It does seem that our land based qualifier in Sweden may not go ahead as the legal eagles are uncomfortable with hosting an event over there. It's not that it is illegal for us to hold the event it's just that it's hard to get clear guidelines that show it is legal so, as with many areas of gambling law, we are in a bit of a grey area. William Hill would rather not risk anything that could result in gaming related problems so it looks like we are going to go with three qualifiers in England and one in Ireland.
I trotted down to London for a spot of venue visiting last week with our project manager and 'the blonde adonis', tikay, who had kindly offered to introduce us to the right people at the right places. We went to our first destination and tikay got a lovely welcome from all the staff and we had a chat over a cuppa with the cardroom manager. He liked our plan and we left feeling that this venue was perfect for us if the costs are ok as the poker people there have acquired a reputation for treating poker players well.
As we went to pay for our tea, we were told no sir, it is free. It just shows that if you know the right people you can get a few perks.
As we left all three of us decided we needed a pee, so off we went to visit the gents together, chatting away about this and that. The minute we had walked into the gents, a small Chinese man appeared like the shopkeeper from Mr Benn (that might be a bit obscure for anyone under 30) and started offering us various soaps, hand towels and sprays. For his services it is polite to leave a tip, so on balance it cost us nothing for a cup of tea and £3 to have a pee. I'm going to ask El Blondie to come next time...
The online sats start on July 31st so keep an eye out as there is usually more value and less runners in the early sats. I know many shrewd players make a habit of trying to qualify through online sats as early as possible given the smaller fields before the events get even more popular later on.
