European Tour - UK Casinos

The casinos in the UK are MUCH smaller than anything you will find in America. Typically 10 slot machines, 1 or 2 blackjack or 3 card poker tables and 1 or 2 roulette tables and a bar. Some casinos have space for poker tournaments for 30-50 people. This was the case with Stanleys casino in Portsmouth which has small re-buy tournaments 3 or 4 nights a week. I believe there a bigger casinos in London and some other cities but the smaller casinos seem to be the norm.

I enjoy rebuy tournaments but only after the rebuy period is over. Every casino has their share of loose aggressive maniacs in a rebuy who go all in every hand and pride themselves on having rebought more than any other player. I like to pick my spots and play premium cards hoping to double up once ot twice against this player. Sometimes though they just get lucky and your AA, AK, KK, QQ etc. get beaten on 10-3o. What can you do - just play on through the pain and rebuy as necessary.

I convinced my brothers to join me in the casino tournaments instead of their pub league games a couple of time. The allure of playing for real money and me offering to stake them worked. However it just meant I lost 3 times as much money. I think playing in the free league poker encourages bad decisions on marginal hands - there is no cost to going out of the tournament so why not all-in with 7-7 pre-flop in the 4th hand of a tournament. My brothers and I have had several discussions re this type of play which they like to make. At least in a rebuy you can just buy back in - especially if it is someone elses money...... To be fair, we all limited ourselves to 3 buy-ins and one brother finished 6th in one tournament meaning we broke even on the costs - well done bro.

Things I did not like - the poker tables are small round tables holding 8 players each (unlike the 9 or 10 player American style tables). The casino did not provide dealers which meant each player took turns to deal. The floor person seemed inexperienced and mainly there to give out more chips for people who wanted to rebuy. Several times I saw people miscounting chips (sometimes less, sometimes more) but because almost everyone splashed the pot for every bet and threw their raise directly in the middle you could not really complain or prove the bet was not what they said. Often burn cards were thrown in with muck cards and several times people looked at your cards without your permission (always accidental...!!). Frequent rabbit-hunting was going on with dealers dealing the board to completion even if action was over on the flop. The dealers were in charge of the hand but often the stronger-personality regulars would dictate what would happen on the table with multiple players hands/fingers going in the middle to tidy the chips, the cards or whatever. In all this confusion I am sure cheaters can and do flourish. In one hand the dealer had folded during the first round of betting. We were on the second round of betting and one player went out of turn. Before you could blink the dealer grabbed all the players cards from the table and declared a misdeal. This was NOT the house rules - just something he decided needed to be done but he was so quick to grab and muck the players cards it could not be undone. I had aces and was raising (and no it was not me who went out of turn)!! Unbelievable - I almost got in a fight over that one!! In my opinion this was blatant cheating.

However it was not all bad - the social side was again great with many regulars cracking jokes. The personal insults, innuendos etc. thrown around players is more intense with no dealer present which I found oddly amusing. It always seemed likely a fight would break out but unlike California no guns would be involved :-) But in all the time in the UK I did not see a poker-related fight so for all the intensity I guess common decency prevailed. I liked being able to order a pint while I was playing and the casino did throw in a buffet as part of the entry fee to the tournament. Some regulars had great stories and often could recommend other places to play cash games.

Strangely it seems the pub poker league and the casino/club cash games are entirely separate worlds. Few players cross-over as far as I can tell. The casino players are more like American players in the card rooms - they know they are playing for money and are serious about trying to win. They also tend to know where another tournament will be starting soon for more money. The pub league players are having fun and arguably in the more enjoyable night out. It is a mixed bunch with husband/wives, father-sons etc. and is a fairly cheap night out.