What Are Low Stakes Casino Destinations?

First up, it makes sense to explain exactly what is meant by low stakes casino destinations.

These are casinos where it is possible to play with a small amount of money, rather than ones where the minimum bet is set at a level where players need to be high rollers to enter.

Affordable casino destinations are popular among people who enjoy gambling but do not have a large bankroll, or those who are new to casinos and just want to dip a toe in the water.

By going to low stakes casino destinations worldwide, the risks of losing money are reduced as a result.

While most players will lose cash rather than winning money at the casino, sticking to low stakes cuts the financial risks involved in playing games such as craps, blackjack, slots and roulette.

Las Vegas Surprisingly Among Low Roller Casino Destinations

It may come as a surprise that Las Vegas can be a top low roller casino destination.

For a lot of people, Vegas has the reputation of the home of gambling. There are countless slot games in Sin City and a lot of action for poker players too. Anyone who prefers table games also has an almost endless choice to pick from – and the good thing is the range of stakes available.

While the famous casinos that are in a prime position on the Las Vegas Strip are not exactly known for low stakes gameplay, moving a bit further away from the main spots can pay off.

Many casinos that do not attract the tourist crowds have plenty of low stakes action. However, it is a good idea to visit during the day and during the week, rather than on an evening at the weekend.

When there is less demand for casino games is when low stakes tend to be offered. It is not uncommon for $5 a hand blackjack or roulette wheel games to be available, while many casinos have penny slots.

Even on the Strip, there are enough spots to make Vegas a great low stakes casino destination as well.

Players could try their luck with low stakes games at O’Sheas Pub Las Vegas, which can be found within The Linq Promenade. Cheap beer and a fun time are guaranteed at O’Sheas, while there is live entertainment too.

Casino Royale, Circus Circus and Excalibur are some of the other top low stakes casinos in Vegas.

Try Atlantic City For Affordable Casino Destinations

Along with Vegas, Atlantic City is probably the most famous gambling location in North America, although Reno is another city worth mentioning in this category.

Atlantic City casinos offer a wide range of stakes, catering for high rollers through to those who just want to play a few hands of blackjack without breaking the bank.

Among the low roller casino destinations worth visiting in Atlantic City are the likes of Harrah’s and Borgata, both of which often have $10 tables, especially during quieter periods.

Unlike in Vegas, however, it is quite rare to find a $5 casino game at Atlantic City, so visitors might need to push their budget a bit higher if they are planning to go to this low roller casino destination.

Atlantic City is also the home of attractions such as Absecon Lighthouse, which stakes a claim to be the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey, as well as the Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organ Tour and Recital.

Low Stakes Casino Destinations in Europe

Europeans and those heading to the continent can also pick from some low stakes casino destinations.

London is known for being one of the most expensive cities in the world, but those who go to the city can still enjoy some low stakes gambling while seeing the sights such as Big Ben.

One such low stakes casino destination in London is Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City, where £1 tables are even available in a special low stakes zone.

Visitors to the casino can play roulette and blackjack for just a pound during certain hours. Entry to Aspers Westfield Stratford City is free but players who are fortunate enough to cash out £1,500 or more during their visit will require Aspers World Membership and a valid photo ID.

The Hippodrome Casino is another option for low rollers who want to gamble while in London.

At this location, which is known as the biggest entertainment and casino venue in the country and welcomes millions of visitors every year, there are four floors of gaming to explore.

Named the Casino of the Year in 2023, the Hippodrome is also the host venue for Magic Mike Live, which has been described as one of London’s fastest selling shows.

On the mainland, Prague has a growing reputation as one of the top low stakes casino destinations in Europe. Casinos worth visiting include the Rebuy Stars Casino Savarin Prague and King’s Casino Prague.

The latter venue houses Europe’s biggest poker room but there are plenty of slots and table games such as roulette and blackjack to enjoy at King’s too.

