Lovely, we now have a proper gossip column in the London poker thread, about time

I guess you mean Koah. Anyway, I wish him well but he really needs to get the grips with bankroll management. If he wants to take shots and be aggressive with his roll that's fine up to a point, I mean, when you get down to your last £2K or so you just cannot play the crazy game he loves.

As a result of his crazy approach, wild swings and "personal loans", all that combined with playing long hours in a dirty basement with a mix of nutters I'm afraid he might lose the plot from time to time. It's just bound to happen.

To be honest the whole situation you have described does not shock me at all. I'm sure anyone who plays long hours in these card rooms witnesses this sort of thing often.

I guess the Floor's main priority was to stop the bickering and reinstate a smooth and peaceful profitable game.

I saw Gareth Last night and he seemed to be doing okay (back righthand table seat 9) had around £350 in his stack and normally only buys in for 50bb, had a quick chat with him and told him I heard about what had happened, he just said in his normal aloof manner and I quote "Koah will be grinding as long as Pedro (from the VIC/ Nugget) the only thing is Pedro grinds out a profit, the only thing that Koah grinds is other peoples money and loses it".

He also said that where possible he will sit at Koahs table. I think this is going to get very messy.

Posh accent, yes. Yamaka no. Rolex Gold Sub yes.

You have three options

1. Metrobank in Holborn - opp tube station
2. HSBC - passport account
3. www.cashplus.co.uk - prepaid debit card with bank account i.e. sortcode and account number for wages payment.

Try metrobank first, as they issue your cards on the spot.

btw what's a decent winrate for a nit at 200nl live? i'm thinking of starting, thanks

A nit, at the Empire... A Lot!

£20/hour

Quick one...

Can you play in the Vic in (smart) shorts or 3/4 length trousers? This is one of the only days of the year when this question will be relevent...

astro and snitch, thanks that's very motivating, def going to have a go this friday, i work at the moment but if that's sustainable I would almost definately quit my job and just play full time. think i'll try for 6 months with all my spare time first, 4 hours a night mon-fri, 16 hours across the weekend and see how it goes.

any idea what a usual downswing would look like? I'm thinking in terms of how many bi's i can expect to lose if i run bad initially,

thanks guys

Iwillsucceed,

Don't quit your job to play low stakes live poker, imo. I can't imagine a set of circumstances that makes that a good idea.

Is it just the swings that make you say that Josem? I enjoy poker, and I would like to set my own schedule, also with the tax setup in the uk, £20 an hour would equate to quite a bit more than I'm earning at the moment. Going to give it 6 months first to see how I fare though, but providing it's pretty consistent, I'm interested what you think would make it a bad idea to want to pursue it full time?

After the scorching hot day we had today, it seems like a good question. Can whoever knows the answer tell us about the empire's dress code as well?

I agree that it's pretty much a lock to be a terrible idea.

What winrate are you beating online NL200 by at the moment and over how many hands?

I think it's quite unlikely that most people earn £20/hour at live NL200, the games are soft, but not that soft.

As a general rule, anyone who has to ask whether they should go pro, should not go pro

a) your future earnings are likely to be a lot less than if you work at a "real" job

b) variance will be a lot bigger than you realise

c) your win rate will be a lot less than you realise

d) there's no reason you can't do both for a while - keep working and slowly increase how much you play poker

e) you don't have all the other benefits of a "real" job - sick leave, holidays, being able to go to the toilet whenever you want, etc.

f) there are many other threads on here where people discuss whether going pro is a good idea

also if you can beat NL200 online, lol at playing 200 live.

Is it fixed yet? I'm thinking of venturing down there, and in this weather that would be a bit of a, errrr, cooler.

What are the daily tourneys like at the Empire btw - are they worth it, or is it best just to "experience" the cash games?

Empire tourneys consist of £20 self dealt rebuys. Pointless. The Empire is all about Cash.

The Fox round the corner has a decent tourny schedule but the International is miles better but also miles away, over near Old Street.

Thanks. Self-deal? Re-buys? Yeuch. Yeah the tourneys sound crap.

I mainly play cash anyway, so it sounds like the Empire will be right - especially if it's full of maniacs like you guys say.

And they take £25k from players. Or do you just want to read the good points?

just a question, has anyone seen isildur1 play live in london?

At soft games a bad downswing would be about 12 bi's. I guess it could go worse but 12 would be pretty bad imo. As I said we are talking about soft/medium-soft games.

Regarding win rates my figure of £20/hour would be both good and desirable but it's not what I would expect from most grinders. Most people would make less. Rake gets expensive and eats small pots quickly and sometimes you just don't get good tables and/or seats ... and yes, you can switch tables but there will be occasions in which it ain't happening for you.

Btw you don't need to be a healthy winner online to become a low stakes live winning reg. but as other have already pointed out there are other considerations you should bear in mind. If you think you'd enjoy the lifestyle by all means give it a go. Worst case scenario you can always go back to work. It goes without saying that it'd be good to keep some cash away in case you fail to show a profit.

Yeah I read about that. Not good.

Bad beat jackpots are just stupid anyway - just another damn rake I could do without. If I was the sort of person who wanted to put a quid in a slot machine every hand, well I could do that myself couldn't I?

Hi all

Does anyone have any advice regarding midweek poker tournaments in London? I work full time so havent really considered playing in the evening, I see the vic has a tournament at 7.45pm, when does this usually finish? Also I think the fox has evening tournaments, is there anywhere in town that has a tournament that is finished by 12-1am so I can get night bus home and have a decent nights sleep? Any advice would be gratefully received. I live in SW London so if there are any tournaments in the surrey area I could get over there too. Thanks in advance

Yeh, I agree. Sorry if I sound a bit hostile, but I don't like seeing the Empire surviving despite cheating its players, in the same way that I didn't like seeing UB/Absolute survive.