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As I was working in London yesterday and it was somehow easier and cheaper to stay the night and get a train back saturday morning, I decided to take a look at how Gutshot was doing after the court case, and take my first crack at the cash tables there. Something I decided I had to do before it’s too late, if there’s any chance the club won’t survive much longer. It took me a good half an hour to get a seat. I was third on the list for the £25-£50 game (that’s the range of allowable buy-ins, not the blinds) and I saw about three hundred people come up the stairs whilst I was waiting but never heard a seat called. Turns out the waiting list doesn’t actually mean a whole lot, and the more practical way to get into a game is to ask one of your mates already at a table to throw a chip at a seat as soon as somebody leaves, and then it’s OK to jump the queue.
The tournament arena in the building next door has been closed down – a real shame – so space is at a premium. The new arrangement is for cash tables to run around the clock (as late as the players want to stay) and tournaments go upstairs in the bar area on circular self-dealt tables. I’d only played in the "old" club a couple of times before, and once was a £5 pack-em-in-get-em-out rebuy, which was horrible. Rebuy tournaments are off the menu now, on account of the new "donation" policy. Since Derek Kelly was found guilty of charging a levy on gambling activities, the club runs rake-free and any money you wish to contribute towards the facilities when you play is optional. For freezeout tournaments, the suggested donation is be ten percent of the buy-in, just like the old registration fee. In rebuys they used to take a percentage out of the pot instead, so the easiest thing was just to stop them.
In the case of the £25-50 game, the suggested donation was £3 every hour. A somewhat bizarre way to collect a very reasonable (it’s that phrase again) service charge. I only saw one person opt out all night, and he didn’t get any grief about it from the players or staff. But he did have aces cracked brutally in a large pot and then steam off another couple of buy-ins before leaving. Funny how things turn out.
Although the hourly charge is decent, tipping the dealers was also expected. It’s illegal in a casino, but perfectly fine in an illegal card room. Half the dealers working were there for tips only, which wasn’t a bad gig really (I’d love to do it!) but they only got to work one hour on, one hour off which slices your pay in half and leaves you hanging around in the bar for long stretches.
You have to sign a sheet of paper to say that you agree to make the voluntary donations, and the very presence of paper on the table let to an outbreak of players attempting to remember the fantastic paper folding skills they had when they were younger. One guy did manage to construct a paper cube, then wrote "fold", "call", "raise" and "re-raise" on four of the sides. The other two sides stayed blank, depsite calls for "trap check" and "check-raise" to be added from players who hadn’t quite thought it through. Of course I managed to get involved in the first hand where he decided to use this.
With a straddle and 3 callers, I find AJs in the blind and raise the pot to £10. The dice’s creator rolls a "fold" and throws his cards away. The next player rolls a "call", chuckles and throws in another £8. The next player throws a "re-raise" and bets the pot. £36 more to me, and what can I do? I could push for the remaining £70-odd I have left. However I doubt I can make him fold anything now, and I’m either slightly ahead or way behind. Do I believe he really just did what the dice said? Or I can call and play out of position against two players, with not enough left to make a pot-sized bet, so I have to hit the flop. Is folding here mandatory, or just weak? I folded, he showed 9Ts and I started plotting to destroy the dice the next time it came near me.
The players were pretty solid on the whole, but I did manage to spot some value in this game – mostly it’s the habitual straddlers that provide it. There were usually four of five straddles each round. The dealers encouraged it with cries of "small blind £1, big blind £1… its £2 if you want to straddle". Obviously bigger pots mean bigger tips, so who can blame them. But straddling is one of the worst moves in poker. You’re paying a big premium to see a flop with random cards out of position, and I figured that having £10 of almost dead money in the middle for every £2 I paid in blinds was a pretty good deal.
Anyway, the result of my six and a half hour session was an overall profit of £17. Which is not a great hourly rate, but at least it’s profit. Although this really sounds more impressive than it actually was. I only stopped from going bust, in for £120, after I got a three-way all in with QQ against KK and AT, and hit the miracle queen on the flop. I’m back down on Thursday, think I’ll try again!
