London

Is the grim reputation Aspers London has also a thing at the other Aspers venues?

Confirmed.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07246090/filing-history

find-and-update

The Northampton one was fine, standard tiny regional casino. Not been in Newcastle or MK.

Milton Keynes and the other Aspers group companies have been put into administration.

by Longines m

Confirmed.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07246090/filing-history

find-and-update

... See full post

Nice find. I knew it was up for sale but someone had to buy it with all the debt I believe.

You have to be extra incompetent to bankrupt a casino.

In other news, I visited the Victoria for the first time in a long time last night and my god, the air conditioners they have installed are awful. I've woken up with some akin to Vegas throat from breathing in all the manky air. Really unpleasant. Apparently the refurb on the top floor finishes in a week or two, can't come soon enough!

The Vic poker room is a sad and gloomy experience at present because they're still working on the first half of the upstairs refurbishment and haven't even started on the second half yet. It will no way be finished "in a week or two." It is currently half of a dimly lit room frequented by mainly die-hard regs paying extortionate rake to hit high-hands, bad-beat jackpots and cash-race entry.

On the surface it seems that way but atcually alot of it is out of their control as operators. Granted they make the atmosphere - but many caisnos in the UK (higher end) are going bust. AML, KYC restrcitions have created a big problem, basically no whales can come and dust off a few mill like they used to - think Russian Oligarchs, Chinese, Arabs, unknown Columbians, etc they all need to be background checked before they can gamble, so they dont come anymore - thats why places like Crockfords closed. The middle/low end of the market like Aspers also have KYC/AML, as an exmaple of how pathetic it is, just yesterday I went there to play the Party £500, I never go there ever so my membership has expired, and in order to get a few k out at the cashier I needed to sign all sorts of docs and give them everything about me. It's also a depressing **** hole with no atmosphere.

The Vic whilst being a really depressing and boring place to play with terrible games, makes a lot of money on the other hand. Hippo crushes and just prints, but mainly from F&B - they all have the silly kyc/aml stuff too.

The only Vegas type experience thats fun to go to as a punter/rec (not for poker) is Hippodrome, we have nothing else and its pretty boring. The casinos are handcuffed by stupid laws (that limit the amount of machines for one). Recently I took a trip to Seminole Hard Rock in Miami, that is alot crapper than any major Vegas casino - but it at least feels exciting to be there, you get that Vegas buzz. I dont get that feeling anywhere in London (apart from Hippo and its also that wears off quickly once you go often). Perhaps it's just the UK in general, the clientele, the food, the staff etc. Obv you shouldnt play slots, but if you look at what you can win walking past as a voyeur, it's absoultey pathetic £7K 'Grand' jackpots, whole thing is really lacklustre and unexciting. /rant 😀

I notice The Vic is getting a lot of heat in this thread of late. It has always been my favourite (but I am biased because I can drive there within 45 mins and it's free parking) - never short of a game, professional dealers/floor staff etc. I have never been sold on Hippo nor Aspers RIP - so does that cement Empire the best spot in London for live cash now?

Newcastle the problem they have is the venue they are in all the bars etc are closing and it used to be an in venue and am sure got walkins. Last few times I have been the whole place has been dead and few people gambling. Suspect high rents as well. The floor the casino is on has retro game arcades nowadays.

I havent played poker there in a long time but they seemed to have moved the poker upstairs away from the main floor as well so may have had an impact on the poker games but will be checking out in the next few weeks now its become Bally's.

10 minutes from me and yeah car park very good perk. Staff all nice/fine. Food is diabolical (I used to enjoy the Arabic menu way back) and the place just lacks atmosphere. I need to feel abit of excitment when I walk into a casino, unfortunately this a little like walking into a the same atmosphere as a bingo hall. The terrace they made is quite nice I guess. What do I know though, the place makes millions in ebitda, but I don't really enjoy playing there, I go occasionally as it's really near for me but the games are also pretty crap generally. Perhaps the games I want don't exist in London anyway, I play more in USA/EU and it's action central for the most part. I dont see many whales donking off at the vic, plus PLO 456 has ruined any NL games all the fish play that, theyll sit at 2/5 then when plo456 runs they move. I have been going on anf off for like 20 years, when the poker room was on the middle floor (?) the atmosphere was way better but it was a different time.

you really do love to complain about the rake

Honestly, I think London and the UK have the CHEAPEST rake going, and considering the cost of living and doing business in London, we are lucky it's stayed the same for so long. Everywhere else I have played in Europe is 5% at 20+ or 10% at 5-8 in America or a lumpy time charge for bigger games.