Monte Carlo is known as one of the top places in Europe to go for gambling. However, the Monte Carlo Casino is more aimed at high rollers rather than those who do not have a lot of cash to splash.

Nevertheless, the Monte Carlo Casino is worth checking out. Found in Monaco, it opened 158 years ago and is known for only welcoming foreigners – there is a rule banning all Monegasques from gambling.

The Casino de Monte-Carlo is known for having featured in many movies over the years, particularly the James Bond spy franchise.

Never Say Never Again and Golden Eye have both featured the casino, which can also be spotted in Condorman and The Castle of Cagliostro, as well as the animated children’s film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

Is The Star Sydney a Low Stakes Casino Destination?

While gambling is popular in both Australia and New Zealand, this part of the world is not home to many low stakes casino destinations at the present time.

The Star Sydney is the second largest casino in Australia – taking the silver medal behind Melbourne’s Crown Casino – with the 2,000 seat Sydney Lyric theatre and 3,000 seat Event Centre both here.

At the Star, guests can play from AUD $25 per hand in the Sovereign Room, while the Inner Sanctum caters more for high rollers with its table bet ranges more like AUD $100 to $500,000.

Crown Melbourne is actually the largest casino complex in the Southern Hemisphere, having moved to its current location on the Yarra Promenade some 27 years ago.

Guests can choose to stay at one of a trio of hotels – Crown Towers, Crown Promenade, and Crown Metropol – that are part of the casino resort. Crown Melbourne uses the YourPlay system, which means visitors have to set loss limits for both time and money.

Gambling in New Zealand is not quite as popular as in neighbouring Australia, but there are still half a dozen casinos to pick from.

For a low stakes casino destination in New Zealand, the best choice might just be Christchurch Casino, which was the first location of its kind to open in the country back in 1994.

With more than 450 gaming machines to enjoy and 32 table games at the casino, players are spoiled for choice when they walk through the doors of Christchurch Casino in New Zealand.

Visitors can also watch the big game at the Monza Sports Bar and take a break from gaming by having a drink or some food at the Skylark Bar and Lounge.

Where Are Asia’s Best Affordable Casino Destinations?

Macau attracts gamblers from all corners of the globe, but low stakes casino destinations are thin on the ground. High rollers will love Macau, but those on a limited budget may struggle to find games in this incredibly glitzy and glamorous part of the world.

However, Macau is still worth visiting with the Venetian having the largest casino floor in the world. There are almost 2,000 gaming machines at the casino, along with more than 500 table games.

In Macau, the Grand Lisboa is perhaps the best place to go for some lower stakes action. But guests should expect to still need to be gambling a significant amount of money on each hand here.

Singapore has luxury gambling resorts such as Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa. The former was described as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property when it opened.

Resorts World Sentosa, meanwhile, is one of the top tourist attractions in Singapore.

It is home to the S.E.A. Aquarium, which is one of the biggest oceanariums on the planet, as well as Universal Studios Singapore.

Formula One fans should definitely think about taking a trip to this location as it is the home of the Singapore Grand Prix, which has become one of the most eagerly awaited dates on the sport’s calendar.

The Philippines is home to some of Asia’s most affordable casino destinations, particularly in Manila.

One of the top options to go for is City of Dreams Manila, a luxury resort which houses the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star recipient Nüwa Spa.

Open 24/7, some low stakes games can be found at City of Dreams, particularly during the day rather than on a weekend evening, where the action is more targeted towards high roller players.

Wild Aces Poker Sports Club is also worth visiting for a low stakes hand or two in the Philippines.

Various low stakes casino destinations worldwide are available in the Philippines, but Wild Aces Poker Sports Club deserves to be ranked up there with the best of them.

I have a cool hand to share with you today!

The stakes are $200/$400 (with a $100 ante). This one took place on the online felt between one of the world’s greatest cash game players (Linus Loeliger) and one of the world’s greatest tournament players (Michael Addamo).