Seeing as it looks like FX isn’t going to show Poker Dome again for another month, and I have no idea when my heat is going to be on TV, I’m just going to go ahead and do this from memory. Without the aid of any screencaps of me sweating lots and looking like a nervous buffoon.
*** Spoiler alert *** If for some reason you do actually want to watch the show with some degree of suspense, do not read on.
*** Length alert *** Sorry, longest blog post ever. Promise it won’t happen again. For busy people: I was 4th.
For what is probably the most high-tech show on TV, the seat draw was decidedly low-tech. At the Friday night players’ dinner at The Palm, after enjoying a delicious Filet Mignon (I couldn’t help checking the menu: it’s a $38 steak, and we had a private room and three other courses) I got to pick first from six books of matches, each with a number one to six written under the flap.
Seating:
1. Steve Day
2. Carl Olsen
3. Chad Padgett
4. Hello, it’s me
5. Trey Aitken
6. Tom Bashioum
(I don’t know whether to be pleased with my Google skillz that I managed to find the obscure link to Tom, or upset that I couldn’t find anything at all for Chad).
The limo bus dropped us downtown at just about the only unit still in use at Neonopolis at just before 1pm. The show started at 6pm but in the meantime we had to go through "poker school", where we were taught how to play speed poker. It’s not just a little bit faster – you also have to announce every move you make, always stack your chips neatly (splashing is strictly forbidden), and learn to never, ever block the little camera.
Then we had a bit of a rehearsal where I managed to stack Steve after calling a raise with 24o and flopping 2 pair. For what it’s worth. He was playing his hand blind and got his chips back anyway. We all got to press the time extension button and make the lights go mental for thirty seconds. I’m still a bit disappointed that I never did this during the show itself, but there was never a decision that I really needed that long to make, or a situation where I had to convince someone my decision was harder than it actually was. The latter is how I’d hoped I’d be using it.
The set really is very cool, and the music is not as annoying as you’d think really. With all the commercial breaks there’s plenty of silence to break it up. The droning music helps hide for the fact the dome is not perfectly soundproof; you can’t hear much without it but you can’t hear anything when it’s going. I did expect the audience to be completely blocked from view when the lights were down – in fact you can see the outline of the first few rows. It would actually be possible to signal to a player if you really wanted to, but it would be very obvious, and probably followed by a swift ejection for all concerned.
We filmed some headshots in the dome (this will be what they use to project my face onto a casino in the opening sequence) and some extremely tacky thumbs-up shots. The film you see of the players getting fitted with heart monitors and being scanned for cellphones is bullshit though. Sorry, I mean that’s the magic of television. It’s recorded separately; I got scanned by a wand that wasn’t turned on on camera, but we did actually all get searched properly before going onto the set, and dark glasses were given particular scrutiny.
I did take some shades, but you won’t see them. Probably nobody will ever see them. They were even worse than the tie I wore, which people kept telling me they liked. I always replied that I didn’t believe them. Why would they like it? It’s awful. Simply the fact that it had glitter on should have been a big enough clue that I wasn’t serious, surely?
Walking back from the fake security check we meet Michael Konik, who has amazingly managed to write two Vegas books that I don’t have. They actually might be the only two. Of course I didn’t mention this.
The button is in seat 1, making me first to act on the first hand. Matt Savage tells me that I have a very special role to play, giving the commentators enough time to explain how the timer works. I must not, under any circumstances, do anything in the first ten seconds. I have some kind of garbage, probably four-something as it felt like every hand I had for the first hour had a four in it, and I wait an age before making an easy fold. Has to be said, because I’ll look like a moron who’s just going for the screen time.
Matt Savage is very modest, by the way. He reminded us not to forget to go see Lucky You when it’s released in March. I already know the answer, but I asked anyway. "Are you in it?". "Yeah", he replied, "it stars Drew Barrymore, Matt Savage, Eric Bana and Robert Duvall". Second on the bill, apparently. See his illustrious movie career unfold here.
So anyway, onto the hands I did play. I can remember eight of note:
1. My first button. I have 22 and it’s folded to me. I raise the pot and Trey or Tom calls from one of the blinds. I don’t remember who, or what the flop was, but there was a bet and I had to let the hand go. I do remember the sudden tightening of the heart rate monitor as soon as he made the call, and the realisation that… bloody hell we only have 50 chips, I can only do that a couple more times.
