Exploring the world, one cardroom at a time
01-08-2014
, 05:16 AM
01-10-2014
, 05:16 PM
Someone asked for a picture of all the chips together, so here it is. A picture of my 2013 exploits.
You'll notice that there's a chip at the bottom that hasn't been recorded in the thread...
Casino by Vanshaw - Medicine Hat, AB, Canada
Another example of ALWAYS CALL AHEAD BEFORE YOU SHOW UP TO SMALL ROOMS. I mean really, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now. MedHat is a small casino on the side of the highway that boasts one e-table in the corner, but there are chips from the blackjack tables to collect at a souvenir of my visit. I showed up here on my move back to Manitoba from Calgary on a Saturday, but alas, the e-table was out of service.
Can't wait to get the 2014 casino touring underway. Vegas on Tuesday.
You'll notice that there's a chip at the bottom that hasn't been recorded in the thread...
Casino by Vanshaw - Medicine Hat, AB, Canada
Another example of ALWAYS CALL AHEAD BEFORE YOU SHOW UP TO SMALL ROOMS. I mean really, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now. MedHat is a small casino on the side of the highway that boasts one e-table in the corner, but there are chips from the blackjack tables to collect at a souvenir of my visit. I showed up here on my move back to Manitoba from Calgary on a Saturday, but alas, the e-table was out of service.
Can't wait to get the 2014 casino touring underway. Vegas on Tuesday.
01-11-2014
, 07:58 AM
01-13-2014
, 04:10 PM
01-13-2014
, 04:11 PM
01-28-2014
, 02:59 AM
Had a great week in Vegas, and to be honest, it was definitely needed. The weather in Winnipeg has more or less forced me to be a hermit while I'm here, and spending a week in Vegas allowed me to get a bit of that balance back into my life - some great food, a bit of live poker, and the social interaction with like-minded people. As I said earlier, hunting out new casinos certainly wasn't going to be a priority on this trip, but I did want to get a few new ones in. This won't be a comprehensive TR as the last Vegas trip was, but just a synopsis of the 7 rooms I visited on my trip.
Hooter's - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Yes, Hooter's has a poker room. It was somewhat of a hike to find the casino (southeast of MGM), but I close enough that I should've gotten to it on my first trip. There are a few tables hidden at the back of the casino, and there was one table running on the weeknight I showed up to it. I was able to hop right into the only 1/2 game running, and I was able to get some shorthanded action in with an interesting group of characters. The lineup included a Texan, a Californian, an Alaskan, a Brazilian, and myself. The Alaskan, who said he now resides in Oregon, claimed to be Chael Sonnen's university wresting coach at Oregon. He'd certainly had a few to drink, but was able to regale me with some interesting MMA stories about Chael and some other fighters anyway. Was a very friendly, soft lineup. Didn't have any real noteworthy hands, and played for about two hours before moving on.
The Quad - Las Vegas, NV, United States
I hiked from Hooter's to The Quad, which was under construction during my first trip to Sin City. I wasn't really expecting much, as it's predecessor Imperial Palace had a reputation for being a bit of a dump, but it wasn't that bad at all. Certainly seemed like a less interesting cast of characters in this game though, outside of a Danish kid on my direct left. He was very active, and absolutely more competent than the majority of 1/2 players, but his constant talking about 2p2 and strategy rubbed me the wrong way. I've ranted about this before I think, but holy hell people, please stop talking about 2p2 and strat at the tables. It often comes across as arrogant and can make rec players uncomfortable. Plus it makes me want to slap you. Anytime you talk at the tables, you should be doing your best to talk about anything but poker.
Palace Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
The Station casinos are a staple of the Las Vegas poker scene, however you won't see much of them if you don't venture off-strip. Every Station poker room usually has the same group of locals that show up day in and day out, and small limit games are commonly found in most of them. Red Rock and GVR are the exceptions as the two biggest station casinos. True to form, Palace Station had a 2/4 limit half kill game running when I was there, filled with locals that all seemed to know eachother. I only played about 25 minutes, but 25 minutes of limit poker was better than standing in line for the Oyster bar. Pretty awesome of my friends to hold my spot in line while I grinded out a few limit poker hands and knocked out yet another casino. Oh, and the Oyster Bar was delicious.
Suncoast Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
This particular station is on the west side of the city, in the suburb of Summerlin. Summerlin seems to be a richer part of Vegas, but Suncoast felt like a carbon copy of Palace the day before. At least when it came to the poker room. Same small limit game, same group of locals. This group of fine folks was definitely older than the last though - pretty sure I was the youngest player at the table by a good 40 years. Booked a small profit and hopped over to nearby Red Rock.
