Greek poker session report....
Arrive at Hotel and Casino Loutraki Monday around 4:30 PM local time. Enter casino, attempt to pass through security when tall guard says (in Greek) “you need pants to enter the casino.”
Oops. Didn’t bring pants on this trip. This poker player is used to playing in the U.S. where you get away with pretty much anything as long as you aren’t naked.
I ask where I can buy pants. He has a ready response: “you can rent them for 10€ at the gas station across the street.”
They have this all figured out.
4:45 PM: enter casino with rental pants on. Pass through security. Get player’s card (6€ fee) and ask about poker. Receptionist calls poker room. No tables open. *Groan.* She has no idea when a table will open.
Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore. [Insert meme.]
Enter casino anyway to get 6€’s worth. No smoking signs everywhere. Smokers abound.
Get to poker room (10 tables max), one local dude standing there looks to be waiting for table as well. His name I learn is Jacob. A poker regular who he says has been playing for 15 years. He’s 34. He tells me to put my name on the list, which I do. Six waiting but floor won’t ooen table. He says he might go to the casino in Athens where there are six tables open. Six! That’s like a million! In typical Greek hospitality fashion he is willing to give me a ride there and home.
5:30 PM. Floor opens one and only table. 1-2€. Players slowly trickle in.
5:45 PM. Ten players seated and chipped. Mostly over 60, a couple young guns including my new buddy. Most buy in for 150€ (max 300). I choose my standard 100. Casino uses 10€ chip at the 1€-2€. Weird. We pick a dealer and the cards are dealt. Adrenaline rush commence.
First fifteen hands are unplayable. Gives me a chance to observe. It’s a loose passive table. Few raises; lots of limping. Finally get dealt ATcc on BTN. Everyone limped to me. I play it safe and limp behind. Flop gutter to broadway and backdoor nfd but Jacob in CO ruins my plans and bets pot. I fold. Run out gives him trip Ks and he tank calls versus V’s 60€ (2/3 pot) donk lead. He’s good versus bottom pair.
A few hands later, an old man l/rr AKdd. He probably considered that a bluff. He out-turns JJ to scoop a 250€ pot. Make that 238€. House gets 5% - UP TO 12 EURO. Dealer puts rake directly into chip rack rather than separate rake box.
Card dead for 30 minutes...surrounded by smokers. *Cough.*
Then five limpers in straddled pot, I have AKo in BB. Finally a premium. I make it 25€ by announcing “25” in my best Greek accent possible. Thankfully verbal is binding here too as I mistakenly put out five 10€ chips. Everyone folds. I’ll take that 21€ thank you. Heehee. House takes 1€ even if no flop.
The QJo on BTN and I iso a loose spewy type who limped UTG. Everyone folds. Guess it’s to be expected given that I am tightest at table.
Not too long after that, my family calls and says it’s time to go. I have to leave one of the better tables I’ve played at in a while, up 4€ in just under an hour.
6:30 PM: return rental pants, drive back to Athens and arrive 12 hours before departure back to U.S. Take three ibuprofen for headache from second-hand cancer.
November: Vegas, baby! Normal grind until then. Will be coming back to you from the states soon....
Last edited by DumbosTrunk; 09-10-2018 at 04:22 PM.