Paris/ London TR

[27offsooot]

Just got back from London/ Paris for SB and in general had an awesome time. I traveled in a group of 7 (3 guys, 4 girls -- My gf was not on this trip, so no hooking up for me). I'll keep the TR focused upon poker b/c there would be too much to write otherwise. I only played in Paris, but did check out a room in London. I went alone to the casinos b/c nobody else played.

London:
Last time I was in London, I played at the Victoria Grosvenor Casino. They only spread PL HE and OMAHA and the rake was high and everything was self-dealing, so I decided to look at other cardrooms. I went to check out the cardroom "Gutshot" b/c it was closest to my hotel. When I arrived, I spoke with one of the workers and he told me that there had been recent legislation preventing "cardrooms" but not casinos from taking a rake. Somehow they got around this and charged players 3 pounds/ hour (this is much better than Grosvenor where I paid 12 pounds/ hr for 1/2). Plus, tipping the dealer was expected as hands weren't self-dealt like at Grosvenor. However, the apparant illegality of the room had crippled business and there were only three tables runnning. Even worse, all three were PL HE 1/1 with a 25 min/ 50 max buy-in (everything of course is in pounds, 1 pound = 2 dollars, roughly). Apparantly they also run a 1/2 with 50 min, uncapped, but that only runs on some nights. I decided against playing here as I have virtually no experience with NL and it wasn't worth my time. Hanging out with my friends was +EV.

Paris:
I went to Aviation Club on Avenue des Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris around 8 pm this past thursday. I had remembered another poster's thread regarding the club's enforcement of a dress code, so I dressed well. I had no trouble getting in and found everyone at the club to be very polite. I spoke with some players in English (I know zero French) and spoke with a bartender at length during the night. During each conversation, everyone was pleasant. I was glad to see they were running a limit 100 Euro buy-in tourney (~145 dollars). It started at 9, so I signed up and spent the hour before the tourney watching other games. They were running 3 2/4 NL (100 min, uncapped), 4 2/2 NL games (30-100), one mixed 4/8 limit game with badugi, 2-7 triple draw, and HE. The play at all the tables seemed really, really bad. I saw one hand where three people at 2/4 got it all in PF with QQ, 99, J6s (J6s raised to 20, QQ re-raised to 120, 99 (with around 80-90) thinks for a while and calls, and J6s decides to call his stack of ~120).

Anyway, the tourney starts with 50 entrants. This was only my second limit tourney (first was WSOP last year) Play was in general horrible until I got down to the final table of 9. There were a couple of good players at the final table that had a clue, and the rest were tight-passive. Anyway, I finish in 6th and make 125 Euro (they payed final 9 with first prize of 1700). I think I played fairly well with only one severely butchered hand with about 12 left (2 tables of 6).

I open in sb w/ KJs, bb, friendly, generally tight-passive, calls. I bet 954 flop, turn is J, i miss the turn c/r. He raises a river 5 after a gay weak false tell and I call in disgust.

Other than that, there weren't too many interesting hands. I probably should have played more aggressively with 15-20 left, b/c if i didn't make the 1 am metro (my hostel locked us out from 2-7 am, very gay), i would have had to stay the whole night. So i wanted to either bust or finish 1-3, not gay 6th.

Anyway, i busted at 2:15 and watched some of the end of the tourney while also chatting with bartender and some others until around 3 am. I couldn't go home so I put my name on 2/2 NL and was about 15th. Amazingly, the list hardly moved over the next two hours. Around 5, they broke one of the 2/2 tables despite it being full and their being tons of people on the waiting list. So my name dropped from 3rd to like 10th.

I decided to put my name on the 2/4 list and was called around 5:30 am. I really don't know what I'm doing in NL, but again the play was very loose-passive, and the money wasn't that big a deal. Still, I just bought in for 150 due to my complete lack of experience w/ NL and ended up losing 40 over the next hour. I left around 6:30, bought my friends breakfast (I felt bad about not coming in b/c I thought I would be back by 2 and had no way of contacting them) and went to sleep for two hours, before more sight-seeing and stuff.

General observations:
The floor was poorly run. They def. should have opened up more 2/2 tables as the demand was excessive.

Hardly anybody left from 2 am - 5 am

Most people bought in ~50 Euro at the 2/2 tables and kept reloading.

Diet Coke was 4 Euros (6 dollars). Everything else was high as well.

Smoke fumes were stifling. I lost at least a year of my life from 2nd hand smoke.

If anybody has questions that weren't addressed, let me know. I've seen a few threads about London/ Paris poker lately.

[BullGator]

I played some NL two weeks ago at the Aviation Club and I saw some of the most loose passive play I have ever seen. It was wonderful. I played the 200 max Euro which was 2-4 NLHE and won about 4 1/2 buy ins. The floor is not run like an American card room, but what can you do?

[context]

Nice report. Would you go back?

I hear France is banning smoking in public places soon - though I wouldn't be surprised if some places get an opt-out.

[ungarop]

BBC is reporting that the ban will take effect in Feb 2008.

The smoke is the biggest drawback of the ACP. Since they are a private club though, this may not affect them.

[BullGator]

The play was so bad I would sit through 5x the smoke. I was actually thinking of going back just to play it was so much fun shooting fish in a barrel. I felt like I was playing myself from a few years back. Plus they are so into the all in, 50% of the all-ins I saw that were called mind you, were called with less than ATo. I pushed a guy for his whole stack pre-flop with QQ, he called with T8s. That was 100 EU as he had just rebought the table maximum. They were also happy to call big bets on the river with a 3 flush on the board or a paired board. It was crazy.

[ungarop]

As a person who detests smoking and can't stand to be in a smoky bar, I would agree with BullGator. I'd play there no matter what the smoke situation. It's all he said and then some.

[bigbrett]

[ QUOTE ]
The play was so bad I would sit through 5x the smoke. I was actually thinking of going back just to play it was so much fun shooting fish in a barrel... It was crazy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have some friends going to Paris in the fall and was debating meeting them. Based on this..I'm going. Thanks for the good word.

Does anyone know if they ever do a PLO / NoLimit(or Pot Limit) Holdem mixed game kind of thing? Or are the mixed games more of the type described above