Red Rock - Las Vegas, NV, Canada
Red Rock is definitely the biggest of the Station casinos, at least when it comes to the poker room. You'll still see a lot of locals, but you'll see all of the 1/2, 2/5 and even some 5/10 and higher no limit games run here. From what I understand, the 5/10 that often runs here is a local's game that is just absurdly soft. I played a bit of a longer session here too, and was able to rack up a healthy profit.
Green Valley Ranch - Henderson, NV, United States
I'm not really sure if Henderson should be considered a suburb of Vegas, or a separate entity. Either way, it certainly doesn't have a very Vegas feel to it - it seems to have more of a relaxed, small town vibe. GVR is the main poker room in the area, and in terms of size appears to be the second biggest Station poker room after Red Rock. I don't remember much else about the game, outside it being generally friendly and soft.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV, United States
If the locals-filled games at the Station casinos had the fun, friendly atmosphere that low limit poker should have, Hard Rock had a couple of characters that displayed the opposite behavior. One guy in particular seemed to be quite bitter about poker in general, with constant sarcastic 'nice hand, nice hand' comments and criticism about everyone's play. It's people like these that absolutely ruin the live poker experience, and it's too bad because Hard Rock has a great game with lots of other recreational tourists filtering through. They also have a pretty great promotion where the top 5 made hands every day receive $100. With only 1 table running, if you're a regular playing every day, it should be pretty easy to get in that top 5 all the time. This was my last room at the trip, and I was able to cap it off with dinner at Musashi before catching my flight out at 6am.
My Vegas recap wouldn't be complete without a brag about how incredible I ran at CCR all week. We went out for every meal and played CCR for the check every time, and the only time I lost was a flip for a couple of smoothies that cost me $10. For our last meal at Musashi and a group of 10 of us eating, 4 of us played CCR for the meal and the rest bought out. We decided that to add a bit more gamble to it, the buyout money would go to the runner-up and the last card pulled would pay the entire $300 check. Naturally, I was the runner up and collected the buyout money of roughly $200. I might be the only person in history to show a profit by eating in Vegas for a week.
I leave for Amsterdam on March 4, and it can't come soon enough.
Hooter's - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Yes, Hooter's has a poker room. It was somewhat of a hike to find the casino (southeast of MGM), but I close enough that I should've gotten to it on my first trip. There are a few tables hidden at the back of the casino, and there was one table running on the weeknight I showed up to it. I was able to hop right into the only 1/2 game running, and I was able to get some shorthanded action in with an interesting group of characters. The lineup included a Texan, a Californian, an Alaskan, a Brazilian, and myself. The Alaskan, who said he now resides in Oregon, claimed to be Chael Sonnen's university wresting coach at Oregon. He'd certainly had a few to drink, but was able to regale me with some interesting MMA stories about Chael and some other fighters anyway. Was a very friendly, soft lineup. Didn't have any real noteworthy hands, and played for about two hours before moving on.
The Quad - Las Vegas, NV, United States
I hiked from Hooter's to The Quad, which was under construction during my first trip to Sin City. I wasn't really expecting much, as it's predecessor Imperial Palace had a reputation for being a bit of a dump, but it wasn't that bad at all. Certainly seemed like a less interesting cast of characters in this game though, outside of a Danish kid on my direct left. He was very active, and absolutely more competent than the majority of 1/2 players, but his constant talking about 2p2 and strategy rubbed me the wrong way. I've ranted about this before I think, but holy hell people, please stop talking about 2p2 and strat at the tables. It often comes across as arrogant and can make rec players uncomfortable. Plus it makes me want to slap you. Anytime you talk at the tables, you should be doing your best to talk about anything but poker.
Palace Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
The Station casinos are a staple of the Las Vegas poker scene, however you won't see much of them if you don't venture off-strip. Every Station poker room usually has the same group of locals that show up day in and day out, and small limit games are commonly found in most of them. Red Rock and GVR are the exceptions as the two biggest station casinos. True to form, Palace Station had a 2/4 limit half kill game running when I was there, filled with locals that all seemed to know eachother. I only played about 25 minutes, but 25 minutes of limit poker was better than standing in line for the Oyster bar. Pretty awesome of my friends to hold my spot in line while I grinded out a few limit poker hands and knocked out yet another casino. Oh, and the Oyster Bar was delicious.