2. I have pocket 8s and am first to act. I raise the pot. Only Chad calls from the big blind, and he donk-bets a KK9 flop. With deeper stacks (and less sweaty hands) I’m popping him back, but I don’t have enough chips to test him, nor the balls to make a big move with an underpair here this early in the game. There’s plenty of hands that he’s already beating me with here, and I’m only just better than 60% to make it to showdown if he only has overcards. Good bet, I fold.
3. I fold my third pocket pair, this time jacks and this time pre-flop. Trey raises and Tom immiediately re-raises. It’s folded to me in the big blind, and I can (a) commit my stack right now, (b) call and play a mediocre hand out of position (assuming Trey doesn’t re-raise) or (c) get out of the way. Plan C looks like the best option by a mile, but I can’t help wondering whether I just have to bite the bullet and go for it there. We’ve been going maybe twenty minutes now, so there’s not much time left. I made it known that I’d folded JJ and asked Tom if he had me beat. He wasn’t able to play it cool convincingly, so I was a little happier.
4. I have ace-something suited on the big blind. Blinds are 1k/2k and Steve raises to 7k from the cut-off. It was either ATs or A8s, I don’t remember for sure, because in my head it was much stronger than that. I reraise another 10k and Steve shows he has been paying attention by giving it up. This was just about the last chance I would have had to pull a re-steal without moving all-in, it seemed like a good spot and so I took it. I still don’t know what he had – I was probably ahead anyway, but if I did make him fold a better hand then I’ll be having a screencap for my windows wallpaper!
5. Tom is a min-raising scumbag on my big blind, and it’s not the first time he’s made that bet. I make an almost compulsory (read: spite) call for 4k more with 64s. I figure he doesn’t have any of my outs, at least. All kinds of uneventful things can happen, but the board brings a massive scare: AKJ. It’s my turn to lead the flop, and then beat myself up when he re-raises – the minimum again just to add insult to injury. I’m still not sure if this was a move I had to try, or whether I was just throwing good chips after bad. I can get him to fold TT or lower here and probably QQ, and QQ or TT alone is more likely than a set with that board, but what’s his range for the good old minimum raise? I don’t know yet.
6. Desparation sets in. Chad has been eliminated. Everyone folds to Carl on the button, who decides to let me fight it out with Trey. My Jd4d is irrelevant with 6k up for grabs and less than 20k left. I ignore the warnings in poker school about not moving all in when you have more than the pot and let the guys backstage figure out just how much I’m allowed to raise. I get 4k back, Trey calls, and my future looks somewhat gloomy. The flop brings a queen and two diamonds, and I then proceed to suck out on Trey’s Q9.
7. Trey is the desparate one now and moves all in (or close to it) first to act. I have QQ, he has AQ, my hand holds up and and for a brief moment I’m alive again whilst Trey gets escored from the stage on the arm of one of the "chip girls".
8. Of course, I bust myself even before Trey has left the set. We share an exit interview with Leeann Tweeden, who I later learn is actually a respected sports analyst and not just a pair of jugs to host the show. I have AQs on the small blind, Carl raises from the button and I get it all in against, of course, AK.
Carl goes on to win, showing almost no emotion in the process. He probably agrees with the 2+2 sycophants that there was never any contest.
Plane landed on time, once I finally got there. That’s the last time I let someone organise a ride for me, as my limo ended up nearly an hour late, and I was getting just a little flustered. The flight was half empty and I wasn’t the last to get there, but I had no time to eat. Aside from some snackage in the green room and picking at plane food, the last thing I ate was Saturday morning, a horrible greasy breakfast skillet thing at Imperial Palace . Ready for a curry! It took a while for them to assemble the staircase to the plane. Either there was no proper gate available or the pilot had missed the jetty by a mile. We piled out onto the tarmac, with everybody managing to refrain from kissing the ground.
