Stoke Circus Casino - Trip report

(X-Posted to the Stoke thread in Live...I've only put it in here because I'd like some feedback about my writing if possible please! Cheers, Adam.)

Having got very annoyed with the train journey home from London on Tuesday, I decided that I wanted to play some live poker that night, mainly as I'd been running well in the cash games at the Vic. However, living where I do, every local tournament is a rebuy one and I refuse to play them, so I was forced to look further afield for a decent game. I then remembered the Stoke freezeout, which was £20+£2+50p session (which went towards a league) with a starting stack of 8000 chips, starting at 9pm. I got in touch with RichEO, who was also up for it, and we set off for Stoke.

We arrived there with about 10 minutes to spare, and I had a good look around the casino. I've been to Stoke once before, but never really had a proper look at the place, and was surprised by what I saw. The reception is huge and very modern, with the desk to sign in right in front of you as you walk in. The reception staff were polite and pleasant, even when informing me I couldn't take my drink in (in my rush I'd forgotten to leave my Oasis in the car!) and offering to keep it for me until I left. When I entered the casino floor, I was shocked, mainly because there were no slot machines right in front of me! The Circus is very spacious, unlike most casinos where they try to cram as many machines/tables as possible in. They have all the expected games, but most of the tables were closed. The bar is to your left as you walk in, with the poker room elevated on your right.

We headed to the bar for drinks and food before we started, only to be told "no bar food available until 10:30pm." Sadly, this was one of the few areas where the casino was lacking, as the lady behind the bar was rather rude and distant, giving us the impression that we should have already known there was no bar food and were just wasting her time by asking. Disgruntled, we set off to the poker room for the tourney.

The poker room isn't exactly a room, per se, more of an elevated platform with railings around it. There are 17 "kidney" tables, and I was happy to see a lack of those annoying round self deal tables you see in the Vic and other places. Some tables were in better condition than others, but Andy (the cardroom manager) told me that he was in the process of recovering them all. The tournament was dealer dealt, which I wasn't expecting for a £20 f/o, and is a nice touch. We started off at about 9.20, and with a 20 minute clock + 8000 chips, you have to prepare for the long haul.

Neither Rich nor I got anywhere, and the less said about our tourney play the better. The structure is pretty good, and allows for lots of actual play, with the blinds starting at 25/50 and every level except 75/150 up to 400/800, and by then we'd both busted out so weren't paying much attention! We did notice that the blind times actually INCREASE later on, firstly to 25 minutes, and then half an hour, and that ante's kick in somewhere. Still, it is a very nice structure for a £20 freezeout, and the 71 runners we got was actually about 20 lower than normal according to Andy. Add in the complimentary buffet on offer and you can understand why I was bemoaning the distance!

After we'd both been knocked out of the tournament, Rich and I decided to try our hands at the cash games. This is another area that I feel could be better, as you have 2 choices. You can either play the £25 min Pot Limit Hold 'Em game, which is “self deal” and the session charge is £2ph, or you can play the £50 min Dealers Choice game, which is dealer dealt and £5ph. We both started with the £25 game after quite a long wait due to a lack of players. The £25 game is quite a simple game to play, a few loose players who will call you with anything pre and post flop, a couple of maniacs, and the odd tight player. It is “self dealt” in that it is not a member of casino staff that deals, it is generally somebody who is playing and agrees to deal whilst also playing. Sometimes, it can be somebody who isn't playing, but who can deal. There are always little reminders to remember “who's doing the hard work” and tips are accepted. I dealt the game for most of the evening and was quite handsomely rewarded for it.

Rich eventually moved over to the £50 game as the £25 game was breaking up. They advertise this game as Dealers Choice but it is in effect 6 card Omaha as most of the players will refuse to play anything else. There is occasionally Irish and lesser card Omaha, but that is truly it. While Rich was playing, I was chatting with Andy about the cardroom and he told me about his plans...which I'm not going to reveal, mainly because I can't remember them all in detail, but they sounded really good. Rich said that the £50 game was a really good game, but you need to sit down with at least £500 to be able to play properly as it is very aggressive. Lots of money to be made here though apparently.

As a whole, I would recommend a visit to the casino, as most of the tournaments have a good structure, and they are often deepstacked. I believe there is one tournament that is completely juice-free as well! The cash games come across as pretty soft for an accomplished player, there is definitely a lot more fish than sharks at Stoke. The only things that weren't so good were the rude bar people, the lack of valets, and the lack of choice for cash games (although this might be because there was not really many people interested in cash games, I was told that it was really slow that night though). Overall, you could do worse than go to Stoke for a game.