Unofficial PKR Edinburgh Meetup

PKR has a strong community focus and for the last year people have been arranging local unofficial poker games through the forum. I've always wanted to go to one but they've always been too far away to justify taking part in to justify my curiousity. I spent far too much money trying to qualify for the PKR Live event last year so when I heard even an unofficial meet-up was being organised for Edinburgh, well hell yeah, I’m there! 

The weekend's schedule looked something like this:

• Friday - meet up for drinks and a £10 rebuy tourney at a local casino
• Saturday - a few PKR only games in the afternoon, followed by a £30 double chance freezeout back at the casino at night
• Sunday - £20 rebuy tourney.

Friday

Seeing as I've been working some ridiculous (and at times illegal) number of hours at work recently I was able to finish early on the Friday to head through from Glasgow to Edinburgh in time for some pre-tourney drinks before the first tournament of the weekend. After getting checked in to the hotel, my poker partner in crime, Brentos, and I headed off to the casino and encountered a problem, who were we meeting?! It had been mentioned on the forums but only jokey replies meant there was no way for a bunch of strangers to recognise each other! I'm certainly glad Brentos was with me because otherwise I'd just be some poor sod all alone. Rather than wander around asking strangers if they were with the PKR meet-up, we grabbed a few drinks and something to eat before the tournament began.

Sitting down at the table waiting for the game to begin, I asked a chatty guy if he was here for the PKR meet-up, and he was, it was Modge, perhaps best known on the PKR forums for his giraffe. And to my left was SoxFan who was able to point out a number of other PKR players, awesome, I had made contact! I played a pretty solid game for the first hour, doubling up early with two pair on the flop when some action junkie called my check raise all-in with a gutshot straight draw, he had 6 rebuys before the first break. During the break I was introduced to more of the PKR crowd at the bar and everyone seemed friendly and up for a laugh.

Back at the tables, I ended up going out when i check raised all-in against the action junkie from eariler, unfortunetly this time he had top pair, and I only had overcards, I didn't hit and was sent to the rail. I couldn't find any of the PKR players at the bar, so to fill some time I sat down at the 3 card poker tables. First hand 3, 4, 5 of spades, OH YEAH! 35 to 1 for the "pairs plus" straight flush bonus and that's my weekend paid for! So after one hand, I stood up, cashed out and hit the bar. It wasn't long before more and more of our group joined me and the drunken party into full swing. I’m afraid to say there were a few skirmishes and ejections from the casino that night, some of our group seem to make better players than drunks but to honest, I don't really know the full story of what happened, so I can't really comment. All the while we were getting royally smashed, a player called TheManGus was taking no prisoners at the table, taking down Friday's tourney, well played sir!

Saturday

I claim not to suffer from hangovers, however, I was feeling a little rough on Saturday. We arrived at the casino to find a freshfaced TheManGus. As he had been playing poker til 3am on Friday, his drinking was severly impeded and as a result he was not suffering any after effects from the night before, unlike me.

We went to a different casino because this one didn't charge us for using their tables for our private PKR games but there was a good reason the tables were free, the casino DIDN'T HAVE CHIPS! Thankfully NewkyBroon saved the day and despite being on a work and poker marathon he went home and brought his own chips to the casino. I didn't win any of the PKR games or merchandise donated by PKR. I was pretty tired and wasn't on my B-game let alone A-game.

We returned to the original casino for the £30 "main event" of our weekend and I was sat at the table from hell. There was a mix of loose and tight aggressive players but the atmosphere was horrible. Apparent strangers were verbally abusing each other, the tournament director was called over a number of times, and a lot of crazy plays and badbeats just made the game go in entirely the wrong direction. Partly because I was tired, partly because the table was manic I just queitly played my cards. However, I seemed to spend the first hour making big lay downs, evertime I was proven right but no-one gives you chips for making good folds. Eventually I ran AJ shortstacked into AK and busted out.

I was out and exhausted, I just wanted to go to sleep but NewkyBroon was still on the go, despite now being awake for over 48hours, so I didn't feel like I could complain or leave as long as he was still soldiering in! PaddingtonPair and SoxFan made it to the final two tables from over 100 players. The two clashed and SoxFan's rock image won him a big pot, which forced Paddington into gambling as the bubble approached. After what was or at least seemed to be the longest hand for hand bubble ever. SoxFan made it to the final table with 2 big blinds left. despite being in the big blind first hand of the final table, with only another 1 big blind left in his stack he got a pretty much even split with the rest of the table when they made a deal, so congratulations to SoxFan for what must be the greatest deal ever made on a final table EVER! With negotiating like that, he should go sort out the middle east.

Sunday

I was shattered. Two days of drinking and poker had taken it's toll. I decided to call it quits while I was still ahead and went home. I believe NewkyBroon was on his 60th hour awake when I last heard, that man is a machine.

I've learnt a few lesons from the weekend;

(1) if you're going to play poker over a series of days, whether it be a big live tournament or a series of smaller games, best lay off the heavy boozing til the final night. Being hungover and tired not only ruins your poker but it makes it more difficult to enjoy the time spent off the felt too.

(2) I know I've not had as much time in the last 6 months to play poker, but this weekend and particularly talking to TheManGus, has made me realise that I've stopped learning about poker too. Until last summer I would say my game had been improving, reading books, reading strategies in forums and magazines, developing my game, learning more game theory and putting it into practice but since my workload has went into overdrive, I have become nothing more than a casual player, who just plays for an hour here and there when I get the chance. I used to think i was a student of the game, but I certainly haven't been that for some time. Unfortunatley for me, the global finacial meltdown has left little in the way of job opportunities, so things aren't going to change much until i can get a new job

(3) if you're going to meet-up with players from the 'net, make sure you know who you're looking for!

I had an excellent time and witnessed some top quality banter, so the next goal is to satelite into the next PKR Live!