yeah it would be better for us, but not better for the casino. They know what they are doing

never played in Montesino, how is it compared to Concord, especially for PLO?

Ya they know

Montesino is more classy compared to concord. Thats why some people only go to montesino. I personally dont care too much about that.
In montesino there is almost every day 1 2/2 plo table running but not higher. A few days ago is saw for the first time ever a 5/5. In simmering you have plo action 24/7. From 2/2 up to 20/40. At bond casino there is sometimes 100/200 or 200/400.

Hey man, following and enjoying your updates, good luck in 2019!

I am pretty much your mirror self in London, playing similar stakes full time, trying to build a bankroll to become financially stable, move up in stakes and generally survive! One of my primary goals in 2019 is a one month trip to WSOP in June too, probably going to bite the bullet and book shortly, I am bit of bankroll / money nit, but I think having something to look forward to and work towards is important.


I also have a blog, and have been posting live from every single session (as well as general posts off the table, including fully transparent result reviews), you may enjoy it.

https://lowstakesgrinding.wordpress.com/


Couple of questions for you pal regarding Vienna...
I want to travel to 5 countries this year and I want to hit up your town seeing as the poker action seems good...

Where would you recommend playing (where is your main casino?)? I will play 1-2 / 1-3 NLHE.

Where would you recommend staying for a 10-14 day trip, close to the casino but relatively affordable?

And any other advise about coming out to stay, visit, play poker in Vienna?


Again, good luck with the grind and keep up the updates!

Hey man! Cool!
Thx!
I will write a proper answer tomorrow. Im in a hurry... its already 23:41 here
Happy new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY

Hey buddy! Really nice and well structured blog! Its a lot of fun to read through it. I also enjoyed the photos.
You really are my poker twin haha. Everything pretty similar.

I would recommend playing in montesino or ccc simmering. But bond casino and ccc lugner city also has pretty good action. My personal ranking is ccc simmering>montesino>ccc lugner city>bond casino. But it differs from person to person and im also always switching otherwise it gets kinda boring.
In ccc simmering and ccc lugner city you have more often 1/3 tables running compared to montesino. But montesino has sometimes uncapped 1/2 tables running. They are sometimes really good, sometimes really bad.
Its just luck whether there is good action at the location you go. But from montesino to ccc simmering is a 5-7 min drive in case action isnt good. From montesino or ccc simmering to lugner city it is a ~30 min drive. So its not a world travel if you want to switch casino.

Hmm...maybe a hostel or airbnb. Maybe you can get a good deal in a hotel. Really dont know man. No matter where you stay, the public transport in vienna is awesome. But if you find something i can take a look to see if it is a good area and so on if you want.

Are you planning on sightseeing?

Thanks, wish you too good luck with the grind!

Sessions 2018 since i started the blog:

- 27.12. 3:06h 1/3 -587€
- 28.12. 3:41h 1/2 +292€
- 28.12. 3:29h 1/3 +311€
- 29.12. 5:27h 1/2 +245€



So since start of the blog we are up a little bit: +261€

261€ / 15k€->14.739€ to reach one of the goals


Another goal is to socialize more.
On sunday morning i was go kart racing with friends



Will start my first session of 2019 in about 3 hours. Hopefully there will be good and juicy tables today. GL ME

Hey man! Happy New Year!

Thanks for the reply and info, going to look into accommodation, I will probably go with Air BNB, prices seem very reasonable.

Good luck tonight, I am heading in shortly too, games should be decent as most recs are still off work and also still in that jolly festive mood here in London.

Hey happy new year!

Aight! Im sure you will find a nice place.
Thx you too!

Still not playing Action seems to be bad today in vienna. Only 4 1/2 tables in all 4 poker rooms together.

Session going well so far. In for 200€ (max) but dont know exactly how much im up because i dont like counting my stack while playing.
Table is not good but ok. There is another 1/2 table running but it looks worse than my table.



Lets book a win in the first session of the year

Good first session of the year.

Played 5 hours 1/2 and won 327€.

The most interesting hand of the night:

Hero ~400
Villain 210-220. At the table for 1 hour. MAWG. Very passive so far. Didnt raise a hand. Not really loose, but also not tight. Something in between.

Villain limps utg, 3 more limpers, hero overlimps with 33 otb, sb completes, bb checks.

Flop (14) 443
Everybody checks, hero bets 8, only villain calls.
Turn (30) 4436
V checks, hero bets 15, V x/r to 45, hero calls beeing ip.
River (120) 4436A
V bets 60 with ~100 behind, hero just calls.

My thoughts:
Just calling seems nitty but...
I dont expect a passive player to raise a draw ott so otr i think he never ever has a flush. When the third came otr and he still bet i wasnt sure if he would bet just a 4. Normally such players are scared of the flush and check. The way the hand was played i thought there is a really good chance he has A4.

Any thoughts?

Hey, GL with the grind. I live in Vienna as well but play online mtts. How do you think the games compare in Montesino/Concord card? Is there really no 2/5 regularly running? That's pretty surprising to me. Anyways, crush it!

GL in 2019 bro.

The hand you are mentioning, if no information yet i would just call it as you played but in most case, jam river is much a better play. He could have a plenty random 4x in his range, random draw like A2s, A5s or 57 would have value river the same way as he did.

Hey, thank you!

They are pretty similar.
Unfortunately not. There are very rarely 2/5 tables running. At the moment there is a 2/7 table running i think every friday and/or saturday. But it is only because of a promotion where you can win a rolex. I think when the promotion ends they will not run regularly anymore.
I checked the table a few times and they didnt look good at all. Somebody told me that there is a lot of money on the table but people play extremely nitty and are just there because of the promotion.