Suncoast Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
This particular station is on the west side of the city, in the suburb of Summerlin. Summerlin seems to be a richer part of Vegas, but Suncoast felt like a carbon copy of Palace the day before. At least when it came to the poker room. Same small limit game, same group of locals. This group of fine folks was definitely older than the last though - pretty sure I was the youngest player at the table by a good 40 years. Booked a small profit and hopped over to nearby Red Rock.
Red Rock - Las Vegas, NV, Canada
Red Rock is definitely the biggest of the Station casinos, at least when it comes to the poker room. You'll still see a lot of locals, but you'll see all of the 1/2, 2/5 and even some 5/10 and higher no limit games run here. From what I understand, the 5/10 that often runs here is a local's game that is just absurdly soft. I played a bit of a longer session here too, and was able to rack up a healthy profit.
Green Valley Ranch - Henderson, NV, United States
I'm not really sure if Henderson should be considered a suburb of Vegas, or a separate entity. Either way, it certainly doesn't have a very Vegas feel to it - it seems to have more of a relaxed, small town vibe. GVR is the main poker room in the area, and in terms of size appears to be the second biggest Station poker room after Red Rock. I don't remember much else about the game, outside it being generally friendly and soft.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV, United States
If the locals-filled games at the Station casinos had the fun, friendly atmosphere that low limit poker should have, Hard Rock had a couple of characters that displayed the opposite behavior. One guy in particular seemed to be quite bitter about poker in general, with constant sarcastic 'nice hand, nice hand' comments and criticism about everyone's play. It's people like these that absolutely ruin the live poker experience, and it's too bad because Hard Rock has a great game with lots of other recreational tourists filtering through. They also have a pretty great promotion where the top 5 made hands every day receive $100. With only 1 table running, if you're a regular playing every day, it should be pretty easy to get in that top 5 all the time. This was my last room at the trip, and I was able to cap it off with dinner at Musashi before catching my flight out at 6am.
My Vegas recap wouldn't be complete without a brag about how incredible I ran at CCR all week. We went out for every meal and played CCR for the check every time, and the only time I lost was a flip for a couple of smoothies that cost me $10. For our last meal at Musashi and a group of 10 of us eating, 4 of us played CCR for the meal and the rest bought out. We decided that to add a bit more gamble to it, the buyout money would go to the runner-up and the last card pulled would pay the entire $300 check. Naturally, I was the runner up and collected the buyout money of roughly $200. I might be the only person in history to show a profit by eating in Vegas for a week.
I leave for Amsterdam on March 4, and it can't come soon enough.
01-30-2014
, 04:42 AM
01-30-2014
, 08:41 AM
01-30-2014
, 08:46 AM
01-30-2014
, 12:49 PM
03-08-2014
, 06:47 AM
03-09-2014
, 08:19 AM
03-11-2014
, 01:47 PM
Holland Casino - Amsterdam, Netherlands
As mentioned in my last post, I was tipped off that Holland Casino had a dress code. Not an overly strict one, but apparently a t-shirt and hoodie weren't going to be acceptable. So I spent some time on the weekend looking for a reasonably nice shirt (for whatever reason, a more difficult task than anticipated!) and finally found one that seemed to fit the bill. When I stepped foot in the casino however, I counted no less than 10 people inside wearing hoodies. So much for that dress code. At least I got a nice shirt out of the ordeal.
As for the poker itself, the room is located on the bottom floor of the casino, and only opens at 8pm during the weekdays (open until 3am). Weekends I believe it opens at 1:30 pm. It was actually quite a nice room, with comfortable chairs, clean chips, and competent dealers. And of course, a very soft 2/2 game. There were two full games running on Monday night, as well as a 100+10 tourney with 35 runners. Personally, I ran pure in the cash game over 3.5 hours. Never winning any really big pots, but every hand I played I seemed to win, either inducing bluffs with the best hand or making timely barrels with equity that got through. Finished up 425 euro.
Originally my plan was to go to a couple more Dutch rooms, then go to the Belgian casinos. That fell through when my Belgian host wasn't able to host next week (him and his wife are in the process of moving, completely understandable), and I realized public transport to some of the casinos outside Brussels can be a bit complicated. So I decided to book a flight to Malta, spend some time there, and from there go to Vienna for the EPT. I've been sitting in London Heathrow for the past several hours, sniffling away with a brutal cold that I'm sure I can shake off with a bit more sleep than I've been getting. Regardless, I'm looking forward to getting to Malta. If anyone in Malta wants to meet up for a drink, let me know!
