Poker Rooms in Germany
In December 2006, the brand-new Casino Esplanade opened in Hamburg. In a perfect location in an old townhouse in the centre of the city, and renovated and modernized with millions of Euros and two years work, it has brought the entertainment of casino games to a new level. The ground floor is reserved for a large area of slot machines, and on the first floor, you'll find plenty of live games, like roulette, blackjack, punto banco, and Caribbean stud. Just around the corner from the cashier, hidden in a small separate room, you will see, only if you look carefully enough, two poker tables. Sorry, but only two poker tables in a giant casino like that? I wasn't the only guest at the grand-opening party whom you could see surprisingly shaking his head. What happened to the casino's management during the last year? Did they fall asleep and didn't realize the poker boom in Germany? Eagerly waiting for an explanation, I had the chance to chat with one floorperson. He told me that, first of all, the casino hasn't got enough trained personnel to run a bigger poker room, and they don't know how long the hype will go on. But the main reason for only two tables seemed to be the following: Some casino managers calculate profit on a per-square-meter basis, and it is very obvious that a slot machine is more profitable than a poker table in that calculation. They are making the same mistakes that the big venues in Las Vegas made during the 1990s. They closed one poker room after another, forgetting about the human factor. People step inside a casino to play poker, eat and drink, and sometimes play slots or roulette, but most importantly, they are part of a social environment that attracts more people to come. Las Vegas has experienced this already, and within the last three years, plenty of new poker rooms have opened, bigger and more luxurious than ever. Maybe German managers have to make their own mistakes first.
A positive example of adaptation to a changing market is the Spielbank Wiesbaden. Management realized the tremendous public interest in poker and acted quickly; during recent months they have offered so-called "rookie tournaments" for beginners. Designed as a €75 buy-in no-limit hold'em freezeout tournament, and offered three times a week, nearly every single event is sold out. Because of the huge interest in the tournament and in order to give people who are willing to travel several hundred kilometres a chance to join, they recently offered online registration for it by credit card. Now, Wiesbaden has become a poker centre in Germany, and it has up to five cash-game tables running every day. It shows how important it is to take care of the beginners.
Only 40 kilometres away from Wiesbaden is Casino Bad Homburg. The well-established and traditional house has a very beautiful and comfortable poker room, excellent food, and very friendly service. Despite these facts, the monthly tournament with a €200 buy-in, unlimited rebuys, and one add-on wasn't attended as well as it could have been. The poker manager asked me how to attract more players. I told him to start running some satellites for it. They started offering several sit-and-gos with a buy-in of only €40. The winner gets a seat and a prepaid add-on. It's no big surprise that now the tournament is full each month.
But there is also space for high-roller tournaments in Germany. The EPT is a first-time guest in Germany, and the host is the Spielbank Dortmund/Hohensyburg, March 8-11. Dortmund has plenty of experience in running even larger tournaments, so the venue is a good choice. Another big festival will be held in Berlin in early April.
A series of different tournaments, including seven-card stud and Omaha, are taking place not in the casino Potsdamer Platz, but next door in a conference room of the Hyatt Hotel. Tournaments organizers are running big ads in various print media, offering an estimated total prize pool of €9 million. If they keep their promises regarding the organization, I'm sure that a lot of players from the international scene will show up, as well, and Germany will not only be recognized as a country with solid players, but one with high-standard festivals.
Michael Keiner is a German poker pro who's sponsored by 888.com. You can find him playing online at www.pacificpoker.com.
