London poker rooms?

[The Bloke]

Hi guys,

Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a good poker room in London?

This will be my first visit to a B+M - I'm a relative newbie, been playing for about 5 months. I multi-table £0.50/£1 NL online, and am making good profits at the moment (small sample size tho)

Ideally I'm looking for a low stakes NL game. I guess the lowest I'm likely to find is £1/£2 or £2/£4. I'd try PL if NL is not available. I'm also looking for as many fish as possible, of course [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I know about The Gutshot Poker Room - and will likely go there to play a tournament sometime. But I get the feeling the guys who play there are going to be of a higher standard than your average casino player, so I'm hesitant to try cash games there to start with.

Other ones I've heard about are Grosvenor Victoria and Ladbroke Russell Square. Anyone been to either and know much about the games?

Thanks in advance!


Tom

[baiter]

I played at the Grosevenor Victoria when I lived in London for a couple of weeks last summer. From what I remember the cash games were pretty soft with a lot of fish and people who barely knew the rules (for example I saw someone call a monster bet on the river with pocket 5s when the board showed a higher 2-pair). The only problem is that they dont have NL (PL and limt only) and that there is no max buy-in. You will get bad beats and whales with 10K stacks will put you all-in automatically.
They do however run very good NL tournaments a couple of times a week. Also, the sattelites into their big tournaments are by far the easiest poker I have played in my entire life. I won the sattelite into their 500 pound event and sadly busted out right after I made the final table with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] on a A x[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] x[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] board. An idiot called me with AJ off and hit the J on the river. I remember this and it was almost a year ago, but anyways, overall I would reccomend the Vic.

[JFB37]

Interesting post. I've played at the Vic about 10x per year for the last three years or so and that is not how I would describe it. There are definately some big bleeders but there are also some extremely tough players. Most of them are there every day.

btw, they absolutely love it when Americans show up and start talking about how we do things in the states. To them, that screams "feeding time"!

[Slow Play Ray]

I'll be in the UK, London area, for work in May with a weekend to blow. I can't think of a better way to do that than spending it in a card room, so I would also be interested in knowing what's available. Also, last time I was there, I found out you need to "join" a casino 24 hours before you can play, so I was not able to get in. Does the same rule apply for card rooms?

[baiter]

good thing i'm not american

[The Bloke]

Yeah any casino-based card room requires by law that you signup at least 24 hours ahead. You'll need a passport or other photo ID - best to phone ahead to find out exactly what they require.

The only one I know of where you can sign-up on the day is The Gutshot - http://www.gutshot.co.uk - as this is a private member's club, not a casino. They'll still require ID tho.

[The Bloke]

Thanks for the comments guys - I guess I'll just have to head down and do some scouting before I start playing!

[Andrew Kinsman]

It closed down a couple of years ago. Your main options are therefore either the Gutshot or Vic.

Hope that helps,
Andrew
www.pokerupdate.com