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| ChezJ |
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I recently spent a week in Stockholm, Sweden, and by an amazing stroke of luck, my hotel turned out to be 1 block away from the only legal poker room in Stockholm -- Casino Cosmopol. Had I not brought my wife and kid on the trip, I would have spent every night there. I ended up getting to play twice, on Sunday and Friday. GAMES SPREAD I think there were about 12 tables. The entry level game was 20/20 NLHE (i.e. two blinds of SEK 20, which is $2.82) with a SEK 2000 max buy-in. They had several tables of it. I think they had a higher level NLHE with a BB of SEK 50. There was an even higher level one, something like SEK 300, but that might have just been an interest list. They had Omaha games. There were no LHE or stud games. There are nightly tournaments with a buy-in of SEK 600 ($85). I think they have a SEK 200 ($28) tourney one day of the week. I played the 20/20 NLHE. I arrived both times after midnight. On Sunday night, the room had about 5 tables running, plus the final table of the tournament. I got seated right away. On Friday night, the room was completely packed but it only took me about 10 minutes to get seated. GAME QUALITY In a word, loose. On Sunday, I figured only hardcore nits would be there. In fact, it was very loose and aggressive. Perhaps many players had been knocked out of the tournament. Maybe 1/2 of the hands started with a live straddle. Typical preflop raise was to SEK 120-160 (6-8X BB), or sometimes SEK 240 if there was a straddle. 3bets would be to 400+. People would push preflop against the blinds and still get called. This guy on my right was raising every hand and catching incredible cards. In 3 hours he went from about SEK 4000 to maybe SEK 16,000+. He just kept knocking out players and they would be replaced by others, or some fish would keep rebuying and rebuying in a futile attempt to get revenge on the luckbox. We were 6-8 handed most of the time. I got dealt crap most of the night and ended up folding a lot of playable hands thanks to the lucky LAG next to me. I started to take down pots by cc/3betting him preflop to gain fold equity, then betting the flop. He always read me for a monster and surrendered. It also helped that I got dealt TT three times. By 3:30 a.m., I was about +5BB when my table broke and I got moved to another table where (a) I did not have such a nitty table image and (b) the players were even more LAGGy. Guys were pushing FD's and low pair's like there was no tomorrow. Almost immediately, I got AA and caught a guy pushing the Kxx flop with a 6 hi FD. I managed to dodge the flush, but the goofball caught running 6's for 2/3 of my stack. The next hand, I doubled up by pushing an OESD against a LAGGy pre-flop raiser and beat him with nothing but Q hi. What a wild game. Unfortunately, I missed my big chance to come back ahead when I 3bet TT pre-flop in LP but folded to a push by EP+1, who had cc'ed the first raise. I figured he had slowplayed JJ+. The original EP raiser folded, but some fourth idiot called with 77 in the BB and won vs AQ unimproved. Had I not folded, I could have made SEK 3000+. The game on Friday was also the opposite of what I expected. The room was packed, so I figured there would be lots of beginner fish playing loose-passive. Yet, the game felt fairly tight. Pre-flop raises were still at least 6X BB, but nobody was going crazy about it, and only 2-4 people would see the flop after a raise. A cbet would typically take it down unless someone was slowplaying a monster. In other words, the game was more predictable and weak-tight than before... except when guys went on tilt after bad beats (which was also somewhat predictable). On this night, I doubled up in the BB when UTG (who was one of these tilters on his 3rd or 4th rebuy) raised his live straddle on what seemed like a steam steal. Everyone folded to me and he started to taunt me about limping in from the BB. So I pushed my Axs, thinking A hi was good, and actually caught a flush. He mucked in frustration, claimed he had flopped a set with KK. I'm pretty sure the board paired, so I think he was lying. When I left about an hour later, he again berated me for catching up from behind. So he had some kind of PP on that hand. HOUSE RULES I never inquired about the rake, but I read somewhere that it is 5% up to SEK 100. The dealers are real sticklers for the house rules. I seriously screwed myself when I threw in a SEK 100 chip as a pre-flop raise but failed to declare it (one chip rule). I won the pot on the flop, but it was 5x smaller than it should have been. Another time, this guy's chips stuck together as he was trying to call a SEK 200 bet. He put out two SEK 100 chips and a third one dropped across the yellow line. The dealer forced him to make a raise of SEK 200, even though technically he had only put half the minimum raise amount across the line. I had never seen such a thing before. Another point I should make is that the dealers speak both English and Swedish, but 90% of the table chatter is in Swedish. So you are at a minor disadvantage if people discuss hands or playing styles and you do not understand Swedish. LOGISTICS The casino is literally across the street from the station where the Arlanda Express train comes in from the airport. It is also next to the subway station. The casino is open from 1 p.m. to 5 a.m. There is an entrance fee, for which you get a ticket valid for reentry within 24 hours. I paid SEK 30, which is about $4.25. There is supposed to be a dress code, but I got in wearing a casual sweater and jeans. Nobody was dressed any better than me. You have to register by filling out a form, showing a picture ID (my drivers license worked), and having your picture taken. You also have to check your coat, but fortunately the coat check is free. The poker room is way up on the 4th floor and you have to walk up two separate flights of stairs to get there. It is really quite hidden and there are no other games on that floor, meaning there are no random gamboolers floating in from the BJ or ponies, as in other casinos. Also, if the poker room ATM happens to be broken, you get to walk all the way down to the lobby level ATM and back up again. There's a full bar (with food) in the poker room. You have to pay for alcoholic drinks. A Jack & Coke cost me SEK 85 ($12). They do set out free water, juice, and coffee for the players. But on Friday night, the freebies were empty. This post is already way too long so I will stop here. Overall, I would say this is a great place to play, but play primarily for fun not money. The reason is that converting your winnings from SEK back into your own currency is going to cost you big time. I recommend either spending it all (on your hotel room, gifts, etc) or preparing yourself mentally for an effective 10-15% "rake" on top of the casino's rake, which makes profitability somewhat unlikely. ChezJ |
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