How the Room Actually Works
The poker room at Pickering Casino Resort sits on the third floor of The Hotel at Pickering Casino Resort, reached by taking the hotel elevators up from the main level. It runs around the clock, every day of the week, and there are no regular shutdown hours listed anywhere on the Great Canadian Entertainment website. The room itself holds eighteen tables in the main area, plus two private High Stakes rooms that can be booked separately from the rest of the floor.
When players arrive on site, registration starts at the Poker Desk on level three. Staff register the player, then hand out a pager once a seat is available, so no one needs to stand around the tables waiting. For those who like to lock things in before leaving home, the room also accepts call-in reservations at 289-539-0552 ext. 8762, and sign-ups can be done through the PokerAtlas app as well.
Phone reservations come with a 90-minute window for check-in after the booking. Payment is taken at the time of registration, not later at the table. For questions that are not strictly about poker, the resort also keeps a general toll-free number at 833-629-0552.
| Contact Method | Details |
|---|---|
| Poker Desk direct | 289-539-0552 ext. 8762 |
| Resort toll-free | 833-629-0552 |
| PokerAtlas app | Sign-up available via app |
| X (social) | @PickeringPoker / @PickeringCasino |
Games, Stakes, and the Bad Beat Network
The Pickering Casino Resort poker room spreads live cash games along with scheduled tournaments. No Limit Hold’em and Omaha variants sit at the core of the lineup, with different stakes available depending on demand, time of day, and who walks in. On top of that, a bad beat jackpot is always running, connected to a shared network that includes other Great Canadian Entertainment poker rooms in Ontario, so the pot can climb through activity at several locations at once.
Automatic shufflers are used on the tables to keep hands moving and cuts down on downtime between deals. A bar and food options are available elsewhere in the resort, reached quickly by elevator from the poker floor, which sounds minor but becomes important when a session stretches into the small hours.
Tournament lineups get posted on the Great Canadian weekly poker tournaments page and are also pushed out through the @PickeringPoker account on X. Because those lineups can change from week to week, checking the current schedule on the official promotions page before getting in the car is usually the most accurate way to know what is actually planned. A quick call ahead to confirm registration rules or buy-ins usually pays off and takes barely a couple of minutes.
Getting a Seat: Walk-In and Call-In
Both registration paths are routed to the same Poker Desk on the third floor of the hotel. The steps are straightforward either way, just arranged a bit differently depending on whether a player walks in or books in advance.
Walk-in registration goes roughly like this:
- Enter Pickering Casino Resort at 888 Durham Live Ave, Pickering, ON L1W 0C1.
- Use the hotel elevators to reach the third floor.
- Head over to the Poker Desk and say which game and stakes you would like to play.
- Complete the registration process and handle payment with staff.
- Take the pager issued by the team and wait elsewhere in the resort until it goes off.
- Go back to the Poker Desk to confirm the seat, then head to the table.
For call-in or app reservations, the flow starts earlier:
- Install the PokerAtlas app or call 289-539-0552 ext. 8762.
- Choose the preferred game format and stakes level.
- Confirm the booking details and take note of the 90-minute check-in window.
- Arrive at the property within that window and ride the elevator to level three.
- Check in at the Poker Desk so staff can activate the reservation.
- If a seat is not instantly open, collect a pager and wait to be notified.
One practical point that applies here as much as anywhere else: if the drive to the poker room is more than about 30 minutes, it usually makes sense to call first to see what is running. Lineups can get thin at irregular hours, and official websites rarely reflect game changes in real time.
| Registration Path | Method | Check-in Window |
|---|---|---|
| Walk-in | Poker Desk, level 3 | Immediate |
| Phone call-in | 289-539-0552 ext. 8762 | 90 minutes |
| App sign-up | PokerAtlas app | 90 minutes |


