Poker Tournaments in South West UK

[monkeymagic]

Hi everyone.. I'm looking to play in a Land Based tournament somewhere in the UK.. Following a number of online successes (last night I finished 4th out of 90, 1st out of 10, and 2nd out of 10 in the three tournaments I played) I would like to have a go at playing face to face.

FreeZey, I notice from the link to your website that you are based in the South West too.. I live in Bristol. Do you, or anyone else know of any upcoming tournaments taking place close to here? I'd set my limit at £50+£5 to enter, and with a field of 100 or less. Ideally playing No-Limit (possibly Pot-Limit if this is not possible, but defiinitely not Fixed Limit - hate it!). And the game would have to be Hold-Em naturally

Any help gratefully recieved!

Thanks
Monkey

[FreeZey]

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Hi everyone.. I'm looking to play in a Land Based tournament somewhere in the UK..

Pity I know a great oil rig tourney, sorry just kidding mate

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Following a number of online successes (last night I finished 4th out of 90, 1st out of 10, and 2nd out of 10 in the three tournaments I played) I would like to have a go at playing face to face.

Once is an occurrence, twice a coincidence, three times proves you can play. Real world games are defiantly the way to go. I taught a couple of people to play at the company next door, they started playing on-line and got a bit of experience then went to the casino with me for a £5 beginners tournament. They loved it and rated the experience much higher than playing on-line.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

FreeZey, I notice from the link to your website that you are based in the South West too.. I live in Bristol.

Yea South Wales [welsh accent]boyo[/welsh accent]. I was born in Bristol

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Do you, or anyone else know of any upcoming tournaments taking place close to here?

I used to play in a £10 tourney in Bristol, but the casino closed their card room because it was deemed “an unprofitable use of space”
Google tells me these are the casinos in Bristol
I’d recommend you give each a call and ask them if they hold poker tournaments. I know it’s a lot of hassle but finding the info on-line can be difficult.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

I'd set my limit at £50+£5 to enter

Most casino games are; £5, £10 or £20 re-buy. I normally limit my self to £40 max regardless of the buy-in. So in a £10 game that would get me;
1*£10 buy-in, 2*£10 re-buys and 1*£10 top-up.
£50 should be plenty.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

and with a field of 100 or less

You rarely see more than 60 people at tournaments held weekly. Only the big events pull in the kind of numbers comparable to the on-line games.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Ideally playing No-Limit (possibly Pot-Limit if this is not possible, but defiinitely not Fixed Limit - hate it!).

It’s been my experience that 90% of tournaments are Pot Limit and the rest are No Limit. You’ll be please to hear that I’ve never seen or heard of a Fixed Limit tournament game. In fact I don’t think a Fixed Limit betting structure would be viable in a tournament game.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

And the game would have to be Hold-Em naturally

It’s the most popular/common poker variant by far. If you do feel like playing anything else you’d probably have to do it in a cash game.

Hope that’s some help. If you’d like me to elaborate on anything just let me know.

Regards,
FreeZey

[monkeymagic]

Originally Posted by FreeZey

Pity I know a great oil rig tourney, sorry just kidding mate

lmao

Originally Posted by FreeZey

I used to play in a £10 tourney in Bristol, but the casino closed their card room because it was deemed “an unprofitable use of space”
Google tells me these are the casinos in Bristol
I’d recommend you give each a call and ask them if they hold poker tournaments. I know it’s a lot of hassle but finding the info on-line can be difficult.

Thanks.. I'll look into this for sure.. However, I've had no luck at all the last couple of days, maybe my three good finishes earlier on in the week were lucky after all...

Last couple of days I've finished 5th / 10, 4th / 10, 32nd / 200, 150th / 200...

Had some majorly bad beats though.. E.g. holding A A pocket.. Someone goes all-in.. I call all-in, board flops a load of crap, so I assume I've won, only to lose to someone holding pocket 4's - who flopped a 4 on the river!

Thanks for all the info though! If my game improves again in the next few weeks I will definitely look into this. When's the next tournament you're entering? And do you always play in casino run tournaments or are there other ones?

Thanks
MonkeyMagic

p.s. Site Admin: how about putting a list of Poker Rooms in the UK on the site? Or on the Poker.co.uk site anyway?

[FreeZey]

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Thanks.. I'll look into this for sure.. However, I've had no luck at all the last couple of days, maybe my three good finishes earlier on in the week were lucky after all...

Last couple of days I've finished 5th / 10, 4th / 10, 32nd / 200, 150th / 200...

Had some majorly bad beats though.. E.g. holding A A pocket.. Someone goes all-in.. I call all-in, board flops a load of crap, so I assume I've won, only to lose to someone holding pocket 4's - who flopped a 4 on the river!

We all catch a cold streak now and again. Don’t worry about it mate.

I was playing in a 25c 50c cash game last night. Unfortunately I’d been drinking and thought it might be good to try and top up my bankroll (foolish).
I played my usual cash game strategy of tight and aggressive. But the cards were driving me mad.
I couldn’t hit with any of my strong openers and the rags that I’d fold pre-flop would turn into great hands (mostly trips and straights).

After a while this started to aggravate me and effect my judgement. It finally came to a head on AQ. The flop brought 5 6 Q. I raised $15 into a pot of about $5 and was called all-in by one other player (for some reason on-line they don’t turn the cards over at this point, but wait till the end).
The bend and river brought 4 J. Not too worrying.
He turns over pocket 4’s (damn those 4’s aye).
I cut my losses and left in a huff. It was a bad beat but normally I wouldn’t have made a raise like that without something much stronger.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

When's the next tournament you're entering?

