Royal Flush Crowns a Tough Session at The Vic...

I thought I was finally going to crack my winning streak at the Vic after three hours of being cold decked.

I was £550 down after Aces-up was cracked three times, once by a set of 8s, once by a flush and once by a gutshot straight on the river. Trip Aces were cracked by a full house (I was holding Ace, King) and then pocket Kings ran into pocket Aces for a £600 pot. 

I was about ready to go home when Lord Whipp turned up. It would be rude to skulk off so I grinded it out and then proceeded to hit a run from heaven. I hit straights, flushes and picked-up pocket face cards one after the other. My hands were so strong when challenged, I managed to get through monstrous bluffs, including a beauty with 7, 2 (the name of Gary's club no less). 

Then it happened (for the second time in my entire poker life). I was dealt 10, Jack of diamonds. Someone popped a raise of three times the big blind and three other players came into the hand. The flop threw out the King and Queen of diamonds. The bettor made a pot-sized bet and only I remained. The turn was a blank but I threw in a defensive bet and the other player flat called. The Ace of diamonds hit on the river and my opponent threw £20 into the pot. I hesitated for a bit and then re-raised another £50 (the pot was over £200 now). The other player went into the tank before calling and I asked the dealer if there was a jackpot for a Royal Flush before flipping them over.

Gary and I annoyed the hell out of the table for a few hours, squeezing most players out of every pot we played. We would showdown with strong hands and show bluffs against each other. Gary bluffed me out of a big pot in our last hand of the night, I hit a Jack on the flop holding Ace, Jack and Gary bet on the turn when a King hit. I called chasing the nut flush but the river was a blank for me and Gary threw in £100. I folded and he showed 4 high! We laughed and the other players looked on bemused.

Ended the night with £650 in the bag and two hours sleep before my conference kicked-off!

I love the Vic.

Oh, and Bepe (Michael Greco) made the final table of the £120 Re-buy tournament that was running.

The Vic... and 5th Place seems to be a trend!

I love business trips to London and that's for one reason and one reason only... The Vic.

The Vic is the mecca for poker in London, even with swanky new casinos popping-up all over the place like the Empire, the Vic is still considered home for players like Neil Channing, Vicky Coren and the Hendon Mob.

The Vic is usually pretty good to me in the cash games, in fact I had my first £1000 win at The Vic.

Last Tuesday, I couldn't check-in to my hotel quick enough so I could jump straight into a cab and head off to the Vic. I got there just after 7pm and found the poker room buzzing and long waiting lists on most of the tables.

As I had time to kill, I signed-up for a Quadruple Qualifier Touranament for the GUKPT events later this month. The Buy-In was £120 and the winner won four seats to the main Hold-Em events in the GUKPT hosted at the Vic, including the 3000 main event. Seemed like good value to me, so I registered and sat down with my 1500 chips. By the end of the re-buy period, I was sat on 4000 chips and feeling good about my play. I stole a few pots and won a big showdown with trip Queens.

In the first hand of the freezeout stage, I flop top pair with a pretty good kicker and get flat called all the way to the river, even after making it pretty expensive to come with me. The guy had flopped middle pair and rivered two pair... I was gutted. I was left with about 700 chips and pushed with Ace, 7 suited. The same player called me, this time with pocket Jacks and I couldn't find an Ace or flush, so was eliminated. The guy went on to win the whole thing, which is amazing considering his play.

The good news is, I got to play some cash from about 9pm onwards. One of the great things about the Vic, is that it is situated in an Arabic Quarter of London and the Arabs are ultra aggressive and seem to take a re-raise as a personal insult and will often push all their chips in with nothing, seemingly to prove a point. They seem to prefer to lose all their chips than fold. Happy days!

I sit down at a £1/£3 table (£200 min) with the minimum £200 and am very pleased to look down at pocket Aces. I raise it up to £12 and get three callers. The flop is a peach - Ace, 9, 9. So I flop a full house and short of someone holding miracle quads, I'm looking good!

I check, and the player to my left checks, the next player bets £50 and I flat call, making it look like I am on a draw (two hearts on the board). The other two players fold and the turn is a blank. I check and the guy throws out £100. I flat call again, but make it look like I really don't want to call!

