Going to Budapest....

[brettbrettr]

I"m leaving in a couple of hours. I'll be occupied with work most of the day. But if anyone has any nightlife suggestions, happy to have them. Hmm, as an afterthought, is there poker in Budapest?

[private joker]

I was there 4 years ago and it was one of the best few days of my life. But crap, I can't remember the name of the club where I went dancing and hooked up with a Finnish girl on holiday. What you should do is check out a local hostel where travelers are staying, and see where the action is that night.

There's tons of fun stuff in Budapest, and during the day it's nice to relax at one of the spas. As long as you stay away from the dirty old men...

What an awesome city!

[private joker]

And I didn't start playing hold'em until 2002, so I have no idea if there's poker there.

[jason_t]

I've lived in Budapest and was fairly into the scene when I lived there.

Good bars are easy to find near Vaci utca, Deak ter, Moskva ter (a really fun eatery is Szent Jupat's around the corner from Moskva ter on the red subway line) and on the street that the yellow line runs under (I can't remember the name, but it's a huge street that runs from Deak ter to Horok ter Edit: Andrassi Ut).

There are two really awesome cafes:

Cafe Gerbaud on Vorosmarty Ter (yellow subway)
Cafe Muvesz across from the opera house (yellow subway to stop called Opera)

The latter is open late.

Be careful if you go to a strip club. They have elaborate attempts to con you out of all of your money.

Here are my favorite clubs:

Bahnhof Club on Vaci utca. This one is fairly easy to find as Vaci utca is the big walking street/shopping district in the heart of Pest. It's really modern dance club filled with local hotties and holidaying hotties.

Fat Mo's. Bar/pub/restaurant/dj'ed music & jazz and blues depending on the night. Cool place. It's on the blue metro line near Kalvin ter.

Near Kalvin ter there is the Hotel Korona and inside the hotel is an awesome little cafe that is open late where you can get palacsinta (really just crepes but the Hungarians insist on pretending they are different than crepes) which are incredibly delicious. Eastish of Kalvin ter is a nice walking street filled with awesome bars and restaurants.

Suss Fel Nap. I can't remember where this one is exactly, it's somewhere near Nyugati Pu. This place is pretty chill.

As for poker, I didn't start playing poker before I lived there but I did go to Las Vegas Casino on Roosevelt Ter (take the yellow subway line to Vorosmarty Ter and walk to the Hyatt). I have vague memories of there being poker there.

Wow. I miss Budapest.

[Larimani]

You MUST go to the SPOON restaurant, it's on a boat on the river near the center on the PEST side... Excellent food & Drinks... Amazing view. (bit of a romantic place if you're going with wife/gf)

[sfer]

Have you read Prague?

[jason_t]

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Have you read Prague?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.

[brettbrettr]

Thanks fellas. Just got to my hotel--there's a casino in the lobby. I'll let you know how everything goes...

[Dominic]

you won't care about poker because Budapest has the best looking women IN THE WORLD.

[sfer]

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[ QUOTE ]
Have you read Prague?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.

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So were you a spy, a con-artist bidnessman, or trying to reconcile things with your brother?

[brettbrettr]

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you won't care about poker because Budapest has the best looking women IN THE WORLD.

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Prague, but its close and I haven't seen all that much of the world.

[brettbrettr]

So I'm battling an awful case of jet-lag--I've slept about 6 hours in the past two days. This city is beautiful. I spent last night chatting up this gorgeous Hungarian gal at a jazz club and spent the better part of the day arguing with a Hungarian shipping agent. Night and day, I guess.

In any case, I'm walking to dinner tonight and pass by The Tropicana which is a couple of blocks from my hotel. I didn't know this at the time but after reading the flyer outside the casino I learn that the only difference between the Trop and the Las Vegas casino (which is *in* my hotel) is that the Trop spreads hold-em and Omaha. Since I'm somewhat tired and tomorrow's a suit day I figure I'm not going to drink much more so I might as well check it out.