If you’d told me any time this week that I’d be spending my last night in Vegas at Pure I’d have laughed in your face. But after the trip back from Downtown to Caesars in the party limo bus (it was a long trip, but it could have been longer – the coolest vehicle I’ve ever been in) I joined some of the other losers and their friends and did just that. I could call it camaraderie, but mostly I think it was just that we all wanted to go and get drunk.
Yeah, I lost. No real spoiler there, you know I’d be bragging much sooner if I’d won it! I think I’ll post some hands I remember separately but still before I get to see the show. Although it went out in the USA whilst I was flying, it should be on late Wednesday night here but it’s not showing in the Sky EPG at all any more! I might have to find a torrent in order to watch myself looking like a nervous donkey and probably folding the best hand too many times.
I wasn’t sure that playing $20 roulette was the best way to get free drinks, but the game was kind to me. And apparently we played briefly with Jim Belushi, although I never even noticed, so I’m starstruck in retrospect only. I played four numbers and hit three of them in the first four spins! Beginner’s luck I’m sure, as all I’ve done before is the odd matchplay coupon and being an evil influence on Vij one time. He’d gone to make a bet for a friend at work, just a $25 double or nothing bet on red. When it hit, I managed to convince him that he could press it and go again. Then if it wins he keeps $50 himself and pays his mate off too, but if it loses then nobody really knows. Plus EV to be sure… 🙂 The next spin is black, of course.
I still have no idea how we got into Pure. Seat Five, Trey Aitken (long "a", silent "t" – he wasn’t going to get it misprounced on TV) did something or said something and then suddenly we were jumping ahead of about 400 people standing in line around the casino. Par-tay animal Trey blew his $500 in chips the night before on table service with a bottle of vodka. No table this time, but hey you can’t have everything… Welcome to the home of the $10 beer, but this place is something else.
Let’s start with the fact that it’s so damn big it needs an elevator. You can jump right in and go straight up to the strip level balcony. Which is fantastic. It’s not going to be the great city-wide view like you’d get at the clubs in Palms and Rio that are fifty something stories high, but it’s right in the heart of the action. Neon in your eyes and desert air in your face. Just awesome. And if that wasn’t good enough, there’s the Pussycat Dolls too. Caesars’ answer to the Binion Dollar Babes – a poor substitute, but they’ll do 🙂
I have a ton more pictures as usual (actually 351 it says, not bad for a week’s work eh) and some of them are even in focus. Expect me to bore you rigid throughout the week!
They did get me a car to Caesars. Yay! I’ve just done my pre-match interview nonsense, which involved me struggling to think of anything interesting to say whilst trying to smile and not look like a psychopath. After I maxed out on poker last night, I’m pretty spaced and trying to be human was all a bit too much effort really.
My mimes are: trying to look tired (as I’ve travelled further than anyone else this week); jazz hands (they will project Vegas behind me, apparently); trying to not drop a laptop whilst typing with one hand. For all of them they kept asking to tilt my head down to avoid glare from my glasses, but I’m sure this will just have created new glare from my rapidly thinning scalp.
Now I have some free time (wowee) until dinner later, when I’ll get my $500 in chips. In the meantime I’m contemplating a poker-free day. Yesterday I played three tournaments and three hours of no-limit and nothing went right. OK, maybe a poker-free afternoon. There’s always the 11pm tourney at Caesars or $2/$4 over at the IP.
My champagne just arrived too. Felt like I needed to tip but (a) they weren’t expecting me to be here and (b) I’m not going to drink it. I might have the ice bucket though 🙂
So yesterday, I lost at The Orleans at midday, Binions at 8pm and the Strat at midnight, with a bit of $1/$2 NL inbetween. I have bad beat stories from each if anyone would care to ask, but I’m sure they won’t.
Binions have let me down though. Here’s the scenario. We’re down to three tables and I’m in need of chips. I see A7 and push. It’s early position, but we’re seven handed, and I just can’t wait any longer. I get one caller, but as we go to flip our cards the caller notices he no longer has them. The dealer has taken his hand and mucked it.