As mentioned in my last post, I was tipped off that Holland Casino had a dress code. Not an overly strict one, but apparently a t-shirt and hoodie weren't going to be acceptable. So I spent some time on the weekend looking for a reasonably nice shirt (for whatever reason, a more difficult task than anticipated!) and finally found one that seemed to fit the bill. When I stepped foot in the casino however, I counted no less than 10 people inside wearing hoodies. So much for that dress code. At least I got a nice shirt out of the ordeal.
As for the poker itself, the room is located on the bottom floor of the casino, and only opens at 8pm during the weekdays (open until 3am). Weekends I believe it opens at 1:30 pm. It was actually quite a nice room, with comfortable chairs, clean chips, and competent dealers. And of course, a very soft 2/2 game. There were two full games running on Monday night, as well as a 100+10 tourney with 35 runners. Personally, I ran pure in the cash game over 3.5 hours. Never winning any really big pots, but every hand I played I seemed to win, either inducing bluffs with the best hand or making timely barrels with equity that got through. Finished up 425 euro.
Originally my plan was to go to a couple more Dutch rooms, then go to the Belgian casinos. That fell through when my Belgian host wasn't able to host next week (him and his wife are in the process of moving, completely understandable), and I realized public transport to some of the casinos outside Brussels can be a bit complicated. So I decided to book a flight to Malta, spend some time there, and from there go to Vienna for the EPT. I've been sitting in London Heathrow for the past several hours, sniffling away with a brutal cold that I'm sure I can shake off with a bit more sleep than I've been getting. Regardless, I'm looking forward to getting to Malta. If anyone in Malta wants to meet up for a drink, let me know!
03-11-2014
, 01:57 PM
03-11-2014
, 02:21 PM
03-18-2014
, 08:03 PM
Malta officially conquered! With it being spring, and a bit quieter in Malta, I've been able to take the time to get a bunch of online grinding in, as well as meeting up with some fellow pros living here on the island. Enjoyed a fun St. Patty's Day celebration with Nikiforos, z0fman, and some high stakes pros who I don't remember their online names. Fun group of guys and I had a great time. Here's the recap of the poker rooms.
Dragonara Casino - St. Julian's, Malta
Lots of cool things about Dragonara. Firstly, its built in a 19th century palace on the shores of the Mediterranean. That alone makes it an awesome setting. It's also the only European poker room that uses the Bravo system that a lot of North American rooms use. And there's also all the Italian fish on holiday in Malta. Rake here is 4% capped at 20eur - not great, but not awful for a European room since most of them seem to be raked heavily. They do have a rakeback system here in place, but unless you're a local playing every weekend, its impossible to get any value from it. There was a 1/2 and 2/5 game running while I was there. I did manage to play my first big pot of the Euro trip here, and lost with KK vs TT in a 4bet pot on a J65 flop. /whinenoonecaresabout. Broke even here.
The Casino at Portomaso - St. Julian's, Malta
Another casino built on the shores of the Mediterranean. I can definitely get used to that cool sea breeze walking in and out of the casino. Room was nice enough, but shockingly they didn't manage to get a game running until 10 at night on a Saturday! They did have a small tournament running, as they do every day of the week...but not getting any cash game running until late night on a Friday or Saturday is shocking. Had a pretty horrid seat, with nittier players to my right and 4 loose Italian fish to my left. I think I forced a few spots, and lost a pretty big pot with KJdd vs QQ on 852dd flop. Of the english speaking folks at the table, we had a fun mix of people. There was a Swede, a South African, a Ukranian, a Maltese, as well as myself and the Italians. It's a shame this casino doesn't have more action.
Oracle Casino - Bugibba, Malta
Completely and totally dead. The poor poker room manager told me he's barely been able to get a cash game running for the few months he's been on the job. Small tournaments run a few days a week but that's the best they can do. As for the room, its certainly nothing flashy, but the chips are excellent, as you can see. One of my favorite chips in my collection from an aesthetics point of view. Hopefully this casino sees a bit more action in the summer.
Flying to Vienna tomorrow to hang out at the EPT for a few days. I'm not likely to play any events, probably just grind cash and meet up with some friends. Hopefully I'll be able to rail someone to a big score. Also noteworthy - the Concord Card Casino in Vienna will be my 100th cardroom since starting this blog! Should be a great experience. If you're in Vienna for the EPT, let me know.