Let’s dive into the action.

OUT NOW!
The Lucid GTO Cash Game Trainer

Improve your cash game skills fast (guaranteed) with this training tool!

Preflop

Addamo raises to $880 with Kd 6d from Middle Position. Linus calls with 5s 3s from the Button. BTC200K-FORSURE (an unknown player) calls from the Big Blind with an unknown hand.

The effective stack between the Addamo and Linus is around $35,000 (87.5bb).

Advanced Preflop Analysis

Given the ante in play, Addamo should be open-raising with a wider range than in a regular 6-max game. Normally, you’d want to raise with around the top 20% of hands from this position. With an ante, that increases to around the top 25% of hands with the ante.

King-Six suited is towards the bottom of that 25% range. His raise size is good. Anything between 2bb and 3bb should work well as it gives him good pot odds on his raise.

Linus’s call with a low suited gapper is probably a bit spewy, at least in theory. It will be an uphill battle to make this hand profitable. I think it’s fairly likely he sees the relatively unknown player in the Big Blind as a weak player. So, he called with this hand in order to play a pot in position against that weak player. But that’s just speculation on my part.

The theoretically correct strategy for Linus in this spot would be to mix between cold-calling and 3-betting with the top ~15% or so of hands. With this strategy, the strongest possible hands (like Pocket Queens or better, Ace-Queen suited, and Ace-King) would always 3-bet. The other hands should mix calling and 3-betting at varying frequencies.

BTC200K should play quite loosely from the Big Blind because he is getting such great pot odds. He only needs to win the pot 14% of the time to break even on a call (he must call $480 to play for a pot of $3,440).

Flop

The flop comes Jh 5d 2d. The pot is $3,440.

BTC200K checks. Addamo checks with Kd 6d. Linus bets $800 with 5s 3s. BTC200K folds. Addamo raises to $3,600. Linus 3-bets to $6,898. Addamo calls.

Advanced Flop Analysis

BTC200K has the weakest range by far, so checking is the best option for him with his entire range. 

Despite the fact that he has a flush draw, Addamo should also probably check his entire range here. The rest of the players combined will have more nutted hands than he does.

Linus is incentivized now to bet for a very small size here with a lot of medium-strength hands and semi-bluffs. The idea here is that by risking a little bit of money, he accomplishes a few things:

Addamo should be check-raising here, so his decision is correct. This range should consist of overpairs, strong top pairs, overcards with backdoor draws, and flush draws. This strategy is optimal because he doesn’t want to let Linus realize his equity for so cheap.

Linus makes a rather unconventional play here and 3-bets. We don’t usually see 3-bets as part of an optimal strategy for the in-position player, especially on boards such as this one and at a high stack depth (almost 100bb deep).

But if we want to look at why Linus might have decided that this is the best strategy, we need to understand when such a play would be optimal. This line with 53-suited would be best if Addamo:

• Is too bluff-heavy with high equity hands that will call the raise
• Is too bluff-heavy with weak semi-bluffs that will fold against the 3-bet
• Will fold some strong hands such as overpairs with a diamond that block his bluffs

There may be one more reason why Linus might prefer 3-betting with this hand: Equity realization. If he thinks that he will be able to navigate the future inflection points more accurately, then it can make sense to choose this line.

As far as blocker selection goes, having the 5 is a good choice as it blocks the set of 5’s that Addamo is representing while it unblocks his bluffs. Also, Linus still has outs to make good two pairs and trips in case Addamo has a strong but vulnerable hand.

Addamo’s call is good here. He is getting great pot odds, only needing to win the pot around 19% of the time once he calls. An easy feat with a high flush draw.

Turn

The turn comes the Ad, making the board Jh 5d 2d Ad. The pot is $17,236.

Addamo checks. Linus checks.

Advanced Turn Analysis

A great card for Addamo and a horrible card for Linus. 

