Poker in Vietnam

Where to play poker in Vietnam: clubs and rooms

Poker in Vietnam is played in two kinds of places. The first is the licensed poker club, which runs buy-in tournaments under the umbrella of the Vietnam Bridge and Poker Federation, where poker is classified as an intellectual sport rather than a casino game². The second is the casino poker room, found inside licensed casino resorts, which operates under the foreigner-only rules that govern most casino gaming in the country².

The club scene is concentrated in the big cities. Ho Chi Minh City's Pro Poker Club has been the central point of the country's poker development, hosting international poker festivals running almost every month². Hanoi has its own venues, including Grand Loyal Poker Club on the second floor at 146 Giảng Võ in the Ba Đình district, and Quads Poker Club, which hosts live tournaments and major festival series including the Quads Poker Championship⁶. Official guidance confirms that at least one poker club now operates in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces¹.

Casino poker sits inside the licensed casino resorts. Corona Casino on Phu Quoc island is the one casino legally open to Vietnamese citizens as well as foreigners⁸, while most other casinos, such as the King Club on the first floor of the Pullman Hanoi Hotel at 40 Cát Linh Street, are licensed for foreign players only⁹. For the full casino picture, see casinos in Vietnam.

Who can play

Who may sit down depends on which of the two poker worlds you are entering, and on which passport you hold. The table below sums up the practical position for each group.

Foreigners and tourists have the easiest ride: they get more access to poker games in Vietnam's licensed venues than anyone else, and gambling is straightforward and legal at any of the licensed casinos with an original passport, aged 21 or over, with no entry fee². Vietnamese citizens are generally restricted from playing poker in casinos, with the exception of those meeting the pilot program criteria at Corona Casino Phu Quoc². Overseas Vietnamese who hold a passport issued by a foreign authority are treated as foreigners for casino entry¹⁰.

Poker clubs in Hanoi and the provinces

Hanoi's club scene has grown around two anchors. Grand Loyal Poker Club sits on the second and third floors of the Grand Vista Hanoi Hotel, a comfortable setting for a multi-day festival, and it has hosted Asian Poker Tour events¹¹. Quads Poker Club runs regular tournaments plus its own championship series, and the venue regularly attracts international players from across Asia and beyond; its active Facebook page is the best place to find the current schedule⁷.

Outside the two big cities, clubs have appeared in the provinces too, and official guidance notes at least one poker club in each of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the provincial areas¹. Not all of them stay on the right side of the line. In April 2024, police dismantled an illegal gambling den disguised as a poker club run by POKER Binh Duong Co., Ltd., where prizes ranged from VND 7 million at the low end to over VND 130 million at the top, paid in cash³. In Ho Chi Minh City, 21 people were arrested in a poker ring bust after clubs served as fronts for illegal gambling¹². And at the King Club in the Pullman Hanoi, Vietnamese gamblers disguised themselves as foreigners to play illegally at a venue licensed only for foreign players⁹.

The practical lesson is simple: play at clubs that run open, advertised tournaments with published schedules and registration, which is how the licensed clubs operate¹.

Poker tournaments in Vietnam

Tournament poker is the engine of the Vietnamese scene, and it is the format in which poker is legally licensed to operate: players pay an entry fee (the buy-in), which funds the organizing costs and the prize pool, with taxes paid on both personal and corporate income¹. Buy-ins at club events run from a few hundred thousand dong to a few tens of millions of VND¹.

The international circuit arrived in 2018, when the Asia Poker Tour became the first organizer to host an international poker event in Vietnam that locals were allowed to join². Since then, locals can participate in all these events, and the festival calendar has filled out². The APT Summer Series Hanoi 2023 ran at Grand Loyal Poker Club, and all players were required to register with the Asian Poker Tour to participate in any APT event⁶.

The prizes can be serious money, but not all of it is legal. In April 2024, police dismantled an illegal gambling den disguised as a poker club run by POKER Binh Duong Co., Ltd., where the lowest prize was VND 7,000,000 and the highest was over VND 130,000,000, paid in cash to the top-ranked players³. For the full calendar of events, buy-in levels and how to register, see poker tournaments in Vietnam.

Online poker in Vietnam: a legal gray area

Online poker operates in a legal gray area in Vietnam. The government does not issue licenses for online poker sites, and it could block access to foreign platforms in the future; many gambling sites have already been blocked at the ISP level since 2018². At the same time, many international online poker sites still accept Vietnamese players, and searches turn up hundreds of offshore casinos willing to take them².

There is no local regulator standing behind any of this. If you play online from Vietnam, you are dealing with an offshore operator under its own license, with no Vietnamese authority to complain to. The deeper detail on which sites accept Vietnamese players and how the gray area works in practice is on the online poker in Vietnam page.

