Having pretty good start to April. I've played twice since being back in London, both times at the Hippodrome.
To say the least I've got a lot of time for this venue and i'd say hospitality wise it's probably the nicest in London.
I had an issue there on Thursday night where a player who was rather drunk and OOL mucked his cards and they landed on top of mine. Even though it was preflop action at the time i was holding
and would have obviously opened. The floor was called and my cards were declared dead. As an apology the cardroom manager at the time stated that i could go down to the Helliot restraunt and send the bill upto him as at this point i'd said i was going to take a break. Real nice touch on their behalf, and good customer service.
Anyway back to the poker.
Tuesday night saw a £750 win through PLO mainly and then a small double at NLH both 1-2.
The PLO field was real soft with only one or two competent players who seemed to be staying out of each others way. One young Chinese lad seemed to be having a laugh but loved the word pot. The two pinnacle hands for the night were finding
and flatting from the SB to his £12 raise pre. 4 ways to a flop of
. I check and the Chinese lad bets out 30 into ~50. I flat call from the SB and ping an
on the turn. I check and he bets out 55 into ~110. At this point i assume he definitely either has a 7 or QQ as he'd be pretty likely to double barrell vs me. I thought the best option would be to flat call then bomb the river, repping any 7. So i flat and put the remaining 115 in on the river. He puts his whole stack in and insta turns over QQ. Kind of felt like a slow roll as i turn over AA.
An orbit later i find
in the SB again, and make it 15 pre with 2 callers. We see a flop of
. I lead out for 35 into ~55. MP mucks and an iranian guy in position calls without any thought.
The turn is the
. At this stage i presume the guy either has QQxx or more likely broadway cards. From his quick call on the flop i'm presuming more broadway. I decided to bet 80 into ~120. The iranian guy just covers me, with us both having around £450 at the start of the hand. he counts out the 80 and looks at the rest of his stack, at this stage i was unsure if he was reluctant to call or whether he wanted to pot, but he swiftly put in the 80 to see the river. The river card is the
. The remaining stacks were just over the size of the pot. around ~£300 with a pot of about ~£280. At this stage i'm assuming the guy definitely has broadway draws and hopefully a hand like
etc...
I therefore decided to check the river. Something about this player just made me think that he never assumes i'd check the second nuts on the river and it also allows him to open up his bluffing ranges. If the player was semi competent he would recognise if he does put me on AAxx that 66% of the time i'm going to have the
in my hand however i wanted to give him the oppurtunity to hang himself, sometimes a potentially risky stategy, never the less the guy tanks and then pots. I never saw his hand but i just put in the rest and rolled over the
.
Thursday night i had a gin table. I felt like i was playing in Macau being the only English player at the table, and a bunch of leveling war Chinese people with a bunch of slow rolls. I managed to win around £200 without any showdowns to grind upto a stack of ~£400. I then found my one gin hand of the night....
Dealt to hero
. Young Chinese guy, pretty solid player, who i just cover makes it £12 from MP. two callers and i complete from the button.
The flop....
..... [ Oh Hai Der ]
It checks round to me where i bet £15 into ~45 knowing someone is about to go crackers.
The young Chinese guy makes it 45 instantly. Folds to me where i make it 110. He then insta shoves, the board bricks out and i turn over 66 to see him showing his friends his cards and shaking his head.
Starting April now with a ~£1400 heater over 2 sessions.
Please continue....
Author