Dragonara Casino - St. Julian's, Malta
Lots of cool things about Dragonara. Firstly, its built in a 19th century palace on the shores of the Mediterranean. That alone makes it an awesome setting. It's also the only European poker room that uses the Bravo system that a lot of North American rooms use. And there's also all the Italian fish on holiday in Malta. Rake here is 4% capped at 20eur - not great, but not awful for a European room since most of them seem to be raked heavily. They do have a rakeback system here in place, but unless you're a local playing every weekend, its impossible to get any value from it. There was a 1/2 and 2/5 game running while I was there. I did manage to play my first big pot of the Euro trip here, and lost with KK vs TT in a 4bet pot on a J65 flop. /whinenoonecaresabout. Broke even here.
The Casino at Portomaso - St. Julian's, Malta
Another casino built on the shores of the Mediterranean. I can definitely get used to that cool sea breeze walking in and out of the casino. Room was nice enough, but shockingly they didn't manage to get a game running until 10 at night on a Saturday! They did have a small tournament running, as they do every day of the week...but not getting any cash game running until late night on a Friday or Saturday is shocking. Had a pretty horrid seat, with nittier players to my right and 4 loose Italian fish to my left. I think I forced a few spots, and lost a pretty big pot with KJdd vs QQ on 852dd flop. Of the english speaking folks at the table, we had a fun mix of people. There was a Swede, a South African, a Ukranian, a Maltese, as well as myself and the Italians. It's a shame this casino doesn't have more action.
Oracle Casino - Bugibba, Malta
Completely and totally dead. The poor poker room manager told me he's barely been able to get a cash game running for the few months he's been on the job. Small tournaments run a few days a week but that's the best they can do. As for the room, its certainly nothing flashy, but the chips are excellent, as you can see. One of my favorite chips in my collection from an aesthetics point of view. Hopefully this casino sees a bit more action in the summer.
Flying to Vienna tomorrow to hang out at the EPT for a few days. I'm not likely to play any events, probably just grind cash and meet up with some friends. Hopefully I'll be able to rail someone to a big score. Also noteworthy - the Concord Card Casino in Vienna will be my 100th cardroom since starting this blog! Should be a great experience. If you're in Vienna for the EPT, let me know.
03-18-2014
, 09:36 PM
03-29-2014
, 04:18 PM
So I ended up staying in Vienna for a week, and of my 3 stops so far I played the least poker in Vienna. I was supposed to meet up with various poker players throughout the week, and it didn't happen. I found myself wanting to hang out way more with the people in my hostel and generally enjoy Vienna - probably the most enjoyable city I've been in to date. It's absolutely the type of city I could find myself settling down in long-term; it just fits my personality so well. Very laid-back, spacious, great food, but not boring in the least and you'll never run out of things to do. It's not the best city for nightlife if you're into that, but I've never been the type of guy to be out at the clubs every weekend anyway.
Concord Card Casino Simmerling - Vienna, Austria
100th casino! Has been a hell of a ride over the last year and a half, but very much worthwhile. The EPT wasn't being held here, but at the Hofburg Palace. However, free shuttles ran every hour to both CCC and Montesino from Hofburg during the EPT. So I spent a bit of time at the EPT (some railing my friend who cashed in the Eureka main) before catching a shuttle to CCC. Too lazy to embed the image properly here, but here's a link to my instagram pic of the front. (here) I was able to get into a game instantly, however I wasn't totally aware of the tipping procedures here. My standard is usually to tip for every pot above 50bb. I won a couple very small pots (like 20eur each?) and didn't tip since the rake is already quite high at both CCC and Montesino, and tipping on every small pot on top of the huge rake is ridiculous. But within that first 25 minutes and failing to tip on two small pots, I was pulled aside by the floorman and told that the dealers live on tips and I need to start tipping. So I figured, alright, I'll compromise and reduce my standard for tipping to about half what it usually is. Was moved to another table, and won two pots. Tipped on the one that was about 100 euros, and didnt on the won that was a bit under 50 euros. Get pulled aside again by the floorman and told I need to start tipping again. So now it's been like 45 minutes, I certainly haven't played any monster pots, and I've already been warned twice by the floorman for not tipping. That is ludicrous. CCC needs to implement a better system for that. Between that, and all the smoking that I'm not used to (like half the population of Vienna smokes like a chimney), I found myself just a bit tilted. However I ran well enough to still finish up about 400 euros before I went back.