Addamo’s range now improves to contain the top set. Plus, his bluffs have improved to a flush.

Linus won’t have many flushes at this point since 3-betting with anything other than the nut flush draw on the flop doesn’t make much sense. And since the Ad came on the turn, there is no way he had the Ace-high flush draw on the flop.

Both players played this street correctly in my opinion.

River

The river comes the Qc, making the final board  Jh 5d 2d Ad Qc. The pot is $17,236.

Addamo checks. Linus shoves all-in for an effective bet of $27,007. Addamo calls and scoops the $71,252 pot.

Advanced River Analysis

The Qc is a total brick. The effective nuts do not change.

Addamo realizes that Linus has a capped range from which it’s going to be very hard to extract value. This happens because Addamo’s range has improved so much on the turn. 

In theory, we would probably expect Addamo to mix between checking and betting with this hand. In practice, if he thinks that Linus might be the type of player to overly attack a capped range, or simply has a weak range, then trapping would be the superior action. 

Linus’ 3-bet on the flop was quite suspicious to begin with, especially against a shorter than 100bb stack. In this case, it makes even more sense for Adammo to give Linus some rope to put some more money into the pot with a high probability of him holding a weak hand.

When Linus faces a check on the river, he is never winning if he checks back. On top of that, he is very likely at the bottom of his range in a spot where it is very hard for him to have bluffs. This makes it a prime situation for turning his hand into a bluff, so his play is good (but he probably never should have been in this spot to begin with).

What do you think of how this hand was played?

In these battles of elite players, there will be a lot of back-and-forth exploitation going on. Sometimes one player gets the upper hand, sometimes the other one.

That’s all for this article! I hope you enjoyed it and that you learned from it! 

What do you think of Linus’ 3-bet on the flop? What do you think of Addamo’s trap on the river? I am curious to hear your opinion!

Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!

Watch The Lucid GTO Trainer in Action
with Mike Brady & Doug Polk

There a countless ways to leverage the new Lucid GTO Trainer to improve your poker game. That’s why it’s literally guaranteed to help you do so.

Watch this video to see Lucid GTO in action as Mike Brady and Doug Polk run through 8 tips for using the tool.

Get the Lucid GTO Trainer here!

Online poker sites with high stakes have some of the sickest cash games in the world!

We’re going to get a glimpse into that arena with today’s hand analysis. 

This hand was played by Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski and Oleg Bychkov at $200/$400 blinds with an effective stack just over $40,000.

Let’s dive right into the action!

Preflop Action

Wiktor opens up the action with a raise to $1,200 from the Small Blind with .

Oleg 3-bets with to $3,600 from the Big Blind.

Wiktor calls.

Preflop Analysis

Wiktor can employ a couple of strategies for playing an unopened pot from the Small Blind.

1. He could play a mixed strategy comprised of folding, limping (around 30% of hands), and open-raising (around 30% of hands).
2. Or he could go with a pure strategy, comprised of open-raising the top 40-45% of hands and folding the rest.

Theoretically speaking, the mixed strategy has a tiny bit higher expected value (EV) than the pure strategy. But can be great strategies if executed properly. It just depends on which one you can play better than your opponent.

(If you play low stakes cash games, Upswing Poker recommends going with the pure strategy from the Small Blind. The rake is simply too high in those games for the limp strategy to be worth it.)

Oleg should look to 3-bet with around 15-17% of hands, and his range should be polarized. His 3-betting range will be similar to this:

The numbers below each hand represent the frequency at which that hand 3-bets. For example, Q9o shows 0.333, which means it 3-bets 33% of the time. If a hand shows a 1, it 3-bets 100% of the time.

In summation, the 3-bet range contains the strong hands (99+, ATs+, AQo+) and a smattering of “bluff 3-bets” that have effective blockers and/or good playability when called.

Against the 3-bet, Wiktor should be looking to call with around half of his range. I’d estimate his calling range is something like this:

Now that we have the preflop ranges estimated, let’s see the flop.

