Gala should have remained a Bingo.
Last night I ventured into Sunderland for a Live game instead of the trusty Grosvenor in Newcastle where Ive been playing a bit. Easily the largest in the town and heavily advertised on our local radio stations I registered with Gala. Thursday night I give them a quick call to see what time registeration for poker game would be Im told must be regged for game by 7.30 latest for tourny start at 8.00.
I make the short trek in a Taxi £13.00 instead of £22.00 if I were to go to Newcastle (lazy I know, but Im not one for public transport) and arrive to sign up with the casino at about 7.10. In I go with my very professional new members pack and 1st impressions were very good, beer was good, Stella wow Ive suddenly realised that is a mans drink.
Search the casino for 10 mins with my pint in tow looking for poker room so I could reg, finally tracked it down to a little pokey corner over the back, very basic tables and chairs and no-one regging, more so no-one there to reg with. So off I go to look around the rest of the casino, only about 5 others in the casino at this stage I go and watch some black Jack being played. The staff were all polite but didnt seem to have a clue of what they were doing. In the 5 mins that I was there the dealer at the time failed to pay a player 1.5x for hitting black jack and asked me for confirmation whether she did or not after scooping the cards away, yes fine anyone can make a mistake but when there is money involved this shouldnt really happen.
7.50 and an announcement is made that registration is now open for the poker tournament, off I go and reg then off for a tab. When I return its time to sit . No electronic screens to decide table ( not that they are needed with only 18 players there ) picked my seat number out of a bag and went to join my victims. £20 NLHE and off we went. I bagged a few good early pots with solid hands stating my intention that I could play ( no wise cracks please ) within 30 mins I had more than doubled up and took my 1st victim out, or so I thought when he shouts re-buy, oh well shouldnt be to much of a worry finding out now that its a Re Buy game with such a small field I should still be home for midnight.
Had a good bit banter with the lads at my table about the blind structure, when do we know when the blinds go up I asked, to my amusement most of them laughed and replied with the same answer, when hes in the cardroom and remembers lol, this proved very true, sometimes 40 min blinds and once I counted an 18 min blind, how they could use those screens with all the info on. The chips were something you'd get out of a christmas cracker, very light and flimsy , definately not what to expect at a casino.
The hours rolled on and the Stella flowed my chips went up and up, no re-buy and down to final 3 as chip leader, my eyes starting to roll by now, I made a few agressive mistakes and called an all in with nothing, thankfully next few hands Im out, concentration levels were now non-existant. £100 for 3rd was to me was quite surprising but hey I'll take it.
£10 roulette voucher in the new member pack came in handy too, off I go and put on even 8 pops in and £10 is now mine, £5 BJ voucher for playing poker also came up trumps and go on to win about £75 from BJ. before eventually leaving about 1.30am for the short taxi home.
Casino much to be debated as if you could actually call it one, but all in all an enjoyable night.
My head hurt so much today, I should keep off the Stella in future.
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