Cool! Are you playing professionally?

Thank you!

This guy was so passive. And the fact that a passive player bet the river even though a third diamond came made me just call.
But ya you are right, normally i would go for value and put every other player allin otr.

Just came home from a 5:17h 1/2 session. +81€
I got lucky at the beginning but was pretty card dead the rest of the session . Got coolered once pretty hard and lost the few hands i played in the end.

Three most interesting hands:

1.
Villain 350€, tight thinking player. Ive played with him a couple of times.
Mp raises 7, villain 3b to 20 in HJ, hero (210€) wants to slowplay and just calls otb with AKo, mp folds.

Flop (50) K34
V cbets 25, hero calls.
Turn (100) K34A
V bets 80, hero shoves 165, V snaps. River bricks and we win. So pretty sure he had AQ and never put us on AK

2. Villain (500) nitty player. Never saw him before.
Hero (400) raises 10 in ep with QQ, 1 caller in mp, V otb 3b to 32, hero calls, mp calls.
Flop (99) QQTr
checks around.
Turn (99) QQTT
hero checks, mp bets 52 (50 behind), V calls, hero calls.
River (255) QQTT6r
hero leads 100, mp calls with a T, V folds.

3. Villain (340-360) for 30 min at the table. Seems like a competent player.
3 limpers, villain raises in co 15, hero (~550) calls otb with KQ, sb calls, everybody else folds.

Flop (53) AKQ
SB checks, V bets 22, hero calls, sb folds.
Turn (97) AKQK
V bets 60, hero calls
River (217) AKQKT
V bets 140, hero just calls and loses to AK

First thought otf was like "F*** we could get in trouble". Otr i even thought for a sec about folding but than immediately thought "i cant fold here".

Solid start to the year man!

KQ hand, lost the minimum as played, Id probably fold pre > 3bet known / active late position openers, but cant feel too bad, pretty sick cooler.


The 33 hand from the other day, I am not raising river versus this particular villain neither, he could have 66 easily and even AA, going for a failed limp raise pre.
I know it seems in a vacuum very nitty, but versus some dudes you can be pretty certain they have you beat!


What did he have?

Ya your are right! I dont like the call pre either. Usually i fold or 3b/f pre. Wasnt too focused because of beeing really card dead and boredom. But AP happy that i lost the minimum.

In the 33 hand he had K4s I was kinda surprised that such a player bet that otr.

K4s! Wow! Surprised! The old K4s limp UTG move! I love it! Decent games you got going there!

33 hand

Sometimes you're going to value own yourself on the river in this spot. I think it's a shove on the river. K4s? Poker is certainly not dead.

Solid strategy with K4s utg haha

Looking forward to tonights session. Will start my session in about 3 hours.

Usually i would go for max value and shove but this player was so passive that i thought with a shove i would make him fold his worse hands and only get called by hands that beat me.

Ya poker is not dead, at least not in vienna

Just came home from another 1/2 session. Played 3:15h, lost 243€. Again pretty card dead and kept folding and folding. But won a few small pots postflop and a few by squeezing lite preflop and collecting dead money.
Today we got coolered not once but TWICE.

The 2 coolers were the biggest and most interesting hands of the night:

1. Very first hand of the session. Folds to us (200€) in HJ and we make it 8€ with 87, co, btn and blinds call.

Flop (40€) JT9
sb checks, villain in bb (150) leads out 12€, hero raises to 50€, co and btn fold, sb is allin with 30€, bb calls.

Turn (170€) JT94
bb goes allin for 92€, we call and lose to KQo.

2. Last hand of the session.
Utg (250€) limps, utg+1 (400€) makes it 12€, mp (200€, new player and very first hand) calls, Btn calls (100€), we (350€) call in bb with 55. utg calls.

Flop (61€) KT5
we check, utg leads 35€, preflop raiser in utg+1 calls, mp raises to 90€, btn folds, we shove, utg goes allin, utg+1 tank-folds, mp calls allin.

Turn 6
River 8

I show my hand thinking the otr is pretty bad for us, utg shows TT, mp shows K3s and scoops a 660€ pot.



After the hand i wasnt in the mood to keep playing. Not because of the last hand but because the whole session was pretty bad and i was tired and hungry.

Will be starting my session tomorrow earlier and plan is to play a long (winning) session

Nice thread, good luck OP

2 questions for you :

How do you handle the smoke in Vienna casino ?

How much do you plan to spend at Golden Time in 2019 ?

Nice thread!

Have played a ton in Vienna the last 12 years or so (given I live a 2 hour flight away), and have - with very few exceptions - found the games there to be super easy. Mostly play at CCC Simmering, but also a few times as Montesino since I usually stay at a hotel close to there.

It's actually a bit disappointing to learn that we have someone like you actually grinding them now In my previous visits I have hardly ever come across anyone who looks like they are seriously try to grind out a profit. Do you ever have to table select a bit due to other regs, or are they so few and far between that any table is good?

Unfortunately, as discussed earlier in the thread I believe, the introduction of €1-€1 games have destroyed the €1-€2 climate just a little bit. In the past when €1-€2 was the smallest game, you had all these clueless droolers having to sit in €1-€2 instead

Like previous poster, also curious to how you handle the smoke? Sometimes I travel there for a weekend to grind, and I can feel my eyes burning from the close exposure after finishing a session.

Also, you mentioned a "Bond Casino" - is that new and how is the action?

GL with the grind!