I have been tempted to head down to empire for a while now, I am an online reg playing 200 and a bit of 400nl, would I be at a massive disadvantage only buying in for 200? At 1/2

If you are an online reg playing 200nl and a bit of 400nl then why would you only buy in for half the maximum stack in a 1/2 live game!? If you are new to live poker and only used to online poker you may well get bored very quickly, feel like you're just short-stacked all the time (which you kinda will be) and probably get impatient and not make the right decisions. We're talking 30 hands-per-hour here.

Give it a shot. The players are really bad though buying in for 200 means you won't be able to defend your raises against 3bets much.

Empire has this weird room ruling where your hand is automatically dead if you reveal it at any point before showdown, even when heads up with the other player all-in and you deciding whether to call.

The rationale is it's to prevent inducing a reaction or getting info, which doesn't make sense to me. Isn't that the whole point of live poker?

Can you use card at hippo and empire to buy and sell chips or is it cash only?

You can use a card to buy chips, yes. Don't think they can put money on the card when you cash-out chips though.

If you have never really played live, buying in with 200 might be ok. But 200 is not really 100BB because of the raise sizes. In live poker, the typical raise size will be to 10 (5x). Therefore, I consider a 1/2 to be more like a 2/4 game, which means 200 is only 50BB. Then there are straddles, halving your stack size once again. And then you have multiple callers usually, so SPRs are small compared to online. Therefore buying in with 400 at 1/2 makes sense for a winning player.

There ain't that many £50 stacks, and they are good for lots of bullets, and empire specifically has some amazing value 1/2 games, rake is for sure beatable.



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If your playing 200nl and even close to break even you will beat empire all day

Take a few bullets with you. Enjoy

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For sure. You can actually make enough playing 1/2 for London standard of living which says a lot about the quality of play there.

Been hearing rumours that The Hippodrome is going to raise the rake to a £12 cap. Anyone got info on this?

Both empire and hippodrome are due a price increase as above

not sure when, but its been a long time coming, and imo a fair increase and only paid in the bigger pots vs a raise in %.

the quality and volume of games at both empire and hippo make this a small but beatable increase.

Anyone got info on the lack of dealers at Hippo? Been there a few times recently and lots of good regular dealers have left. Lots of tables empty with long waiting lists etc...

Yes unfortunately quite a few of the more experienced dealers have left/are leaving. Got no insight but generally speaking most move on after a couple of years however good they are. Being a Poker Dealer is clearly very tough in many ways and with limited prospects within the casino more broadly there's not that much incentive for them to stick around. The timing is far from ideal as there are a lot of new dealers but to be fair they have generally slotted in well from what I've seen.

I know there's (rightly) not a lot of love for Aspers on here and to possibly add to that, I have a report that might be of interest.

I don't play a lot at Aspers, it's not especially convenient for me to get to and from and .......... well, it's Aspers, with all the bad things that entails. Anyway, I do go very occasionally if I have nothing better to do and there is an interesting tournament on. I find mystery bounties interesting, as they are so new and I've played the most recent that was this weekend just gone and the one previous.

On the one previous, my day one started and the TD said that every knockout on this day one paid a £150 bounty. There were lots of murmurs, including from myself that this just can't be right but he was adamant. I think in the first 3 hands, the table next to me had an all in (it may have been 3 ways, not 100% sure), that was only all in because of the gamble for the bounty, it 100% wouldn't have got close to all in if they knew that bounties were only on day 2. There is a winner and he gets paid out. About 30 minutes later, someone more senior comes in and puts the TD right and they take the bounty from the person who had been given it!!! If I was someone knocked out because of this incorrect info or the person they took the bounty from, I'd have been livid. The taking back of the bounty also, they should have just taken that on the chin as a tax on the incompetent!

Now to this weekend. No incorrect info about bounties on day 1 but we get to the direct bubble, which is 15% of the field and I ask the TD if this is the cash bubble, he says "no, day two gives you access to the mystery bounties". I'm pretty sure this is wrong, so I ask him again, maybe 4 times in total and each time get the exact same answer, so I take an all in spot that I wouldn't have on the cash bubble, luckily it gets through and then 5 minutes later, again someone more senior comes in and puts him right that 15% of the field is the cash bubble.

