PokerStars Opens “Play To Eat” Poker Restaurant in London

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Monday, January 19th, 2015 | Written by Charles Washington

The biggest and most innovative online poker room on the planet, PokerStars, has just launched a novel new way to further promote its product amongst players by launching a “Pay-by-Poker” restaurant in the East of London. The limited three-day venture is a collaboration with Jones and Sons restaurant, and will run between January 19th to 21st, coinciding with this year’s PokerStars sponsored United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) season starting on January 20th.

Forget about trying to get a seat at the All-In Kitchen in Haggerston, however, as the venue has received rave reviews and is already booked solid from now until the end of the promotional period. In fact, The Telegraph has called the “UK’s first pay-by-poker restaurant” an “ace”, while VICE magazine has described it as “the ace of spades in life’s messy pile of cards.”

Already Fully Booked

Jones & Sons founder Andy Jones has created a completely poker-themed menu for the All-In Kitchen, complete with appetizers being served on The Flop, entrees on The Turn and deserts coming on The River. Even the dishes themselves are named after poker terms, including a king prawn cocktail called “Kings” and a king crab thermidor called “The Royal Flush”, and commenting on the novel pop-up restaurant, Andy Jones said:

“I love food and never shy away from the [poker] tables when I get a chance. Having the opportunity to create a menu that combines two of my favorite things was something I jumped at.. [creating] the dishes was a lot of fun [and] I can’t wait to see the results and serve up some Aces.”

In fact, the concept has now proven so popular that although initially billed as a mini-venture PokerStars has already agreed to include two new dates of January 26th and 27th to the originalschedule, although the unprecedented demand has meant tickets for these dates will not be made available until January 21st. Further plans are also afoot to continue the novel idea at other UKIPT locations throughout 2015.

£50 Meal Or Lets Play Poker

While diners attending the All-In Kitchen are not required to play poker for their £50 ($75.80) per head three-course meal, they will still be presented with the option of enjoying a discounted or potentially “free lunch” by simply playing a quick game of poker. Here’s how it works. Each player starts of with a stack of 10,000 chips, and if they manage to increase their stack over the three hands the game is played then they will automatically get the meal on the house. Simply staying above the 5,000 mark will mean they will have to shell out a modest £5 ($7.60) for the meal, while stack which falls below 5,000 chips will still only cost the player £10 ($15.25) for the diner.

A First Of Its Kind

In the past, live poker rooms have often promoted their venues by giving freebies and comps to their best patrons, including offering cash bonuses, free hotel rooms or even dining options at the casino’s restaurant. PokerStars’ latest venture, however, would appear to be the first time a poker operator has collaborated with an outside the casino restaurant to promote its product to a wider audience, and could prove an innovative move in promoting its online and live product.

Such a move is likely to prove a huge success with a new generation of poker players obsessed with good, healthy eating at quality establishments whilst attending major tournaments such as the World Series of Poker. Therefore, better informing players as to quality restaurants located close to casinos, or launching their own “Pay-by-Poker” restaurants during tournaments could also prove to be an innovative way for other operators to appeal to multiple markets.

One player who has already noted the need for fellow professionals to locate quality, reasonably priced dining venues whilst on the tournament circuit is Jimmy Fricke, who recently started an online Las Vegas-centric blog called Jimmy Eats Vegas. As Fricke mentions in his About page:

“People ask me all the time about where they should eat, and this website should be a great resource for them because I am lazy and I am tired of typing the same thing over and over again.”