If you’re traveling through London, Kentucky, you might miss The Royal Social Club.
Housed in a nondescript building on Black Road, its simple outward facade belies the action taking place inside its walls.
The card room opened last September. It typically charges a door fee for all players but will waive that fee during certain promotions. Its steady schedule of tournaments, daily promotions, eight tables of action, and professional atmosphere make it one of the premier poker destinations in the state.
Tournaments
The Royal Social Club offers regularly scheduled no-limit Texas Hold’em (NLHE) and pot-limit Omaha tournaments. The crown jewel of the tournament schedule is the card room’s monthly $20,000–guarantee tournament. Players can track the location’s live tournaments and enter tournaments through the PokerAtlas app.
$20K guarantee tournament
Every third Saturday of the month, The Royal Social Club hosts a Texas Hold’em tournament with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $20,000. The buy-in is $350 and players start with $15,000 in chips.
The tournament features two starting flights: Flight A, which kicks off at 1 p.m., and Flight B, which starts at 5 p.m. Both flights play until the field is down to 15%. Levels bump up every 30 minutes.
After both flights end, the remaining 15% from each group will join together and start play the following day at 1 p.m. Here are the final table payouts based on total entries:
Place | Payout with 51 entries or more | with 31-50 entries | with 30 entries or less |
---|---|---|---|
1st | 25% | 25% | 25% |
2nd | 20% | 25% | 25% |
3rd | 15% | 18% | 38% |
4th | 10% | 13% | 15% |
5th | 8% | 8% | 10% |
6th | 7% | 6% | N/A |
7th | 6% | 5% | N/A |
8th | 5% | N/A | N/A |
9th | 4% | N/A | N/A |
Weekly tournaments
In the typical week, The Royal Social Club runs a series of NLHE and Omaha tournaments. In general, guarantee tournaments do not allow add-ons but many weekly tourneys allow re-buys and/or add-ons.
A typical weekly tournament schedule would include a couple of $1,000 and $3,000 guarantee tournaments, along with one or two freerolls that allow re-buys and add-ons.
A good example of a freeroll tournament would be The Royal Social Club’s Monday Night Madness NLHE tourney. Buy-in is $40, add-ons are $20, and starting blinds are $100/$200. Levels go up every 15 minutes and players get unlimited re-entry.
Amenities and food
The Royal Social Club has eight tables of action available for play every day. The tables are well-lit with overhead track lighting. TVs line the walls of the room.
The card room runs a modest kitchen that offers various types of sandwiches during typical playing hours. Seniors, military, and first responders receive a discount on their food orders. After–hours offerings include hot dogs and snacks.
Players are entitled to free Pepsi fountain drinks, coffee, and tea.
How to get there
The Royal Social Club is located at 124 Black Road in London. It’s about 40 minutes north of the Kentucky-Tennessee state line and about an hour and 15 minutes south of Lexington.
The easiest way to get to the club is to take the Interstate 75 to the KY-80/Hal Rogers Parkway exit, head east, make a right at London Mountain View Road, then make a quick left onto Black Road. The card room is on the right just before the road ends.