Although gambling is banned in Ukraine, apparently there is a poker club at Hotel Kreschatik. I've been told that it's run by the Russian/Ukrainian mafia! Nevertheless.. it's a "relatively" safe place to play poker.
With approximately 30 tables, they play in euros. Most games are 0,5/1 euro and there are probably higher stakes. Minimum buy in is 50 euros. It's fairly simple to get to, just get into a cab and tell them you want to get to that hotel - you can't miss it, it's on the main road of Kiev city.
However, it's never good to play against a table of foreign speakers when you don't understand their language. They were fairly curious to where I am from and how I played (amazingly tight). There are local pros that are very loose and aggressive - they buy in at about 300 euros, with a min raise of 10 - 15 euros pre-flop. Interestingly, they're all willing to take a gamble with some really strange hands.
The mafia also plays there. The people I played against were pretty talkative in Ukrainian - making jokes about their hands (from what I guessed). The pros today could speak english and chatted briefly with me.
With my 50 euro stack, I lasted 2.5 hours, which I thought was pretty good.
A8 vs 99.
I raised pre-flop 5 with my A8, had 4 callers, flop was A89. I raised 12, was reraised to 25.. and I went all in - needless to say, the guy instant called.... A 8 9 7 10
:(
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