No offence to you personally, but this is why the games at the Vic are dire, frankly.

Doctor Futtock, when trying to qualify for these freerolls myself previously I have found it can be very tough to play on days that you wouldnt normally or even dont want to. I think they are only worth it if your normal play hours would lead you close to qualifying anyway. Then the gain in ev from the freerolls is absolutely worth it.

Joejoe, the vic freeroll used to be worth a minimum £666 (100k pp and a max 150 runners) empire is worth 400-550 (25-35kpp and 63 runners plus ties).

As for the games being unbeatable, that is quite frankly an absurd statement

Thanks for the speedy responses:

Buy-ins would be ~£500 each, effectively making it a total of ~£1K. That's around 2 weeks' wages to the average London person which can't be that bad for playing the best card game in the world. Games are definitely not "give-up-your-day-job" beatable but can certainly be "add-a-small-income-by-doing-your-hobby" beatable.

While I'm not quite at the Old Man Coffee level just yet, I make no apologies for trying to make money using a tight style. I agree that some of those 1/1 games can be pretty damn awful (especially during afternoons when only one or two reg-infested tables are open). But I find that there are plenty enough weak players who turn up in the evenings that generally help to keep the games quite good.

Yep, forcing those hours in for a freeroll can definitely lose you money. I might just do The Empire one for June and give myself the freedom to play at The Vic and Hippo when I want.

Cheers for the advice.

Are they still taking £11 for a £200 pot? Ain't nobody beating that.

Nor should you mate, it's absolutely your prerogative and I don't blame you for doing so at all. I just wish that the already bad games weren't being made worse, shorter and nittier by the Vic incentivising so many people being empty seats "just to get the hours in"

And games are definitely beatable still. Enough to be worth your time if you can make money some/any other way though? Debatable.

To be honest I've never liked those cash-race freerolls because if you're a semi-reg or a recreational player and you fancy playing a fair amount in a particular month, to get optimal value you kinda have to play the extra hours that you don't really want to play. This can often lead to playing your B and C game more often than you'd like.

The Empire is the lesser of the two evils though because you're tracked for visits rather than hours played. This means you can put in about 1 hour per ~23 to ~24 days and, hey presto, be in a £500 MTT for "free"! For The Vic, you need to put in that amount per week which can amount to ~100 hours (a lot more). I've often heard it said that The Vic's freeroll is just straight-up illegal because casinos are not supposed to encourage people to play over longer periods of time than they normally would.

they're both awful awful promos and dreadful for the games

high hand/bbj/splash pots/literally anything that doesn't only reward the seatfillers who play one hand an hour at most would be infinitely preferable

The Empire 65s promo has to be the best one ever. Giving up rake and encouraging action at the same time - amazing.

Yeah, the Hippo used to (still does?) have a draw for a rake free card at like 2pm. That was pretty good too.

Hey guys,

I'm from Europe but have been to the US a lot in the past to grind out some cash game. I'm looking for something in (preferably) Europe where it's possible to put in some volume daily and where the traffic is decent. I mainly play 2/5, 5/10 nl and 5/5 plo. Is London still a good place to go to? How's the rake there compared to other places? Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks.

Apparently the King's casino, in Czech Republic, caps the €1/2 rake at €20 ... sounds a lot worse than £11

I wish rake would cap at £5 of course

I was in the Vic yesterday evening, there was a 5/10 PLO running which 4 of them had been playing for 24+ hours by that point. They were still going when I left 4 hours later.

#hardcore

Been in that situation a handful of times and sometimes the effort to get home feels so great that continuing to play is the easier option. Terrible decision tho obv.

Hearing empire are ending their bad beat jackpot when the current one is won.

Any insider info on what will be replacing it?

Is there any non casino card rooms left in the south of England ?

You must be one of those undesirable pros they're always talking about. More rake is better. That's why I choose to play Vienna's Concord Card Casinos. There I can feel safe from the likes of you because rake is even higher, capped at 25 €!

Hopefully nothing

Anyone?

Most were closed down a few years ago but a few still remain. Ones I know of are Eltham Terrace Club, can be found on Facebook, and one in Stanmore but the name escapes me. You can expect the normal private club type games, juicy but with large rake caps and obviously without the security of a casino

The River Card Club, I used to go there about 10 years ago when they had freezeouts and 1/2 every night. Funnily enough I was looking around the web for info on this place to see if it was still open but I didn't find anything concrete so it doesn't look good.

There was an announcement tonight: Get a point for winning a hand with 56s, end of each month top 18 players on points play a tournament, winner gets a WSOP package. Likely some runner up cash prizes too. Winning with a 56s straight flush gives an instant WSOP package, but only one package is given away each month so if somebody hits that straight flush the tournament doesn't run until next month.

Those type of promos suck because there is no incentive for occasional players.

Indeed, I've been donating some cash at the Vic lately via the loyalty bite. Yesterday they run the loyalty monthly tournament ... I looked around and wondered how many of the mega-loyals actually have a full time job.

Haven't been in London for a while now but any places similar to gutshot/international, western club left open?
I don't mind casinos but cardrooms to me have a better atmosphere, although possibly relative harder games to beat...
Cheers

best rates to get $ for £?