Almost the exact same thing happened on Monday at the final table. A player moves all in, a shorter stack calls and I umm and ah and fold pocket 7s – I have him covered but not by much. Whilst I’m deciding the delaer has taken his hand. Jenny the Floor comes over and tells it like it is – players must protect their hand, and as soon as it hits the muck it’s dead. The short stack doubles up without even showing her cards. If I’d called here, I’d have eliminated a player without showdown. The floorlady shows a printed copy of the TDA rules to the protesting player and we move on.
So why, this time, is the hand recovered from the muck and played out? I can’t really explain this without sounding like an angle-shooting asshole, and that’s exactly how I came across at the table. I didn’t want to push too much because, basically, I agree that if the dealer makes a mistake costing the player a pot then they should try to make an effort to put things right. But here’s how it actually played out.
Ethan the Floor whispers to the player. The player whispers back. Ethan picks up the muck, riffles through it and gives the player back two cards. I ask why he’s changing the rules and he says, "I have discretion and I’m doing it for the integrity of the game". So much for integrity when it’s one rule for one and one rule for another. I was close to asking whether he knew the player, but thought better of it, took my shot against his pocket nines and left.
It was only on the bus back that I realised why this was so bad. I don’t care so much about the hand being played out, but that rule is there for a reason. It’s to ensure that cards cannot be swapped, and if your cards touch another player’s unprotected cards as you throw them in, both hands are instantly killed. This is exactly the way the situation would be handled if the floorman was colluding with the player. That’s not what I’m saying happened here, and I don’t believe it did. It was just a power-hungry floorman who thought he was doing the right thing, and was not going to let anyone tell him what the actual rule was. So now, sadly, there’s always going to be doubt in my mind as to whether something dodgy was going on here. If they must go hunting for cards in the muck – which I’ve never seen done before, just the idea of doing so is ridiculous really – at least announce the cards you’re looking for out loud, and then turn the muck face up to see if it’s there and the cards are next to each other.
I just had an email from one of the Poker Dome producers that was sent to all six of the contestants in my heat. So of course, I’ve been using this boob to do a little research 🙂
I already knew one of my opponents would be Carl Olsen, as he was the other qualifier from my heat. He was a runner up in the 2005 EPT French Open (apparently dumping out to his best mate) and has a string of other live cashes to his name, and online success as colson10. In fact, when searching for just his name, Google suggests: "See results for: carl olson poker".
Turns out we also have another possible online pro at the table in Steve Day. Sharkscope actually lists him (ackbleh) as a loser on PokerStars (current form is "tilt", it unhelpfully says), although he does play $210 and $315 turbo SNGs, which are perfect training for a speed poker TV crapshoot. Steve has a handful of respectable recent cashes to his name. Olson also is listed as playing $525 turbos and $500 and $200 heads up SNGs, although he hasn’t been on Stars for a few months.
Of the other three players, I only found one possible hit – Trey Aitken, a cafe owner from Alabama.
I still don’t think there’s any reason to let this intimidate me. I’ve known all along the game will be fast and furious, and at least I already expect two of the guys to be prepared for that and play accordingly. Besides, there’s a very good chance that any skill or experience will be rendered neutral by the TV format. Virtually every contestant I’ve seen on Poker Dome so far has appeared to be as poor as the show itself. Oh, should I not say that? I still have a one in six chance of $25k on Saturday, but I figure my odds of looking clueless are much higher.
The only new information I have had about Poker Dome in a month.
Regarding ground transportation, we take contestants from the airport round trip to Caesars. Since you’re coming early on your own and staying elsewhere, it’s your responsibility to get to Caesars.
Airport to Caesars = 3.8 miles
Strat to Caesars = 2.7 miles
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Updated 26/1: I take it back, they did actually send a car for me, and I didn’t even have to ask again. I was probably meant to tip.
Whether or not the Gutshot verdict will spell the end for Europe’s Busiest Card Room remains to be seen. Following the trial, Derek Kelly announced, "There will be poker played at the Gutshot tonight – but we may have to change the way we do it". He went on to finish in the money in a £5 rebuy game of chance and skill.
Clearly many Gutshot regulars, as well as other keen poker players throughout the UK, are disappointed by the guilty verdict. Amongst the comments of appreciation, sympathy, disbelief and outrage on their forum are calls to arms – write to your MP, or let’s start a petition and see what we can do. Even if there is no court appeal, there is still a fight to be fought, and it will be fought by more than just one gallant Irishman.
