Rio de Janeiro has three poker clubs — and the addresses most directories publish for two of them are out of date

Brazil licenses no land-based casinos, so live poker in Rio de Janeiro is played in members' clubs — and there are only three of them that deal cards year-round. Everything else listed as a Rio poker address is a hotel or a convention centre hired for a festival stage.

The three are RoofTop Poker Clube in Leme, River Texas in Barra da Tijuca and Rio Poker Clube in Botafogo. The trouble is where the directories say the last two are.

Rio Poker Clube publishes its address as Rua Dezenove de Fevereiro 161, in Botafogo. One poker directory lists the club at Rua Álvaro Alvim 31 in Centro; a second lists it at Rua Francisco Otaviano 42 in Copacabana. Three addresses, in three different parts of the city, for a club that has traded since 2013. The Botafogo address is the one on the club's own site and is the one to use.

River Texas publishes its address as Avenida das Américas 3120, Bloco 5, top floor, in Barra da Tijuca. Two independent sources still place it at Avenida Ayrton Senna 4701, sala 205, in Jacarepaguá — and both carry the same telephone number the club publishes today, which is what identifies the Jacarepaguá entry as a former home rather than a different business.

The practical lesson is narrow and useful: for a Brazilian poker club, the club's own site beats any directory, and a matching telephone number is the way to tell a stale listing from a different venue. Both clubs publish a tournament calendar on their own sites, so the same page that gives you the right address gives you the week's games.

Rio Poker Clube also publishes its entry rules, which are worth knowing before you travel: registration for tournaments and cash games is done in person and needs photographic identification, nobody under 18 is admitted, swimwear is not allowed, and there is no parking on site.