Playing online in practice: payments, VPNs and access

Because local banks may restrict transactions with gambling websites, players commonly use VPNs and e-wallets to handle deposits and withdrawals². The e-wallet route is well established, and the standard deposit and withdrawal methods Vietnamese players use with offshore poker sites are¹³:

• MoMo
• ZaloPay
• ViettelPay
• internet banking

Offshore casinos serving Vietnam typically accept credit cards, e-wallets, bank transfers and cryptocurrency, including Payz, Help2Pay and VISA or MasterCard debit cards⁵. Some operators, such as Stake, publish dedicated guides for depositing and withdrawing in VND¹⁴.

The main friction point is the bank itself. A card deposit to a gambling site may be declined, which is why the e-wallet and crypto routes exist. Whatever route you use, keep records of your deposits and withdrawals, since winnings taken abroad in foreign currency are covered by Vietnam's foreign exchange rules for foreign players¹⁵.

Poker hand rankings from Royal Flush to High Card

Whether you play in a Hanoi club or online, the game runs on the same ten hand rankings, from the Royal Flush down to High Card¹⁶. A hand in poker consists of five cards, and in Texas Hold'em you make the best five-card hand from the seven available: five community cards plus your own two hole cards¹⁷.

A royal flush is simply an ace-high straight flush, the strongest hand in the game¹⁷. Cards rank from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 down to 2, with the Ace also playable low in A-2-3-4-5¹⁶. When two players hold the same hand type, the highest card wins, and if that ties, a side card called the kicker decides the pot; if the kickers cannot separate the players, they split the pot¹⁷. Suits have no ranking in most games, so a king-high flush beats a queen-high flush regardless of suit; in the rare games that do value suits, they are usually ordered Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs¹⁶.

Hand rankings that work differently: Short Deck and side games

Short Deck, also called Six-Plus Hold'em, is rapidly gaining popularity in Asian countries, where it is the game of choice for high-stakes specialists in Macau¹⁸. It keeps the familiar Hold'em setup: players receive two hole cards and use five community cards to make the best five-card hand¹⁹.

The rankings change, and this catches Hold'em players out. In Short Deck, a flush beats a full house¹⁹. In some Six Plus variants, three-of-a-kind beats a straight, though not everywhere: some live venues consider three-of-a-kind stronger than a straight, while online rooms such as PartyPoker do not, so always check the house rules before you sit down¹⁸. The full Short Deck order from the top is Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Flush, Full House, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and High Card¹⁹. Because the small cards are gone, the only pocket pairs that count as premium hands are Aces and Kings, along with A-K suited¹⁹.

Side games you may meet in Vietnamese casinos also bend the rankings. Three Card Poker uses its own ladder, straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, pair, high card, because each hand is only three cards²⁰. Lucky Poker, a three-card game found in casino resorts, pays 100 to 1 on a Straight Flush and wins on a Straight Flush, Three of a Kind, Straight or Flush²¹. And in the Vietnamese game of Xì Dách, there is a quirk you will not find anywhere else: when hands tie on points, the lower hand wins²².

Currency and buy-ins: what a game costs in VND

Everything in Vietnamese poker is priced in dong. Club tournament buy-ins run from a few hundred thousand VND to a few tens of millions of VND, depending on the size of the event¹. Traditional offline card games in Vietnam typically start from around VND 50,000 and up²³.

At the casino, the rules differ by who you are. Vietnamese citizens may only use VND to buy gaming chips, and chips are exchanged back into VND for winnings or unplayed chips²⁴. Foreign players have it easier: most casinos accept USD, VND and major credit cards for chip purchase, and foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with foreign passports may receive winnings and transfer or carry them abroad in foreign currency under Vietnam's foreign exchange rules⁴. Table minimums at casino tables typically run USD 25 to 100 per hand, varying by casino⁴.

Vietnamese citizens entering a casino pay an entry levy of VND 1,000,000 per 24 continuous hours, or VND 25,000,000 for a monthly pass²⁶. Foreigners pay no entry fee at all⁴.

A first visit: what to bring and expect

For a club tournament, bring your passport or ID card and enough cash in VND for the buy-in, plus a little extra for re-entries if the format allows them. If you are playing an Asian Poker Tour event, you must register with the APT before you can participate, which you can do online in advance⁶. Schedules change, so check the club's page or the organizer's site before you travel; Quads Hanoi, for example, posts its schedule on Facebook⁷.

For a casino visit, the rules are stricter. Foreigners need an original passport and must be 21 or older⁴. Vietnamese citizens can only enter Corona Casino Phu Quoc, where they register for membership at the reception desk with a citizen ID card and proof of income of at least VND 10 million per month, as required by Vietnamese law²⁷. Expect a relaxed but tidy dress standard at clubs, and smart-casual at casino resorts; the first-visit walkthrough on the Corona Casino Phu Quoc page covers the full process.