Birmingham Roadtrip

I was looking forward to this roadtrip for a while. I had to go to London on the Sunday night so the Broadway casino in Birmingham seemed like a good staging point for the Fri and Sat night.

The Broadway has been my lucky casino and a bit like a bank machine for me over the last few years, so I was hoping to boost this months figures a bit and have a decent drinking session with some buddies at the same time!

Birmingham Broadway Cardroom

I met up with the guys just before the game, Alex, Franco and myself, and we polished off a bottle of Champagne in the car park (classy I know), then the lot of us went for the Fri £45 tournament.

A few more beers and whiskys and the tournament seemed to be ticking along nicely for us all, then 1st to drop was Alex who got his queens toasted by some suited connectors. Then it was me next when I came a cropper with my AK surrendering to AQ with both of us all in pre flop.

A queen appeared on the turn, not so good.

Still I had time to re-enter, so I did. Alex didn't and hit the cash tables instead. I duly parted with another £45 and was off in the tournament again for a 2nd go.

This buy-in didn,t last massively long time either, my demise came when I chose to flat call the button raiser aka table maniac with my AJ off suit. 

Over the course of the evening he had been tabling each and every bluff, pretty regularly - usually absolute garbage - and he had amassed a decent stack on the back of this.

Anyway,the flop came down K J 2. Not bad, but not great.

I check, and to my surprise he checks behind.

The turn is an ace. Now this is nice.

I bet 5k into the 12 k pot. I,m happy to take it down without any river shennanigans.

However, the villain does the total Hollywood routine, head in the hands, looking to the sky, shaking his head, checking his cards continuously before forlornly shoving all his chips in the middle. ALL IN!

All this tells me I,m probably behind, but with only 7k behind me I can't really fold to the re-raise. 

Although he has been at it all night, I reckon for once the guy has a hand, AK or K,s or Jacks seems most likely.

I ask if he has AK as I make the call.

He shows AK and the river doesn't deliver the miracle. Two buy-ins dusted. This is not great.

CASH

Still the show must go on... I join Alex and we polish off a few more beers and whiskys,  before going back to the cash tables. At least Franco is still hanging on in the tournament with just 2 tables left.

Cash is my worst game and my achilles heel in poker my memories of the session are hazy, I remember winning a few decent hands with..something... and when the card room supervisor woke me up at about 4am to tell me that I couldn't sleep at the cash table, I had £6 more in front of me than when I started - first cash game profit of the year! I,m buckled though and head off to crash in my room.

£96 from a £90 buy in!

Alex was cleaned out at this stage so just Franco was playing cash and he later tells me he got his stack up to about £500 before losing the lot against a flopped set. 

Day one has been a great night, but a bit of a disaster all round on the poker front.

Next day we,re in the town getting rid of the hangovers and meeting up with some other friends and their families before they all headed off homewards on Sat Night.

I,m heading onwards to London the next day for a gig though, so I,m getting another chance so for the Sat night tournament, its the £35 double chance for me.

It actually started really well for me, winning a couple of monster pots early on including flopping quads, but I ended up getting shafted in a few big car crash pots so was down to about 18k from 50k at my peak. I then got moved to a table where I didn,t know any of the players, and 2 hands in I pick up pocket 10,s on the button.

I raise to 3k with blinds at 400/800. I get 2 callers, and the flop comes down J, 9, 7 rainbow.

I know nothing about these 2 guys, their style or range so when they both check I c-bet another 5k. 

The 1st guy shoves all-in, and with out much deliberation the 2nd guy also goes all-in and he's got me covered.

Horrible!  I eventually make the fold and the 1st guy shows A9 and the 2nd shows 6, 8. Board runs out blank and the A9 wins.

Aargh!

I,m on tilt and the end comes not long after when I pick up a flush draw, ship it and miss.

August's dry run continues....

Anyway, a couple of random pics of 2 other casinos in Birmingham below plus a dude getting a hand to get onto a 6ft high unicycle.....

Gala Casino (not exactly the Bellagio!)

Fiveways Casino Birmingham

A man on a big unicycle