For lovers of poker, London’s Fox Poker Club was one of the premium places to visit. Located on Shaftesbury Avenue, it was the only venue in London that was exclusively dedicated to poker, which was part of the reason why so many people wanted to play there. Having been established by Ian Hogg and Chris North back in 2005, it was fiercely independent in the face of a London casino scene that was becoming dominated by the various chains opening up around it. That might well be why the pair chose to sell it to Genting Casinos in 2011, with the venue closing its doors permanently just a year later.
A Poker Club Fighting the Tide
The decision of Hogg and North to open a poker room was one that seemed to make complete sense back in 2005. The pair were keen poker players themselves and knew that other players would appreciate somewhere they could play the card game without worry too much about the draw of the roulette table or the noise from slot machines. In the years that followed, though, the number of big casinos around it increased to the point that the Casino at the Empire, Napoleon’s Leicester Square, the Hippodrome Casino and the Golden Nugget were all on offer for punters looking to broaden their horizons away from poker.
The Genting Takeover
Though we don’t know the exact details, it is likely that Hogg and North were made an offer that they couldn’t refuse from Genting UK in 2011, giving them no choice but to sell up London’s only dedicated poker room to the casino powerhouse. Many poker players felt that Genting were deliberately running it into the ground after they gained control of the club, which probably wasn’t far from the truth. Whilst they won’t have wanted their venue to fail, the fact that they moved to refurbish it after its closure in December of 2012 in order to turn it into a ‘small, Genting-branded casino’ suggests that was their aim all along.
Genting Casino Chinatown opened in 2014 in the space that had one been occupied by Fox Poker Club. The company was keen to point out that poker was still part of its offering in London, with the likes of The Palm Beach in Mayfair and the Genting Casino Cromwell Mint both offering poker to players. Yet there is no question that the London poker scene lost something when Fox Poker Club bit the dust. Doubtless both Hogg and North felt as if they made the right decision to sell when they did and they might have struggled to keep it operating with the larger casinos constantly encroaching, but poker lovers are a little worse off as a result.
Casino Reviews
The Fox is one of the best places to play poker in London. It’s not really a casino as the majority of the floor is made up of poker tables, but hidden in the back by the bar is an electronic roulette machine and a blackjack table.
There are multiple daily tournaments (usually one starting in the afternoon and another early evening) and cash games going on all day. It’s apparently open 24 hours but I’ve never been there late enough to be able to say if there are still people to play against at 5am.
The fact they charge a membership fee to join is a bit annoying (£10) so if you’re only planning on going once I’d head to the empire which is a couple of minutes walk away in leicester square.