been told that this has slowed down some in the last year or so, with some of the wilder players moving to the Baltimore Horseshoe game. I cannot confirm that with my own observations; but I’ve heard it from a few sources.
The venue features a $6 + $3 rake and promotional drop. Players earn $1.50 an hour in comps.
Baltimore Horseshoe Casino
1525 Russell St., Baltimore
443-931-4499
https://www.caesars.com/horseshoe-baltimore/casino/wsop-poker-room
The poker room is listed as 24/7, but there are sometimes morning hours when there is no game. Make sure to check online or call the room to see that a game is going.
There’s typically a lot more action here in this Baltimore room than at Perryville, the nearby poker room about 20 minutes to the north. But it pales in action and number of games when compared to Maryland Live!, about 20 minutes to the south, or to MGM National Harbor, the biggest room in the area about an hour south.
I played $1/3 NLHE there on a Saturday night, enjoying myself against pretty good, but not great locals and a few students from nearby Towson University. There were six games going by the time I left at 9PM. There were four when I started at 3PM. They said they sometimes get a limit Hold’em game in the morning and afternoon during the week.
There is an excellent Chinese noodle bar in the casino. I enjoyed a delicious Singapore Noodle dish. The poker room allows tableside dining, though you must get the food and bring it back yourself.
The venue features a $5 + $3 rake and promotional drop. Players earn $2 an hour in comps.
MGM National Harbor
101 MGM National Ave
National Harbor, MD
301-971-5600
https://mgmnationalharbor.mgmresorts.com/en/casino/poker.html
The poker room is open 24/7.
This is certainly the major player in the area, a title that Maryland Live! ceded to it back in 2016 when the MGM opened. On a Saturday night there may be as many as 40+ tables going, with the more popular games of $1/3 and $2/5 often with lists 30 people or longer. This causes recreational players, inpatient for action, to move up to the $5/10 game – making them better for the serious player. Even on a Monday at noon, the room had 14 games going, including 10 $1/3 NLHE, one $1/2 5-Card Omaha, a $2/5 game, a $5/10 NLH game, and a $5/5 5-card PLO game.
The key for me at both the MGM and Maryland Live! is to practice game selection. I’ve noticed a huge difference in game quality between and among different no limit Hold’em games in the same room. Move around until you find a bunch of poor or mediocre opponents. They are playing somewhere!
The venue features a $6 + $3 rake and promotional drop. Players earn $2 an hour in comps.
Conclusion
Once again, I rely on my friend and longtime poker coach, Al Spath, who has played in this area regularly for many years, to summarize the poker scene in the greater Washington, DC area.
“Perryville is sleepy hollow in the mornings, nothing but regulars vying for the daily high hand promotion. Quality of play (weak to average), seldom anything but $1/3 NLHE daily and Pot Limit Omaha three days a week (more like a home game, same players). The Horseshoe has better than average players and decent promotions with $2/5 NLHE games as well. Maryland Live! is a thriving casino offering many games and tables. They are also known for their tournaments and WSOP Circuit events. MGM National Harbor in the DC area is the biggest, with tons of tables and big money from the city and Northern Virginia. Long waiting times afternoon and night. Impatient players with money jump into games open and mostly above their skill level, but not their wallet size.”
I have played in all of the Capital area rooms and agree with Al’s assessment. I’d add one other consideration if you are coming to the area from out of town. Maryland Live! has a number of very good and relatively inexpensive hotels nearby – some right in the same shopping complex and mall known as Arundel Mills. The MGM National Harbor is less inviting to the visiting player in this regard, as their hotel, and those in the immediate area, are much more expensive.
Ed. Note: Image credit for Hollywood Casino Charles Town poker room: Poker Pilgrims
