A Day at the Fox
Last week I visited the new Fox Poker Club on Shaftsbury Avenue for their £25 afternoon tournament and a some cash afterwards.
The venue is really nice - it is upstairs so, unlike nearly every other cardroom I have played in, has windows where you can see the London life passing by as you play. I think this makes a big difference and makes the venue really light, especially during the day.
The clientele also seemed pleasant compared to many UK poker rooms, with most players friendly and talkative. Not many iPods or sunglasses in view thankfully.
The tournament itself was decently structured - it had 38 runners and, by the time I was eliminated for a min-cash on the final table, had run for a good 4 hours. We got 4,000 in chips with 20 minute blinds, which sounds fast but there was a 75/150 level and a 150/300, so plenty of play. The tournament also felt like a low buy in Vegas tournament in that, due to the limited amount of chips in play, by the end you had more fold equity than is normal with a 4BB stack. This is because a big stack calling and losing would halve their stack even though it is only 4BB to call.
I doubled up early when holding 66 on a 4456K board with 4 spades on it. My opponent oddly shoved with in the hole first to act on the river and I hoovered up with my house. He’s only getting called when losing there I feel.
I suffered a bad beat at a key time holding QQ on a QK5 all club board - my opponent shoving with a single club and no other draws, but rivering the 4th puppy foot.
I then built back up, picking my spots well and winning a couple of 40% shots to get back into contention. With 7 runners left we arranged a saver so 7th got his money back. This would turn out to be me, when I shoved with AT, was called in the big blind by the only stack that covered, and lost to KK. Oh well - my shove was for 8BB so I think the hand plays itself - I can’t raise/fold.
We had a private cash table afterwards, with Al dealing for us who I haven’t seen for a year or so, and I fortunately hit a lot of hands early on to get off to a fast start. Over the next 5 hours I didn’t improve and ended up booking a win of a little over £100.
This was counterbalanced by losing £150 to Jason playing flop roulette. Our rules were £5 for a predominantly red flop, £10 for a mono-red flop, £25 for reds up to the turn and £50 for all five cards being red (and vice versa for my blacks of course). Predictably the only time we doubled the stakes after a misdeal, Jason scored an all rouge flop, turn and river to leave me coughing up £100. Marvellous.
Overall the poker room is highly recommended - the evening tournaments look fairly well structured with deeper stacks I should add. My only reservation would be the price of the drinks. Beers were free for opening week (which was gratefully enjoyed!) but given that the cokes were £2.50+ how much is a beer going to be when they do start charging? There is no draft beers available, so £5 a bottle seems a little steep, especially if you are there for a long session.
WSOP league for me this week.