London

The Vic are using their casino chips for both casino and poker games

They are the only grosvenor to have different chips, I believe all other Gs and Grosvenors use the same chip set. (If you scroll up you'll see pics from Coventry showing the difference)

Its seems there £25s are the same, and only the £1s £5s and £100s and £1ks that are completely different

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

Agreed, pink £100 and black £25 is standard outside London. I'm not sure the provincial ones have any chips higher than £100, it's always been plaques on the rare occasion I've seen a game big enough to need them.

25/50 PLO4 is the main game of choice this week at the Vic, while a certain few players are in town, this or bigger is expected to be the game of choice, with only 1 6 card game running occasionally.

Also, the Vic has a new promotion, started this month, a £15k package for first, you need to win pots to earn pots, and then play a tournament and winner gets package, with 2nd-9th getting a piece of the £7k prize pool

The Vic always had pink £100 plastic chips, and they had black and orange £25 metal chips when I was in there, both for the casino. Looks like they've just got plastic £25s instead now - and perhaps they've done away with the metallicy poker £25 chips [blue] and £100 chips [orange] - shame as they really looked better than these plastic ones and had the actual casino branding on.

What's happened to The Hippo dealers recently? They're all practically falling asleep! In fact some formerly good-natured dealers are becoming as grumpy AF! One dealer (who shall remain nameless) was yawning and stretching constantly the other day, seemed to make an effort to deal as slowly as possible, paid zero acknowledgment to players who tipped... and then started whistling a tune to himself!

On top of this there is another dealer (who shall remain nameless) who shouts "Hi-Yaaa!" at every opportunity, makes lame comments, has a terrible sense of humour and seems to think he's the life and soul of the party - all of which just tilts the hell out of me.

And not to mention a certain dealer (bless her), who clearly wants to do the right thing but who way too often bangs on about tiny rules and regulations that just succeeds in annoying the beeJesus out of the players. Not really a complaint but there ya go.

Just a rant that I wanted to vent...but with the continuation of no shuffle-machines, a hands-per-hour count that seems to get worse by the day, and too many overly-tired dealers with dodgy attitudes - I think the place needs to sort itself out!

I’ve been avoiding hippo because of the lack of shuffle machines as it’s too slow anyway regardless of sleepy dealers. It’s a shame because the the food is great and the Vic is all round terrible (hot, terrible food, terrible games) it’s just faster and I’m very local.

I do like the Hippodrome as a casino, probably the nicest one in London for me, but the poker room is a bit crammed, and as much as the dealers are good, the noticeable difference in hands per hour without shufflers is a deal breaker.

But, when I do find myself popping in, as long as it's not crazy busy, its a lovely room, great staff, good food options, and they do still host some festivals, and they get a whole host of new players playing.

Had been planning to play a session at the Vic (first time in many years) next month, but maybe not after reading recent posts.

I can handle the terrible food & games but can't handle sitting in a hot room for hours, I can't handle no shuffle machines either so that rules out hippo. Any other options?

Cheers

Pro Tip: Anyone wishing to play 1/2 at The Hippo on a Friday night: arrive by 5pm! Got there at around 5:45pm last night and waited 2 hours for a table. Players arriving later had waited 3 hours!! Just sayin'.

Hippo 1/2 lists have always been really bad on Friday nights but I think the 1/3 table's haven't helped matters as that's 2 would be 1/2 tables being used for 1/3. I also know for sure which the 2 dealers you are referring to and completely agree with your complaints. The vast majority of dealers are very good at the Hippodrome but there are a couple now who seem to have slipped through the cracks somewhat.

Hey not sure if anyone will answer but does anyone have a decent sample of beating 1/2? I am primarily an online player around 4bb @ 100/200, I currently have 75 hours logged at the empire, 850 @ 5.8BB/Hour, I know the games are way softer but I just wonder what win rate is achievable in these high rake environment with a lot of bad regs grinding promos? If you don't want to post but happy to talk feel free to message me GLGL

Wow, I didn't realize that there were any legitimate casinos in Euroland with rake this low.

UK rake in general is quite reasonable. Hippo is also 5% capped at £11. At 10/25 above you pay for time, no rake.

Can anyone recommend a good poker room in London to watch the Cheltenham Festival? Basically, somewhere I could be playing a cash game while also able to easily watch the racing and ideally hear the commentary too. Does anywhere do that?

The only poker room, of the big four, that might be able to do this is The Empire but it's a bit of a long shot. They've got about 7 or 8 TVs dotted around quite a small poker room and players will often ask if they can have cricket, tennis, rugby etc on one of the screens. Of course this is possible only if any of the regs don't object. Having the commentary on is another matter and while they'll often have this on for football (especially if Arsenal are playing) and occasionally other sports I have rarely seen/heard it on for horse racing (cos, you know, everyone else in the poker room has to hear it as well). So yeh, there's no harm in asking but I put your chances at 1%-10%. Other alternative, of course, is watch it on yer device.

Vic has screens up visble from most tables, unsure about sound, I'm sure you can ask floor to put on Chelts.

Thanks, both!

All need some advice not related to London but perhaps because you’re in the UK you can advise me. I came to Miami to play cash games and stupidly decided to play a silly turbo in this wpt showdown. I cashed it last night and the cage refused to pay me out due to not having an ITIN number. I don’t play live mtts much and def not in the us, I’ve never had any issues cashing out at the cage in cash games for any amount (often 5figs+). They want to withhold 30% for taxes unless I provide them an ITIN. Feels so scammy and the process is annoying to get an ITIN to get the money back. We aren’t talking a lot of money here but principal I don’t want to be taxed. I left without cashing the ticket late last night as I recall reading something somewhere to not allow them to do this and with a clear head will go back today. This is under 5k which I thought was the threshold for this rubbish. Any help I am back to argue with them again today.

You already posted this screed on Reddit. As you were already told, US law mandates that any prizes over $600 must be reported to the government, necessitating one to produce a Social Security card or a tax ID#.

I don't know how an allegedly, long-time winning player (as you bragged on Reddit) who managed to travel here from the UK is too stupid to know how to use Google.

You should definitely go back and argue with them some more. I'm sure that only good things will happen for you.

Yeah, as a foreigner playing tournaments in the USA just seems silly. Just play cash.

You sound like a bitter losing bitch. Gfy.

Aspers Stratford and Milton Keynes closed today with immediate effect. Stratford claim they will reopen shortly, MK says until further notice.

They sold Newcastle to Bally's and Northampton to a random last year so I'm guessing they've had more problems with their banking covenants and the Q1 rent being due may have been the final straw.

Yup Aspers as a business is struggling and has lots of debt, and is on the market (might’ve sold already so perhaps if it’s closed then maybe that’s why). Meanwhile Hippodrome and Vic print money - from different things (Hippo make a lot of their profits from F&B).

A Genting dealer told me tonight that they have bought Stratford. Sounds plausible.