Meant To Be At The Maybury

by thetank
Submitted by: snoopy on Sun, 26/03/2006 - 5:44pm
 
Sometimes you get the gut reaction that something is just meant to be. My official line is that I don't believe in such airy-fairy concepts as fate, but will confess to getting the odd feeling from time to time. When events conspire to bring you to a particular place, occasionally you can't help but think it's for a secret reason the universe has decided and that you'll be let in on it soon.

I got one of these feelings the day I decided to play the £100 rebuy at the Gala Maybury casino in Edinburgh at their last festival on Friday 2nd December 2005. I'll try to let you all in on how it came to be.

The night before I’d been playing a cash game at Cincinnatis. It was one of those marathons that just wouldn't end (but was still well worth sitting in). Eventually it trickled off at around 11am. This probably had something to do with me arousing from my cheeky wee nap a little later than planned. Too late, in fact, to make it to Edinburgh in time for kick-off.

Not many people who don't clean windows for a living are very motivated when they’ve just woken up. I certainly am not. That's why it came as quite a surprise to me that my attitude was not the usual post-sleep apathy of “Sod it, I've missed it, let's get back to bed.”  Twas instead a more gung ho, “Right! I'm-a-going to make this.”

So I jumped out of bed, threw on my ill-fitting suit, grabbed the wallet, obligatory i-pod and cheapo sunglasses before legging it out the door sharpish.

As I clambered down the subway steps, a train heading to the main station was just about to depart. I made it in just as the doors were closing. I kid you not ladies and gentlemen, the tune playing on the i-pod at the time was the theme music to Indiana Jones. Oh boy, was I fired up for this puppy or what?

On the train to Edinburgh, which I caught in a similar ‘just in time’ fashion (albeit to less appropriate musical accompaniment), I phoned the Gala to let them know I was on my way and plead if there was any chance I could still be allowed to play.

The train was to terminate at Edinburgh Waverly 7 minutes before the tournament was scheduled to start. I was cutting things very fine indeed. Especially as I had no idea how far the casino was from the station.

Hats off to the lady from the Maybury I spoke to on the telephone. She didn’t promise me anything, but said that if I got there as soon as I could, then she would do her best to get me in the comp.

When I arrived at the casino, one desk clerk told me that there was no chance, as the tournament had already begun. My champion from the phone interrupted and asked “Are you Mr. Stott? Right this way sir.” Happy days, if it were legal to tip such employees, she'd definitely get a chunk as soon as I took down the first place spoils.

Unfortunately, that's where things started to go arse over tit. It became apparent that in my rush to leave the flat, I had neglected to take along my bank card. I had a little under £300 cash on me so at least I'd have enough for my entrance, but would only be able to afford one rebuy or top-up.

Quite foolishly on my part, I didn't bring my normal rebuy game to the table of rocks they sat me with. Instead, I sat there tight as a pickle jar lid. If I’m honest with myself, it was for the ridiculous reason of not wanting to look as if I couldn’t afford to top-up so avoiding the possiblity of a re-buy by not playing any pots.

With such a dodgy game-plan, I probably deserved to be out-kicked and forced to rebuy. I had a King with a King kicker, matey-boy had an Ace with an Ace kicker.

What did I do during the break? What any self respecting gambler would have done of course. Tried to raise enough funds for a top-up by chancing my arm on the gaming tables.
This didn't pan out my way, and nor did the remainder of the tournament. I entered one race too many, a little over an hour after the restart, and waved cheerio to the last of my chips.

That evening was to instead belong to Chris Welsh, who added his well deserved victory to a 2nd he got in the £100 pot limit game earlier that year.

I have to say that the evening's experience was, on the whole, a positive one. The Gala Maybury has a good sized card room, which rivals anything else in the UK. We played within a friendly atmosphere and their tournament was well run (apart form allowing pesky latecomers to play).

I’ll definitely try to make it back for their Scottish Poker Championship this summer.

Perhaps that tournament will be the one that's meant to be.....

Thomas 'thetank' Stott