Flop Action

The flop comes   and the pot is $7,200.

Wiktor checks with . Oleg c-bets $2,400 with . Wiktor check-raises to $6,480. Oleg calls.

Flop Analysis

The flop gives Oleg top set with Pocket Jacks, but not a whole lot for Wiktor’s .

Despite having a ton of weak hands in his 3-betting range, Oleg still retains a small equity advantage on the flop. That being said, he will retain a much larger percentage of the pot due to having the nut advantage (which at this stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) could be considered overpairs+). He also has position, which makes it easier to realize equity.

A very high-frequency, small c-bet will work perfectly in this kind of scenario. Oleg could even simplify and go for a range bet. This way, he will put a lot of pressure on decent-looking hands such as Ace-Queen, low pocket pairs, and some middling suited Aces that have a backdoor flush draw.

Against this small c-bet, Wiktor should be always folding his Ace-Five suited. It is simply too weak to justify calling or raising with just an overcard, a backdoor flush draw, and a crummy backdoor straight draw.

While Wiktor’s specific hand should be folding, his general approach to the situation should be aggressive in order to deny as much equity as possible from Oleg. Check-raising with some strong top pairs and better, plus some semi-bluffs to balance them, is optimal in this scenario. But is just too weak to continue with.

(Perhaps Wiktor had an exploitative reason in mind when he check-raised.)

Against this raise, Oleg has no reason to fast-play his flopped set since the pot is already getting big, so calling is the best play. There is so little money left to play for in their stacks compared to the pot, thus he can afford to slow-play.

Turn Action

The turn comes the , making the board . The pot is $20,160.

Wiktor checks. Oleg checks.

Turn Analysis

The changes nothing. Wiktor can continue betting with some portion of both his value hands and bluffs.

could be a decent candidate to use as a semi-bluff here given that it blocks Pocket Aces and Ace-Jack. But in any case, Wiktor goes for the check.

Against a check, Oleg should take a stab at the pot frequently. A small size will be most effective since Wiktor will mostly be giving up at this point. Top pairs are, for the most part, strong enough to value-bet. Plus, he has plenty of straight draws that would like to bluff.

With top set specifically, Oleg should check back because:

1. His hand is not vulnerable — there is no downside to letting Wiktor “catch up”
2. He blocks a lot of the hands that would call him (such as )
   
3. The stack-to-pot ratio is very low — getting the full stack in on the river is still possible, even if he checks the turn
   

Let’s see what the river brings.

River Action

The river comes the , making the final board . The pot is $20,160.

Wiktor checks. Oleg bets $6,960 with his full house.

River Analysis

The river is another brick. Wiktor should mostly check with his get-to-river range since none of his weaker hands improve on this river. This includes his .

Oleg should use a bigger bet size here, in theory. One-third pot river bets in position are not usually an optimal way to play because it caps the amount of bluffs/value hands that you can use.

That being said, purely from and expected value point of view, it isn’t a significant mistake at equilibrium (though it can be exploited). This type of play could be optimal if Wiktor is going to be overly loose/aggressive against it.

Back to Wiktor now, who actually has a good bluff-catcher at this point. He unblocks all potential bluffs (such as ) and also wins against all of them.

If Oleg is over-bluffing when using this size (has more than 20% bluffs), has a positive expected value as a call. Whether that is the case or not is up for debate and only by playing many many hands against a player can you make those distinctions.

Results

Wiktor hero calls with Ace-high. Oleg scoops the $34,080 pot. A nifty prize!

What do you think of Wiktor’s call on the river?

Do you reckon Oleg is bluffing more than 20% of the time?

Let me know in the comments below.

That’s all for this article guys! I hope you enjoyed this breakdown and as usual, if you have any questions or feedback please let me know in the comment section down below!

Do you think you have what it takes to get to the nosebleeds? Prove it! Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!