The Isle

Right, so we (me, Lauren, Tommo and Flash) decided to go to the new Isle Casino in Coventry for a tenner rebuy. Yum! Let me tell you about this place first. It is amazing, the nicest casino in England at the moment. Wow! There is a steakhouse in the casino, as well as a swanky sports bar and food court. Yum! So I sit down at my table, and who should I find on my right but Lauren, and who should I find on my left but Flash. Awesome! So the tournament kicks off, and I am playing my standard spewy rebuy game. Lauren is playing very well but gets unlucky several times (AA vs K9, 77 vs 55 and AK vs T8 amongst others). Flash builds up a stack nicely despite this one pot where on a board of K-9-5-K and Flash shoves. There is an insta-call from 2-2 in late position and clearly he has a read on Flash since our hero flips over T-6 offsuit. What a read by late position!!!

I bust pretty quickly (doh!) and sit in a dealer's choice cash game with Tommo, who by this time is causing havoc (asking for 5/10 limit and courcheval). He then compromises by choosing hi-lo omaha but this does not go down well. Tommo is told to "go to the Vegas table over there, this is Coventry", as some old guy pointed to an empty table in the corner. Tommo compromises once more by choosing 4-card omaha zzz.

Flash is getting along nicely in the tournament, and Lauren has left for Leam as she is working the next day. Nice! Flash ends up coming 9th in the tourny for 50 quid, and by this time I am feeling absolutely shattered, but we soldier on anyway until the casino shuts at 6 in the morning. One of the highlights of the night is where Tommo has Q-Q-x-x on a board of Q-5-5-K-7 and he sets someone (Morgan Freeman look-a-like) all-in for 29 quid who calls. Tommo flips over his full house and his opponent flicks through his hand for a good 15 seconds before showing 5-5 for quads. A slowroll even I would have been proud of myself. Tommo is incensed and storms out of the cardroom with the dealer saying "If that happened to me, I'd take a break too." As soon as Tommo re-enters the cardroom, he asks for a seat change and moves to the seat directly opposite Morgan and proceeds to stare him down for the next 10 minutes. The rest of the cash-game is pretty uneventful except for the choices of games (7-card stud, badugi, 4-,5- and 6-card Omaha and of course holdem).

On a side note, we felt pretty welcome at The Isle Coventry - the players were friendly and the atmosphere was very nice. Players of note: Old Chinese Guy talking about China National Service; Karl the dealer who always kept things in line (even when the rowdy Greeks came to the table); Zeb who told Tommo to go to the Vegas table. He also said how he preferred women with "larger features around the waist"...interesting. We ended up staying until 6am (casino closing time). The service was awesome (zero rake, zero table charges...how much better can you get?). We'll be going back on Tuesday to take down the 30quid Double Chance. 6k starting stack. YUM YUM!