Trip Report - Gala Great British Poker Tour Edinburgh

Disclaimer – although the tournament was a two day event, the author decided only to take part in the first day !

Saturday night at 5pm and I am just getting showered and ready to head down to my local to watch the England vs Ireland rugby game then wash it down with Jalfrezzi and plenty of cold Cobra lager when the phone rings with an unknown number. “Hello Stuart, Its Ally Myles here from the Gala Maybury casino….(shit I really should not have left without paying for those two bacon rolls the last time)….just to let you know that a space has come up for tonights 500 pound main event tonight in the casino, would you like to take it….’I will let you know in ten minutes if that’s OK’….’sure’. Excellent, now I have ten minutes to source five hundred quid and explain to my girlfriend why poker is more important than our romantic curry.

Twenty minutes later and I am on the road up to the Gala Maybury with a hot ear and a “borrowed” credit card itching at the chance to dust off the rust from my live game and lock horns with some of the UK’s best poker talent. I really enjoy playing cards in the Maybury, they have a big spacious poker room (certainly by Scottish standards) and Ally Myles (the Casino Manager) runs a tight ship and is quite a poker enthusiast. When I arrived, the hustle and bustle at the front desk was surprisingly nothing to do with poker players but in fact a group of six pensioners who had to go through the nail biting process of having their picture taken for “security” in the casino. Standing waiting for five minutes I could not help but think that as the UK aims to become a world leader in gambling they have to make the process of getting in and out casino’s a lot easier.

It was great to see a lot of familiar faces from the Scottish poker scene and a lot of well known UK players when I joined Malcolm Mackinlay and at the bar for a warm up drink. Notable faces included half of the Hendon Mob in Joe Beevers and Barney Boatman, Surindar Sunar, El Blondie, snooker player Matthew Stevens and resident superstar Rory Mathews. The atmosphere was excellent with lots of shared smiles and sweaty-palmed handshakes being served up like Tennant’s lager around the bar. When the cards went in the air, one hundred and thirty of us were sat to play in the sold out first Gala Great British Poker Tour event.

At my first table I was quite glad to see Steve Jelenik as the only “name” on my right and a couple of players I knew from playing around Scotland dotted around the table. The thing that was really catching my eye however was the fine looking girl sitting in seat one drinking champagne, but a little more about her later. I had actually forgotten how nervous the first hour of tournaments can be and found myself a couple of times trying to move chips around and finding my hands shaking like a drying out alcoholic. A few nice hands and a few pots shipped to me and the nerves subsided and I felt like I had a good line on how the table was playing. I picked up two black aces under the gun and managed to lose the minimum against Mr Jelenik’s flopped two pair on the scary looking JQ10 board, where I prevented my right arm from picking up chips on any other street past the flop.

As we progressed into the second hour of the tournament I noticed that there was an awful lot of photographers hanging around and taking pictures of our table and the players. I realise that I am as close to being a supermodel as Paris Hilton is to being an astrophysicist but nonetheless I was lapping up the limelight. That was until I realized why, the girl in seat number one was Michelle Heaton from Liberty X and we were simply her backing band for the night. With my feeling’s hurt I decided it was time to see if this bonnie lassie’s poker could match up to her singing. In a word, no. With partner Andy Scott Lee watching over her and a bottle of champagne slowly going down it seemed that she was having a good time. I was fortunate enough to get into a pot with her for all her chips with the nut flush when she had third pair. The departing comment “I don’t even know what a nut flush is” pretty much summed up her first game as she and Mr Scott-Lee left arm in arm to go to the salubrious surroundings of an upmarket Edinburgh nightspot. The whole table agreed they were rooting for her to win that pot and murmurs of “do you not have any remorse” were being whispered as I dragged the chips. Final score Stuart Menzies 1, Z List Celebrity 0.

The Maybury put on an excellent buffet, and after tasting one of their steak pies my New Years diet was briefly put aside to make room for a couple more. Poker players are not’t greedy, we just like to get full value of every situation. After the break I began to put some of my chips into action and found myself in a huge pot against Jelenik. He opened in mid position to 1200 (with a stack of 17k) and sensing a little bit of weakness I re popped him to 3500 with the mighty 95 off suit (with a stack of 15k). He instantly called me pre flop and we both take the K57 with two hearts flop. He checks and I think about betting but it seems like he wants me to bet and I certainly don’t have a hand that could suffer any sort of heat so I check behind and a non heart jack falls on the turn at which point he checks again. I put him on a mid pair like 10s or 8's and think I can pick up the pot with a bet here so fire 3.750 into the pot which he calls quickly. The river is a horrible looking ace of hearts and watching him I can see he is disgusted with the card. I really have no idea what he could have here and he checks looking dejected. I remember thinking what sort of mess have I got myself into as I counted my chips there seemed to be only one way I could win the pot so I count out 6700 and fire it out with the confidence of Charles Kennedy after a dram. Steve says “that is the worst possible card in the deck” and passes, and I hear “hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley start playing on my ipod.

After the adrenalin rush of picking up that pot I kept my hands pretty clean and did not find myself doing much more than stealing blinds and antes a few times around. I think they call this in Aberdeen the “sleeping bag theory” where you basically put your sleeping bag on and fall asleep at the table, nursing your chips while the others around you do battle. Surindar Sunar made a short appearance at our table and was an unlucky loser when his 93 suited was not a match for 10J diamonds on a 894 board with two diamonds.

Just before the 6th level with the blinds at 3/600 and a 50 ante our table broke. This was looking to be the worst move I made all night as the next table I joined I found El Blondie on my direct left with a monster chip stack and all sorts of moving in short stacks around me. I was immediately impressed with El Blondie’s table presence and focus. It was amazing the amount of information players on the table were happy to give up by not paying attention to hands that they were not involved in. It was also great to watch someone mix up bet sizing so well and ignore the “standard” of opening pots for three or four times the big blind.

I had arrived at my new table with around 23k in chips, more than enough to play plenty of poker but it seemed like I was hitting my head against a brick wall. I was opening with hands like AJ, A10, KQ and finding players pushing behind me for more than I could afford. The two key hands I played were to be against a local Irish player Gerry, who was on my immediate right. He also had a big stack and was using it nicely. He opened a couple of pots in a row and I resisted temptation to put him to the test feeling he was not very strong. When he went for the triple crown I had already decided that he was going to be facing a bit of pressure. The fact I had queens was an added bonus. So he makes it 1500 total to play and I make it 4500 behind wanting it to look like I had a hand I was not willing to go all the way with. The action comes back to him and he gawks at my stack and completely confidently makes it 4500 with another 5000. As much as I hated it I was absolutely certain he had me beat and folded. This had seen my stack dwindle down to a measly 10k and with the blinds moving up to 500/1k I found myself trying really hard to remain solvent and get some sort of stack to take into the next day.

My final hand was pretty disappointing, and it was one of the last hands of the first days play. I had trusted my reads all night and felt like I had been playing really solid then got into a blinds battle with Gerry where he sold me the idea he was bluffing perfectly and I found myself all in with KJ off suit against his pocket aces…oops. I have to hand it to him, he played me like a fiddle with his reverse tell. I left the casino feeling a bit dejected as you do, but have to say my appetite has been whetted again for live poker. The Maybury was a brilliant venue for an organised and well structured event and I am looking forward to my next opportunity to play in a big live tournament which will be courtesy of Dusk Till Dawn in Cardiff. Hopefully I can rub shoulders with some more Z list glitterati!

All The Best

The Bear