The river is another blank (If I was chasing hearts) and I quickly throw out the rest of my chips. He insta-calls with Ace, King and I show my rockets.

I run good for about an hour, hitting straights, flushes, two-pair and another full house, and run my £200 up to about £900.

I then go card dead for hours and lose a couple of hundred. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I cash-in about £500 up, which is good enough for me!

Outside the Vic, a snow storm is raging, which is kinda odd for October!

POMME TOURNAMENTS

I've finished 5th in the last two Pomme tournaments in a row... which is cool, but annoying at the same time (I wanna win one!)

Last week, the £30 + £30, 5th place finish earned me £160 and this week, the £50 + £50 generated £500, which ain't bad. It would have been £225 but we chopped when we got down to the last 5 players.

I started off okay, but went bust just before the re-buys ended when I got two callers pre-flop with my pocket Kings. I was looking good after the flop when no Aces came out but the turn put three diamonds out there and a player was sitting on the nuts with Ace, Jack of diamonds... Nice hand.

So £100 for a re-buy and the add-on and I'm sitting on the minimum chip stack for the freezeout period. I sit tight for an hour and players are being eliminated left, right and centre and before long we're down to two tables. I steal some dead money, as I have just enough chips to put the blinds off from calling with raggedy hands.

We're down to the final table and it's push or fold time. I get lucky a few times and steal some blinds and then get called in a key hand with Ace, 9. The player had 7, 8 suited and I turn an ace to double-up.

We're all playing mega tight and it's taking a fricking age to get rid of the short stacks. Catthrasher has a nice trebble-up to take the chip lead and sends two players home. We agree a prize for 6th and 7th place, so players are pushing with weak hands and before we knew it, we were down to 5 players.

The chip leader suggests a chop of £500 for four of us, with him taking £1000 and a play-off for the remaining £900 and the points. Happy days!

I take the money, and find Ace, 5 suited under the gun. I push my 40,000 in and get two callers, one with pocket 8s and one with Ace, 9 suited... Bye bye!

The 8s hold and take out me and the other player.

After 5 hours of poker, my cash game sucks and I push all my chips in after a flop gives me an open-ended straight and four to a flush. One player had a better flush draw and another had two-pair, which improves to a boat on the river.

I'm looking forward to the FHP game on Friday, new WPT tables, tournament software back in action and plenty of chips on the tables!!!

WATCH THIS SPACE...

We'll be hosting ONLINE TOURNAMENTS for FHP members at UNCOVER POKER later this month - more details coming soon...

And I've seen the mock-ups for the FHP clothing line and they look AMAZING!!! We're not talking simply a few poker t-shirts here, we're talking a top quality brand here, with Ts, shirts, hoodies, caps, longsleeves and much, much more... you will likey a lotty!!!

jT

Channing and Boatman in the House, but...

... I've caught a cold the decks were so damn cold in the Vic!

BT and I were looking across the table for literally hours, with neither of us getting a bloody hand. It was ridiculous. Not to mention a little frenchman who was raising eight times the big blind almost every other hand, the little muppet.

It's a night of poker I'd like to forget so this post will be short. I had five monster hands all night - four of them turned into split pots and in one, I had the nut flush only to be beaten by a straight flush! Unbefuckinlievable!

BT's luck was not much better but I'll let him post his own tale of woe and misfortune.

It was cool to see Barney Boatman and Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing in person but that was slightly second best to the people we met earlier that day for work, namely Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Damien Lewis, The Prince of Wales, the hot chick from the new St Trinians movie and the cool black guy from Heroes... ah, work is tough!

The poker highlight for me was playing hours of dealer's choice with BT on the train - we played Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Pineapple, Five Card Draw, and weird variations of all of those mentioned with Jacks wild! We even played a mental version of Chinese Poker where we were betting chips on each hand with winner takes all.

Anwyay to wrap up the Vic trip, it became clear that the frenchman and at least four of the other players were working together, little bastards. We were never going to beat that table, I just wish we'd clocked it earlier!

jT