The Trop spreads three games: PL Hold Em with a 500 florin ante, 4,000-8,000 limit HE, and 2,000-4,000. The first two games were completely empty so I fill out the 2,000-4,000 game, which would have been my preference anyway. The minimum buy-in for the game is 50,000 florins so I buy in. I then realize I just bought in for about 12 bets so I give the dealer another 20,000 florins which is all I have left on me. Nice start, Brett.

To put this in perspective, $1 is about equivalent to 200 florins. So this is
about a $10/20 game and is the highest I've played to date. I'm making special note on the stakes because it took me longer than I care to admit to figure out what on earth I was playing for.

Anyway, I'm in the 4 seat. The ten seat is a tricky aggressive player who eventually, I suspect, is happy to see me leave. The 6 seat is a guy I suspect is dead. Seriously, this guy is at least 137 years old and if not for his calling every bet one could easily mistake him for a corpse. The rest of the table is rounded out by loose passive call most bet types. It takes me very little time to realize this is a very, very good game.

Of course, I'm dealt very little in the way of playable hands. I overlimp in middle position with A8s and fold to a flop bet that garnered 4 calls, none of whom has anything more than bottom pair, 2 of whom paid off on the river. I silently pray for cards...

So we're short and I open raise in the CO with 66. This is probably my 2nd raise of the night. The ten seat--tricky, aggro guy-- calls in the BB. I bet a jack high flop, he calls. I bet a turned king, he folds. Good, I won a pot. Its a baby, but its a pot.

So I'm down to about half my buy-in which was short as it was. I wasted a bet but overall I'm playing fine when a big pot comes up:

4 limpers to me in the MP and I raise AcQd. SB calls, BB (same tricky aggro player) 3-bets, *everyone* calls. Now, at this point my image is aggressive. I've raised pre-flop for value about 4 times so far in this 2 hour session which is on par with the collective pre-flop raises for the whole table. So now everytime I raise everyone looks at each other and talks about me in Hungarian. Its somewhat funny. Anyway, this is the same tricky aggro BB, but he isn't dumb so given the size of the field I figure him for at least as much hand as I have, if not more. Anyway....

18 sbs to a flop of Jd2c3c. SB checks, BB bets, all call to me, I call, sb calls. (I thought about a raise given my overs, size of the pot and my BD nut flush draw but the BB hates me and he's going to 3-bet me here with whatever he has, I think. Since the SB hasn't check-raised once all night I figure I'll only need to pay one to see the turn...)

6 to the turn (12 BB's): Qs. BB bets, UTG folds, UTG +1 calls, I raise, BB (looks disgusted) calls, UTG +1 calls.

3 to the river (18 bb's) 3h: Check, check, I bet, both call, I show, BB mucks, UTG +1 shows QTs and MHIG.

Not very exciting, I know, but its the big pot I won.

Aside from leaving about 40,000 florins to the better the last hand made this a fun, fun night. I'm UTG+1 when the BB walked away during the dealer change. He sat just before the cards were thrown and I told the pitboss I'd take my free hand then leave afterwards. Well, for a table of people who spoke no english apparently these guys recognized "free" and my comment sparked a tumultuous bout of angry Hungarian-isms that lasted about 5 minutes. I was dumbfounded. Finally, the ten seat explained to the table what I was doing--this took about ten minutes---then everyone quieted down again and resumed giving me dirty looks.

I folded my hand but started counting chips when a firestorm of betting ensued on a "coordinated" board. Finally, the 137 year old guy and some other fellow wind up splitting the pot with their jacks on a ATQ4K board. As the dealer is cutting the chips and taking the rake the dead guy looks at me, smiles, and says, "Chop-chop." I laugh, color up and say "goodnight." The table responds with a mixture of "ciao," "fine," "bye" and "hello!" and I proceed to walk back to my hotel.

[jason_t]

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florin

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It's forint.