Boycotting Grosvenor Casinos is another suggestion. This is the organisation that commissioned the investigation that ultimately led to Derek’s prosecution, after the police were uninterested in taking matters any further. They have, effectively, outlawed private poker clubs (except for clubs that can somehow cover their costs by charging the 60 pence per player per day allowed by law) whilst also hiking their own charges earlier this year. It is only an interpretation of the Gaming Act that allows them to call their a registration fee a "session charge" and charge more than the permitted 10%. The Gambling Commission approves of this loophole, however, and I cannot see it being tested in court.
We eagerly await a formal statement from Gutshot to see just how they intend to proceed.
Edit: There will be an appeal.
Apparently. So far reported by two unregistered posters on Gutshot forum, and a call from someone who knows a guy who says he was there.
A few minutes later, the BBC agree:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6267603.stm
Harrah’s have announced the schedule for this year’s WSOP. Someone who is disgustingly well bankrolled has 55 ways to win a bracelet in 2007 – 9 more than last year. That is, of course, providing she is a female casino employee aged 50 or older.
The 52 open events now include much mixed-game fun: a $1000 buy-in SHOE, $2500 and $5000 HORSE and $1500 and $5000 mixed limit/no-limit Hold’em events. These are in addition to the return of the $50,000 HORSE "real world championship". Gone are the $1000 and $1500 bracelet events that took place alongside days 3 to 7 of the main event, and in fact you’ll only get to play a $1000 No Limit Hold’em tournament at all if you are a lady or a senior. The buy-in for these so-called World Championship events is almost as patronising as the fact that they have to take place at all.
"As part of our commitment to innovate for the benefit of all players, we’ve added nine bracelet events", says WSOP commish, Jeremy Pollack. Yep, that’ll be the reason. Harrah’s are, after all, world-renound innovators. Like the groundbreaking conversion of Caesars Palace from one of the classiest, most opulent resorts in the world into – well – just another Harrah’s with a few columns on the outside. More likely it has something to do with the certain drop in the number of internet qualifiers this year and the huge amount of rake they’re going to lose from the resulting smaller Main Event field.
They’re still planning for 9000, which is 1000 more players than last year’s capacity – the final total also includes several hundred alternates. The World’s Most Vacuous Cardroom is being expanded to accomodate up to 3000 players at a time and Main Event Day One will be split into three days, rather than the four they had last year. Day 2, which was split into two, is now scheduled for one day only. If they do manage to sell 9000 seats – I guess we’ll just have to wait and see about this – it’s going to be a very long first day, with over two thirds of the field having to bust out before the end of play.
The press release and full schedule can be found here:
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=393478
I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but this will change everything, one way or another.
Gutshot’s trial kicked off this morning at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Although quickly adjourned because of some kind of legal thing that I won’t pretend to understand, it’s still very much game on for the CPS and the UK casino industry vs a bunch people who just want to play cards. No more delays – this is all expected to be settled, one way or another, in eight days.
Derek Kelly, who is facing criminal charges under the 1968 Gaming Act, published an article on Gutshot.com this morning, confidently looking forward to the challenge ahead whilst also taking time to reflect on how things had come to be this way. In a week’s time, it may be looked on as the first eulogy for what was once Europe’s busiest card club. Meantime, this along with the expected daily updates is essential reading for anyone who gives a shit about poker in the UK, not just the twenty thousand registered Gutshot members.
I still can’t see any result being a good result. If Gutshot win, it’s also an easy victory for all of the imitators that have been springing up around the country playing the "if they can do it, so can we" card. Unlicensed, unregulated, law-unto-themselves card clubs will spring up almost as fast as Subways (can you believe that even Stoke – surely the only city in the world still without any kind of franchise coffee house – has five Subways that I’m aware of, probably more, and another is apparently opening opposite the train station soon). It’s difficult to see whether that’s much better – not taking into account, of course, the consequences for Mr Kelly – than if they lose. The game – for those not wishing to play bingo poker at the major casino chains and pay a 25% rake – simply becomes underground, unlicensed and unregulated.
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