Im sure an increase is coming soon, 5% at 15 might be soon if we want poker in London, which I think is still cheap and more than fair, games are plenty beatable, unless your some wanabe pro grinding 1/2 and making bowl hourly and sweating every 50p and £1 (get better and play bigger so rake isn't as impactful on your profits)

The Vic, hopefully a few month's away from finishing their refurb, and hope that sort's the AC situation out. The main gaming floor look's really nice, very big and open feel and a nice overall look. So if the top floor and poker room look anywhere as good, we are in for a treat. Just hope they sort the food quality out, and make use of this new venue.

Hey guys, QQ, do they do double board bomb pots at Hippo NLH 1/2?
I tried the Aspers after a long while last week and that was a thing. I despise the Aspers so not planning to go back much but I'd like to play a ton of live poker this summer while my apartment resembles a green-house.
Thanks!

They don't do bomb pots at the hippo

Thank you. That's a shame, they are fun and get loads of money at the table if people are willing to re-load.

On a separate note, I ended up playing a bit there yesterday. Terrible session, but that's whatever :-) what I noticed, it seems hardly anyone was tipping at all. Was that an outlier table or tipping has gone down heavily in London?

Tipping is definitely less prevalent than back in the day and often depends on the tipping habits of the regs because those new to the poker room will follow what is the norm. For example, if a guy new to the poker room sees no one else tipping, then he usually won't tip either. Unfortunately, a lot of Hippo regs do not understand that dealers are on minimum wage and rely on tips to keep themselves in the job. In short, if everyone did what non-tippers do - and refuse to tip - you'll get no dealers, or at least a serious shortage (which is actually what is happening at The Hippo), cos who wants to work for minimum wage right?

And I know this sounds preachy, I'm kinda triggered right now, but those regs who NEVER tip are absolute scum because they rely solely on the good nature of those who do tip, to keep their precious games going. And these are just the type of person who are the first to complain if there is a lack of dealers.

Rant over

Yeah it surprises me like in the US don’t dealers make like $100k plus and people say usa work regulations don’t benefit the worker

Whereas in the UK they are on a tiny low wage, I’d give it a go if they offered something decent

whats with Hippo 1/2? I went a few times last summer it was pretty much 8/10/12 tables on Thursday night, Friday late afternoon/night and same on Saturday and quite busy too on Sundays. thats between 70/100 players playing + waiting lists.

now I look t their twitter updates and like 4-5 tables of 1/2 at best. I see some at higher stakes but I recall it had 10+ players packed with 20 players on the waiting list last time I went and that was about a year ago.
you could hardly walk out from the tables in the back of the room it was so packed.

I played the BPS days 1C and 1D; some crazy play going on :-) - day 1C I got to the last level of the day, level 15, busted at that point. It was quite late by then - over 3 am - they could do with shorter breaks on the evening events, that's quite late as is.
Other than that it seems decent value with all the crazy play going on.
Good luck to anyone playing the final day today!

heaps of players, not enough staff or space

high stakes area is lovely though

Any more info on this high stakes area? Not been for a while, have they made some changes?

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No. Same as always. 2/5+ players get to play at tables in the "main area" where they can actually move around like human beings should in a hospitality setting. The rest get shoved to the "economy class" where you're crammed in like sardines and treated like ****. The Vic crushes in this regard and will/has become the bespoke poker room where you can actually play in a relaxed manner.

Agreed re: the Vic. I was in there this week for the first time since January and the poker room looks and feels so much better. I don't know if it is 100% finished or not yet (I know the whole renovation is still ongoing) but what an upgrade.

I'm playing day 2 of Beer Poker Tour main event today, wish me luck :-) - 30BB stack -

Wondering what changes may come for Aspers Stratford now that's in Genting hands?

I’m thinking of heading out for the ME and some other mtts, as a cash game player I was surprised (my own fault) that when I was recently in Miami when I cashed a 1k side event I had money withheld at the cage as I didn’t have an ITIN. I’ll never see that money again unless I cash for huge somewhere as it would cost more to get an ITIN than worth while, and I’ve been advised not to do so unless I cash for something significant that makes the 1-2k fee to get an agent to get me one. I’ve also heard it takes months. I am not sure if that’s unique to Miami FL or Vegas - I’ve only ever played cash, apart from some mtts over a decade ago in Vegas. It sort of makes or breaks my ideas for a trip - primarily WSOP but also Wynn & Aria for the week I’m thinking of coming, if any UK players can report requiring an ITIN after cashing at any of those venues (min cash or significant) would appreciate your input.

Cash games you don’t need but anything that’s a ‘prize’ you do at least in FL (MTT cash, slot win etc), not actually heard of this in Vegas, and of course if you cash for huge and need to get an agent to get an ITIN and file taxes to recoup it’s worthwhile, it’s just such a ball ache and make min cashing pointless.