Cardiff Bay Grosvenor on Tuesday night, 8:30pm start. Texas, £5 Rebuy PL.
It’s a very friendly game if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

And do you always play in casino run tournaments or are there other ones?

After Bristol closed its card room (and before I started playing in Swansea) a few of the old patrons organised a private tourney for the newly displaced players. The venue was a closed café on an industrial estate and although it wasn’t quite “lock stock” it certainly didn’t have the security of a casino run game. Similarly there’s an invite cash game at my local leisure centre. I’m sure there are a lot of non casino run games out there every night.
I play in casinos now because they’re comfortable, secure and most of all finally convenient.

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

p.s. Site Admin: how about putting a list of Poker Rooms in the UK on the site? Or on the Poker.co.uk site anyway?

I’m always amazed by the lack of effort casinos put into publicizing their poker tournaments. Grosvenor’s on-line business support is laughable!

[monkeymagic]

Thanks for all the info..

Failing finding a game closer to home, I may travel to Cardiff with a mate and enter that tournament. Will see what he has to say about it.

May see you there then!

[monkeymagic]

I was playing in a 25c 50c cash game last night. Unfortunately I’d been drinking and thought it might be good to try and top up my bankroll (foolish).

I've done the same myself many times.. I also went through a stage of going to casinos after a heavy nights pubbing, clubbing.. Rolling in to the casino at around 4am, and losing £200+ in the space of an hour playing BlackJack in the most ridiculous way...

Got banned from Grosvenor Casino in Bristol whilst drunk for pouring my own drinks even though the bar was closed.. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but highly embarrasing in the morning! :o Have since made a rule to not go to Casinos or play cards when drunk - though of course, when drunk that tends to go out the window!

I played my usual cash game strategy of tight and aggressive. But the cards were driving me mad.
I couldn’t hit with any of my strong openers and the rags that I’d fold pre-flop would turn into great hands (mostly trips and straights).

Jeez, I know exactly what you mean.. This is incredibly annoying, and happens to me a lot.. It's happened so often that I've now started experimenting with playing a lot of moderately shitty hands when the blinds are very low. I find that about 1 in 10 of these bad hands, I manage to pick up something worth playing after the flop (2 pair, 3 of a kind). From that position I am able to recoup the other 9 occasions and make a chip profit too... This only seems to work when the blinds are low though!

After a while this started to aggravate me and effect my judgement. It finally came to a head on AQ. The flop brought 5 6 Q. I raised $15 into a pot of about $5 and was called all-in by one other player (for some reason on-line they don’t turn the cards over at this point, but wait till the end).

Yeah, for some reason I've noticed that on some rooms they don't reveal the cards when two players are all-in until after the hand is finished. Red32 & Poker.co.uk used to display the cards when everyone is all-in, but recently (in the last month or so) they wait until the end of the hand also.

However, I've noticed William Hill does display the cards after everyone who is left in the hand is all-in. Have no idea why the others changed though!

[monkeymagic]

Just to say Good Luck To FreeZey if you are going to enter the Cardiff touney tonight.. I'm not able to attend (have no car) and the mate I was going to go with is away this week.

Is it on again at the same time next Tuesday? If so, I will definitely come along!

[FreeZey]

Morning Monkey,

I didn’t reply before because until Monday I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d be going again for a very long time. A private enterprise I was involved in require a larger investment of my time which wouldn’t of left not much for anything else. In the end I chose to cut a deal and sell up. So you might still see me there.

Anyway.

The tournament is defiantly growing in popularity. Last night there were almost 70 players, so many that they had to improvise an extra table. They also ran out of 500 point chips which was a good sign for the prize fund.

Not a good night for me though. Had trouble picking up anything, in fact I only won two pots

Hands of interest:

Blinds 25 & 25.
Pocket tens in the hole.
8 players call the blind. I raise 100. 8 players call my raise.
Flop comes Q8Q
It’s checked around, the player to my right bets 200.
I decide to call but the player to my left acts out of turn and raises another 200.
So now I’m worried that at least one of them has to have the Q.
I fold, so does the rest of the table except the original bettor who calls.
Bend and River bring 6 and 4 with another 200 from each player.
The cards are turned.
The guy to my right has AK (nothing)
The guy to my left has 99! Taking the pot.

Last hand:

20 minutes after the freeze out. Blinds 50 and 100.
I’m down to 900 and need to make a move.
I’m dealt JT suited.
6 players call the blind, the big blind raises another 200 and it’s folded around to me. I call and so does the player behind me.
Flop comes J 5 6 rainbow.
The raiser leads off with a bet of 600 to put me and the other guy all-in. We both call.
I turn over my JT, the player behind turns over J7 and the aggressor turns over 56.
The bend and the river failed to bring a J, T or pair so I was gone.

I don’t know if I’ll be going next week. I should only really be going monthly although I am very tempted to make it a fortnightly event.

Important point
I said above that the start time was 8:30pm. This is not always the case. Last night I narrowly made the start (only thanks to the delay caused by the large number of player). The tutorial that starts at 8 and delays the start by half and hour isn’t always held so its best to always get there before 8 o’clock. Just so you know.

[monkeymagic]

Hi FreeZey

Very bad luck on those two hands.. I hate to fold then find the hand winner is bluffing..

Just about to play an online tourney at William Hill so have to be quick.. Have another question:

Do you have to be a member of the casino in Cardiff to turn up and play at the tournament, or can anyone walk in and play?

Thanks

[FreeZey]

Originally Posted by monkeymagic

Do you have to be a member of the casino in Cardiff to turn up and play at the tournament, or can anyone walk in and play?

You must either be a member or signed in by a member.
Membership applications must be submitted 24 hours before playing in the casino.
As far as I know this is standard requirement for all British casinos.