This is true. I was there today. They told me all drinks (including alcohol) are free until Friday for people playing in tournaments (not sure about cash).

I'll write a little about my tourney at Fox Poker today as there's nobody else who's been.

Bought in for £30. £20 prize pool. £5 bounty. £5 reg. Started at 2pm.

Levels were 20 minutes, starting stack 4000, 34 runners. I managed to lose over 1500 early on, which kinda left me short for the rest of the tourney. Long story short: I limped behind two others with QJo, I hit top pair on flop, rivered trips, only to find he had a full house. Good start.

Rest of the tourney was more or less push fold, as many others at my table were hovering around an M of 5 to 10. Standard.

Dealer I had at my table was nice, we chatted about the WSOPE, Ivey and Blom. He also helped me with noobish mistakes I made. Not played much live poker so I made a few! lol

Venue was nice and airy. I wore a jacket for the whole time I was there and felt fine. Windows made the place very light, which was big plus over most dingy casinos and poker rooms. Chips were plastic and slippery, no problem stacking them at all though.

I busted in something like 14th. 22 < A9. A 1-1 NL cash game was running when I left. Think Fox takes 10% rake up to £5. Not sure how this compares with others.

what are the best hours/days to play (regarding action,softness) in the major poker clubs?(empire,vic,international)

You're being paranoid. i was at a table when someone asked to join and the players did indeed reply that the table was already 8-handed - it might have been you if it was in the last 2 weeks. They were being helpful, rather than snide.

Dealer's Choice is 8-max by club rules regardless of who wants to join the table, since we already have to reshuffle for Padooki and sometimes for superstud. In fact we aren't allowed to play TD2-7 when there are more than 6. It is a bit cliquey though, but if they were as cliquey as you suggest, they would have given you a seat and carved up your money between them.

There's a fantastic event at the International on the 27th-30th November. The Main Event of the Players Championship festival is a £350+£30 three-day NLHE tournament where you start with 100,000 chips! The club is getting new chips made with 100k denominations just for this event.

Blinds begin at 100/200 with 40 then 50 then 60 minute levels, so it's a deep and slow structure. There will be up to 240 runners and two day-1s, making for a very decent prize pool.

It will be fun in later stages when you start to see multi-million dollar pots of the type you normally only see on WSOP and Sunday Million final tables.

I just wonder how such a massive amount of chips in play will change the dynamics... Will we see players making quadruple-bet bluffs? Do you fold kings to an all-in for the first three levels?

At least one London club has recently cut its rake to 5% capped at £8. It's a competitive market....

Mate, they have not cut it to 8%, it's 5% capped at £8, they've reduced the cap from £10!

Sorry, fixed!

lol, np!

Tony, you used to be a regular, I think the trip reports were fair, the dealers at tournaments are new, so need a fair bit of work.

I've been, it's a nice venue, well set out, lots of space and am looking forward to returning, I would like to see the dealers who are clearly trained well but not up to the job cleared out though!

Am i the only one tilted by trainees that are clearly not going to improve!? Harsh maybe, but a few bad dealers can ruin a clubs rep, and that of the experienced and quick to improve dealers!

Which begs the question... which one?

Which one does he work for?

How hard can it be? Can someone please tell us what club that has lowered there rake?

He's trying to avoid advertising the company he works for. And now I find it amusing enough that I'm not going to advertise them either.

i think IN Time you will, ER, kNow AT whIch club this is ON At

Lol

thanks!

The International club

And i work at another club, so just hoping for some free fries next time i'm in!

Will it be noticeably different from the regular tournaments?
100,000 chips starting at 100/200 is 500 big blinds
Every Thursday your tournament is 18,000 chips starting at 25/50 so 360 big blinds.

@ live players living in london

how do you get to the casinos on a reg base?
do the casinos have free parking areas or do you have to pay for it every time you play?

The Vic has free parking, Empire will stamp your parking ticket so it costs £10 at the local NCP

thanks for the quick answer

Hi everyone,
being a first time player at casino, what's the things I should watch out? (no string bets, protect my cards etc.)
Do I just go to the registration desk and pay the amount I want to buy-in then sit down and play?
How do I get any free food/drinks, if any?
Also is it okay for my friend to grab a seat and watch me play? If so what will we have to be aware of?

Sorry for so many questions but cant help being a noob

Some things I would find out about when playing at a new venue would be would much the rake is (ask to dealer about this when you sit down) as this can differ fron venue to venue.

Take note of how often people tip the dealer, there are no strict rules on tipping but at a lot of venues dealers earn money through tips only so be aware of this.

One thing to be aware of is straddling (posting a 3rd larger big blind). In a lot of games straddling is common and increases your profitability (as long as you don't straddle yourself). Other players might ask you to straddle, don't feel obligated to do this.

You also might want to find out about the jackpot if there is one. At some venues there is a jackpot for straight flushes/ royal flushes but you only win if the hand reaches a showdown - therefore is your opponent folds you don't win the jackpot so checking the hand down is better.

Also pay attention to other rules like not showing your hand to your neighbour or people railing as this can mean your hand is dead in some venues.

You can buy chips at the table from the dealer at most venues. Cash out at the desk.

Ask the dealer or waitress which food and drink are free to players if any.

Depending on the venue your friend will most likely have to stand on the rail or be seated in the recreation area if there is no rail, so he probably won't be able to watch.

thanks man,that's really useful. read the sticky as well so I feel pretty prepared now

what are the biggest games than run daily in london and what are the biggest at weekends? a friend told me that nl 5/10 is the biggest daily game with some 10/20 and at the weekend the games are as big as 25/50

are the highstakes games always played at the same place? i heard that some pokerrooms have rarly a game running that is bigger than 2/5!

sorry for the bad english guys