How can they have TD's that are so incompetent, it boggles the mind.

There were a couple of other things this weekend I saw. There was one tournament that they'd messed up the day 1, were it should have gone down to the 15% cash but they'd let 6 more people than the 15% through. In this one they did the right thing and gave those 6 entry to a smaller tournament but still, just getting in to that situation! The last thing wasn't really their fault. The day 1B that was a turbo ran over so that the day 2 started 1 hour late. I don't think they could have expected the direct bubble to last so many levels, I think it was 5 or 6 levels!

There is another thing I just remembered that's just brain dead. On the previous mystery bounty, they had cash in envelopes and if you got a bounty, you picked an envelope and took the cash in it. Strangely, all the big bounties went really early, those guys picking must be mind readers .......... or they saw the thickest envelope and picked that! Aspers clearly worked out the error this time, as the process for bounties was now, I'd say (grudgingly), perfect.

Can anyone give me up to date guidance on affordability checks etc at casinos? I thought it was only an online thing, but I read a post above mentioning it.

Back in the day I used to just be able to take £1k out using debit card no questions asked.

What's the situation now?

I've seen small leaflets/posters about affordability checks in all London casino's, so it's a definite possibility but I've never been asked personally, I have though heard regs that have come in many days in a row being asked. I've just had a quick look online and it appears that below £1,000, there's no requirement and above is discretionary. So I'd say if you're a recreational player, playing infrequently and buying in for less than £1K, you're not going to be asked.

Intending this to be available as a copy paste because I can’t be bothered to write this out more than once.

There’s a few different things that satisfy the need for a KYC check in casinos in UK. In the eyes of UKGC, poker does not differ from other forms of gambling so is subject to similar constraints.

Frequent Visits: I’ve seen people get picked up on this for as little as 12 visits per month. This is based on times to walk past the reception desk, not times you play.

Card Usage: When using a debit/credit card (unsure if credit is even allowed anymore) for cash games, or to take money off, they will immediately perform a KYC check, and then ask you to set a daily/monthly limit for your card usage. I’ve heard people not getting KYC’d for tournament buy-ins however.

Drop-Offs: (Deposit users only) There is a variable threshold for the net amount taken off of retail and online deposit. Someone told me it was £50k, but for others it has been different. Your account can be in a winning position, it’s just the action of taking out as cash/chips as that implies gaming volume.

Losing Position: If your account is in a losing position beyond the threshold (this gets lower and lower as legislation gets tighter), they will KYC you immediately, or next time you walk in the door.

High-Risk Group: UKGC has two high-risk groups that I know of, that they really want to protect - students and under-25s. Sometimes they snap KYC you, other times you will be allowed to play to X limit

Online Ban: If restricted by Grosvenor online, you can still use retail deposits and play in-casino. If restricted live, you’ll be restricted in both.

As legislation changes over the coming years, these thresholds will get tighter, and requirement for passing will go up.

Hi all,

If I am visiting London from he US and would like to play a cash game session with a buyin of $1-2k, where is the best place? I am staying in Southwark.

I know there's good tournament action going on but nothing fits into my schedule.

Is it easier to bring USD or to transfer funds electronically?

Thanks in advance!

Really interesting norwich, thanks for sharing.

Last time I visited my local G I had to wait for a chat with the manager, first time in 20 years of playing live poker. I'd done about £1500 in tournament buyins in the previous month, probably 3x my previous monthly max.

Asked how much I earned and how much I'm comfortable losing in a month and that was it.

Assuming you want to play NLHE then the Hippodrome is probably best, https://twitter.com/PSLive_Hippo for regular updates on currently running games.

Cash is pretty easy, Hippodrome will take it or for less vig there are places like https://www.thomasexchange.co.uk/contact_us.asp#holborn that are nearby and charge pretty close to spot.

Thanks for the info!

Anyone used Luxon Pay - seems like the only option for WSOP-C.
Straightforward?

Also rumours of a big overlay (~£200k) in the £500 mystery bounty...

Assume mostly related to difficulties buying in

If the live reporting is accurate 869 entries in the first 7 flights with the last 3 to be played today…