Montesino Casino - Vienna, Austria
The next day, I took the other shuttle to Montesino. The casino is located on the top floor of a small shopping mall, and tbh I actually enjoyed Montesino better than CCC. The general atmosphere (less smoking, friendlier crowd, more attentive servers, a slightly more lax tipping enforcement), as well as a 1/2 game with no cap, which is always fun. What wasn't as fun was my results - just constantly had the second best hand, made one pretty bad call off and a few other mistakes I think as well. The game got fairly big, with lots of straddling - and I probably should've quit earlier than I did. I think most online players underestimate how large of a factor short-term image is in a live game. You're going to get called down and played back at more if you're losing, and get more respect if you're winning as a general rule. So if you're running awful in card dist and down a couple buyins, in these smaller games you just have to nit it up incredibly hard. Unfortunately for me, I didn't do that, and I ended up dropping 1.1k euros here. From that point I decided that I was going to take a break from poker for the rest of my stay in Vienna, and continue the hard grind when I got to my next city.
In Budapest now, staying with with another HUSNG reg, Tcarnage. The plan for now is to stay here for about a month, and get some good solid online grinding in before I move on. There are a few live poker options here, but I don't have a set plan as to when I'm going to get to them. Honestly a bit less motivated to play live after finishing my 100th casino. Also met the king of MTT rungood himself, pleno1, yesterday. As expected, he seems like a great dude. There's a pretty good group of poker players here, and it's kind of refreshing to be part of a local grinders community again.
Much love to all you guys who've been reading my thread along the way, and may the next 100 casinos be as enjoyable as the first 100.
Concord Card Casino Simmerling - Vienna, Austria
100th casino! Has been a hell of a ride over the last year and a half, but very much worthwhile. The EPT wasn't being held here, but at the Hofburg Palace. However, free shuttles ran every hour to both CCC and Montesino from Hofburg during the EPT. So I spent a bit of time at the EPT (some railing my friend who cashed in the Eureka main) before catching a shuttle to CCC. Too lazy to embed the image properly here, but here's a link to my instagram pic of the front. (here) I was able to get into a game instantly, however I wasn't totally aware of the tipping procedures here. My standard is usually to tip for every pot above 50bb. I won a couple very small pots (like 20eur each?) and didn't tip since the rake is already quite high at both CCC and Montesino, and tipping on every small pot on top of the huge rake is ridiculous. But within that first 25 minutes and failing to tip on two small pots, I was pulled aside by the floorman and told that the dealers live on tips and I need to start tipping. So I figured, alright, I'll compromise and reduce my standard for tipping to about half what it usually is. Was moved to another table, and won two pots. Tipped on the one that was about 100 euros, and didnt on the won that was a bit under 50 euros. Get pulled aside again by the floorman and told I need to start tipping again. So now it's been like 45 minutes, I certainly haven't played any monster pots, and I've already been warned twice by the floorman for not tipping. That is ludicrous. CCC needs to implement a better system for that. Between that, and all the smoking that I'm not used to (like half the population of Vienna smokes like a chimney), I found myself just a bit tilted. However I ran well enough to still finish up about 400 euros before I went back.
Montesino Casino - Vienna, Austria
The next day, I took the other shuttle to Montesino. The casino is located on the top floor of a small shopping mall, and tbh I actually enjoyed Montesino better than CCC. The general atmosphere (less smoking, friendlier crowd, more attentive servers, a slightly more lax tipping enforcement), as well as a 1/2 game with no cap, which is always fun. What wasn't as fun was my results - just constantly had the second best hand, made one pretty bad call off and a few other mistakes I think as well. The game got fairly big, with lots of straddling - and I probably should've quit earlier than I did. I think most online players underestimate how large of a factor short-term image is in a live game. You're going to get called down and played back at more if you're losing, and get more respect if you're winning as a general rule. So if you're running awful in card dist and down a couple buyins, in these smaller games you just have to nit it up incredibly hard. Unfortunately for me, I didn't do that, and I ended up dropping 1.1k euros here. From that point I decided that I was going to take a break from poker for the rest of my stay in Vienna, and continue the hard grind when I got to my next city.
In Budapest now, staying with with another HUSNG reg, Tcarnage. The plan for now is to stay here for about a month, and get some good solid online grinding in before I move on. There are a few live poker options here, but I don't have a set plan as to when I'm going to get to them. Honestly a bit less motivated to play live after finishing my 100th casino. Also met the king of MTT rungood himself, pleno1, yesterday. As expected, he seems like a great dude. There's a pretty good group of poker players here, and it's kind of refreshing to be part of a local grinders community again.
Much love to all you guys who've been reading my thread along the way, and may the next 100 casinos be as enjoyable as the first 100.
