Merry Christmas all!
Hope you’re enjoying this time of year and building your bankroll nicely. I love December, it always seems to produce for me when playing poker. Most of the month I’ve been in London and naturally I had to check out the poker room at Grosvenor Victoria Casino on Edgware Road in London.
Played a little £1-3 and £2-5 no limit hold’em, well a little was actually from about 10PM to 5AM. Having not played live poker for about a year, I played super nitty tight. There were quite a few familar faces at both tables. At £1-3, I was sat to the right of Rory Lafferty, whom I first played against during EPT Dublin 2004. Later on, Willie Tan sat down, funnily enough I also played with him first him at a £150 rebuy tournament in Dublin.
After waiting about 20 minutes I sat down with a short stack of £180, to get back in to the groove of playing. Didn’t play many pots for the first hour or so. Then picked up Jacks in early position and limp re-raised the Russian guy who raised on the button. All the chips went in pre-flop and Jacks held up. Apart from that I picked up a few pots which I raised pre-flop, but generally played very cautiously and passively.
A nice adrenalin pumping semi-bluff, I raised pre-flop on the button with J7 diamonds. 2 callers and 2 diamonds on the flop. check, check, i bet, raise from a very strange looking guy, I push for approx. 3 times his bet. He insta-mucks.
Moved over to £2-5 with some big stacks seated at the table because our game went down to 4 handed. Imraan Ladak was seated 2 seats to my right, I played with him in some £10-25 cash games during the 2005 Paris WPT. Another French guy who I knew from Paris was a seat to my right, he recognised me (I hate that). Anyway, Ladak was tilting badly. He raised it to £25, called by the old guy with a massive stack on my right. I find pocket Aces and bump it up to £90. Both call. Flop – JKJ with 2 diamonds. I check, probably a bad play but I only had around £250 chips remaining and a supreme confidence that Ladak will bet. Indeed he did, but only £75. Called by the guy on the right. Hmm. I can’t recall my exact logic but it was something along the lines of “if you have the Jack, so be it” and then pushed. Both fold instantly. Left some money on the table there.
A while after that I misplayed a hand pretty badly. In the BB, couple of limpers and I check with K3 off. Flop – K45 with 2 spades. SB checks, for some reason I check and a guy who I played with a £1-3 bet £15. I call? Um, that’s what I did :/. Turn, 2 of Spades, bringing the flush. I check and he bets £25. He was bluffing quite a bit, so I tried representing the flush and raised to £75. To my dismay he called with an anguished look. River paired the board. For some reason I didn’t follow through with a big river bet and it was checked down. He showed 36 for the straight and scooped the pot. A bet of £180-225 might have got him to lay down considering my incredibly tight image. Shortly afterwards I left and caught the tube back to my bro’s apartment.
Victoria Casino Poker Room is great. It was packed with about 20 full tables and from what I witnessed the games are fishy. Some of the waitresses are cute too, which helps. Definitely be back in the near future.
Have a great New Year!
