The ultimate poker night needs the ultimate playlist. But what songs say high-stakes thrills? We found the top 100 for your next poker night playlist.
Whether it’s a chilled-out evening with friends or a glamorous casino-themed party, poker nights are a thrilling idea to spice up a get-together and bring out everyone’s competitiveness.
But, like any event worth being at, you need the perfect playlist. Think drama and fast-paced thrills. With the right soundtrack, the highs of winning are even higher, and the lows of losing - well, let’s not think about that.
To build our top 100 playlist, we analyzed over 900 poker-themed playlists and their 20,000 songs on Spotify and ranked them by popularity.
Let’s take a look…
TOP POKER NIGHT PLAYLIST SONGS
Ever wondered what poker sounds like? That’s exactly what this list is. There are plenty of crowd favorites, from Lady Gaga’s Poker Face (obviously) to Sweet Home Alabama and TOTO’s Africa.
| Rank | Song Title | Artist |
| 1 | The Gambler | Kenny Rogers |
| 2 | Hotel California - 2013 Remaster | Eagles |
| 3 | Sweet Home Alabama | Lynyrd Skynyrd |
| 4 | Fortunate Son | Creedence Clearwater Revival |
| 5 | Gimme Shelter | The Rolling Stones |
| 6 | Poker Face | Lady Gaga |
| 7 | Stuck In The Middle With You | Stealers Wheel |
| 8 | The Boys Are Back In Town | Thin Lizzy |
| 9 | Brown Eyed Girl | Van Morrison |
| 10 | Dreams - 2004 Remaster | Fleetwood Mac |
| 11 | Have You Ever Seen The Rain | Creedence Clearwater Revival |
| 12 | Go Your Own Way - 2004 Remaster | Fleetwood Mac |
| 13 | The Joker | Steve Miller Band |
| 14 | Bad Moon Rising | Creedence Clearwater Revival |
| 15 | Africa | TOTO |
| 16 | More Than a Feeling | Boston |
| 17 | Take on Me | a-ha |
| 18 | Highway to Hell | AC/DC |
| 19 | Back In Black | AC/DC |
| 20 | You Shook Me All Night Long | AC/DC |
| 21 | Should I Stay or Should I Go - Remastered | The Clash |
| 22 | Feel Good Inc. | Gorillaz |
| 23 | Thunderstruck | AC/DC |
| 24 | Take It Easy - 2013 Remaster | Eagles |
| 25 | Green Onions | Booker T. & the M.G.'s |
| 26 | All Along the Watchtower | Jimi Hendrix |
| 27 | For What It's Worth | Buffalo Springfield |
| 28 | Under the Bridge | Red Hot Chili Peppers |
| 29 | Mr. Blue Sky | Electric Light Orchestra |
| 30 | Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time) | Elton John |
| 31 | American Pie | Don McLean |
| 32 | The Chain - 2004 Remaster | Fleetwood Mac |
| 33 | Paint It, Black | The Rolling Stones |
| 34 | Don't Stop Believin' | Journey |
| 35 | Free Fallin' | Tom Petty |
| 36 | Shut Up and Dance | WALK THE MOON |
| 37 | Listen to the Music | The Doobie Brothers |
| 38 | Ms. Jackson | Outkast |
| 39 | Don't Bring Me Down | Electric Light Orchestra |
| 40 | A Horse with No Name | America |
| 41 | Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Remastered | Eurythmics |
| 42 | Money | Pink Floyd |
| 43 | Everybody Wants To Rule The World | Tears For Fears |
| 44 | Can't Stop | Red Hot Chili Peppers |
| 45 | Baba O'Riley | The Who |
| 46 | September | Earth, Wind & Fire |
| 47 | Go Your Own Way - 2004 Remaster | Fleetwood Mac |
| 48 | Back In Black | AC/DC |
| 49 | Take the Money and Run | Steve Miller Band |
| 50 | Paradise City | Guns N' Roses |
| 51 | With Or Without You - Remastered | U2 |
| 52 | Go Your Own Way - 2004 Remaster | Fleetwood Mac |
| 53 | Don't Bring Me Down | Electric Light Orchestra |
| 54 | The Weight | The Band |
| 55 | Reelin' In The Years | Steely Dan |
| 56 | Layla | Derek & The Dominos |
| 57 | Rock You Like A Hurricane | Scorpions |
| 58 | One | U2 |
| 59 | Good Times Bad Times - Remaster | Led Zeppelin |
| 60 | Iron Man | Black Sabbath |
TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL
Over half of the songs on this list are rock, making it the clear favorite genre for poker nights.
Maybe poker players are channeling the often strong, motivational messages and dramatic guitar solos into their game. But whatever the reason, it looks like you really can’t go wrong by having a few rock songs scattered throughout your playlist.
COUNTRY ROADS
If it’s not rock, it’s country. Country music is the second most popular genre on this list, with the age-old favorite, Sweet Home Alabama, The Eagles’ debut single Take it Easy, and of course, our aptly named #1 song, The Gambler.
It helps that even the ones that aren’t poker-related are so well-known by everyone. There’s nothing like a good singalong between hands.
LUCK BE A LADY (OR NOT)
Of the 100 songs on this list, only one is a female solo artist: Lady Gaga with Poker Face. We’ll leave it up to you to decide what that means.
No Skyfall? That seems like a missed opportunity. If you want to spice things up a bit, maybe add more female artists to your own playlist.
TOP FEATURED ARTISTS
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- AC/DC
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- Fleetwood Mac
- Rolling Stones
BETTER TOGETHER: BANDS OVER SOLO ARTISTS
Tied for first, with four songs each, Creedence Clearwater Revival, AC/DC, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers are favorites for setting that poker night mood.
There’s something about the nature of bands - a group of people creating music as a collective - that pairs so perfectly with the spirit of poker night, bringing people together.
SUGGESTIONS FROM REDDIT
While Spotify leads us to believe that poker nights are all about rock and country, poker enthusiasts on Reddit definitely disagree. Here are their favorite genres.
Lo-Fi
According to Redditors, Lo-fi’s smooth cool beats are the perfect distraction for going on tilt. After all, it’s hard to lose your cool when you’ve got some sweet sweet Ariel Pink tunes calming you down!
Classical
With pieces that are instantly recognizable to almost anyone, classical pieces are not only easy to listen to passively but studies have shown listening to classical music actively or passively has a huge range of cognitive benefits including:
- Improved memory
- Improved concentration
- Improved fine motor skills (always necessary when playing poker)
Lower stress levels
Trap
Combining all the elements poker players love from hip hop, rave, and EDM, the varying high-low flow of trap music perfectly matches the highs and lows of any game of poker. It unconsciously reminds poker players that even if they’ve got a bad hand, they’re never far off from good fortune.
Jazz
Jazz, or more specifically, soft jazz is perfect for the more sophisticated poker nights, ones with quality cigars and top-shelf whiskey. The smooth, easy listening keeps players focused and calm during even the highest-stakes game.
Progressive Trance
The progressive buildup of progressive trance music helps many poker players get their head in the game, as the buildup of the music matches the progression - and buildup of stakes - in the game to keep you fully concentrated and in the moment.
Methodology
To determine which songs are the most popular Poker Night songs, we used The Playlist Miner to extract all of the playlists with the words ‘poker’ or ‘poker night’ in the title. We pulled the entire list together and ranked the popularity of songs to form the ultimate playlist for your next poker night.
The playlists were only extracted from Spotify and do not reflect other music platforms.