The New York Players Club

Part four of my recent trip to the USA

I found The Players Club without much difficulty. It was tucked away on a second floor suite at the corner of 72nd and Broadway. I’d phoned in advance and it didn’t sound as thought there were going to be any problems getting in even though I was coming on my own as a new player. I’d also be given directions, but I wouldn’t have needed them since the two guys ahead of my on the stairs were rabbiting on about how unlucky he’d got that someone had called his raise with QJs or some other crap like that. Hmm, looked like it might be a profitable night!

I poked my head around the door and surveyed the place quickly. A small entrance hall lead thorough to the main suite. Two medium sized rooms with about 7 tables in each were separated by a small lounge with coffee machine, couch and big-screen TV. Cash games were going on in one room and the other was se aside for the 7pm tournament. Registration hadn’t yet opened so I headed back outside to look for some food. I wasn’t actually very hungy, but it passed the time nicely and I did a spot of people watching, which is always fun.

New York really is a great city. I could definitely live there and I’m not sure I could say that about anywhere else in the US, not long term anyhow.

I put my name down for the tourney ($50+10). He miss-heard Andrew and wrote me down as Andre, but that’s ok. I don’t mind being French once in a while. On second thought it would have been more sensible to have given “Pinky” then Wyton from ITH would have been able to locate me more easily. As it happens he didn’t make it in the end. Wife and kid commitments took prority.

My tournie play was fairly uneventful. One guy on my table saw every flop without exception. I picked up a few nice starting hands but he never went further than the flop with me. As ever in low buy-in tourneys, the blinds increased far too quickly and I found myself faced with a short stack soon after the break and my ATs wasn’t able to compete with QJs (ironic?).

I wandered through to the other room and got myself on the list for the 1-2 NL game ($50 min, $250 max). It looked like it might be a long wait but as tourney tables broke they opened another and I was soon seated and ready for action. The table was generally quite weak, but I didn’t seem to be getting any cards - at least the conversation was good. Fish came and went, but after a few hours I was down about $100. Again, I wish I’d taken some notes so I could write some hands up, at least I’ll know for next time. Nothing massive springs to mind, but I had a mini-rush towards the end to set myself up about $100, which nicely covered my tourney losses and other expenses and by this time (3am) I was beginning to get a little sleepy. I figured that forty winks on their couch might sort me out for another hour of play, but I was soon roused by their staff and asked if I could please keep my eyes open. I figured that it was probably time to make a move anyway and especially since there were more touristy things left to be done in NYC later that day.

Overall. I’d heartily recommend The Players Club, although I have no idea what it’s competition is like. For a small ‘underground’ club it was pretty well run and had a decent number of poor players.

Get set for the rest of the trip write-up: the conclusion of our time in NYC and the marathon session that was Atlantic City.