Dusk Till Dawn Trip Report

I visited the self proclaimed "Home of UK Poker" for the first time this week. If you are unfamiliar, Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) is a poker venue in Nottingham created by Rob Yong, it's like a casino but the focus is on poker and not your typical casino games. 

Situated in the midst of an industrial estate, Dusk Till Dawn elevates itself from the other grey boxes with a four grand red doric columns framing the entrance. Inside, there's a small entrance lobby and sign in desk, before you move into the cardroom itself. As you enter the main space, there's a bar area to the right, cash desk to the left and in front of you tiered levels of tables creating an amphitheatre centred around the feature table, but more on that later.

Having embraced the hermit lifestyle COVID foisted upon us, I have played just one live game of poker since 2019, so sitting down in such a busy venue was fairly overwhelming. We were tightly packed in, and I was seated right in the middle of almost 200 players, the chatter, the clatter of chips, a 20 second shot clock, it was a full on and a bit much for the senses. I really had to focus on blocking out all the distractions, including the Hooters-esque waitresses, to zone into my table.

Friday night's tournament was a £50 (plus a whopping £10 rake!) bounty tournament. I'm not a fan of bounty tournaments because I never seem to pick up the bounties and, as expected, this time around was no different. The whole night felt like a battle of attrition with a total lack of cards start to finish. The shot clock makes it seem like you are constantly under pressure, I don't mind the idea but 20 seconds didn't seem like enough time, maybe even a 30 second clock would create a better balance? 

I made the trip with a group of friends and thankfully we had a last longer bet going amongst us, finishing somewhere in the region of 30 something out of about 180 runners, I was able to recoup most of my buy-in back as the last survivor. Ultimately, not a great success story for any of our group but we would try our luck again the next night.

We were staying in a nearby Air B'nB, I say nearby, it wasn't walkable, in part because DTD is surrounded by roads and more roads, we got an Uber there and back every time, which was quick and hassle free.

Saturday's game was a standard £50 (+£10!) tournament with one re-entry available. I felt a  lot more at ease on my return to the felt the following night having acclimatised to this professional and very well run den of gambling. While the rake is high, you get what you pay for, and the venue is above and beyond my experience of any local casino. 

It became evident that while my fair share of premium cards had never materialised the previous night, what was actually happening is they were being saved for the Saturday. I was almost shocked when I looked down at aces in the first orbit, and then again just a few hands later. Things were looking bright and for the first time in quite some time I really felt like I was playing poker. With the help of some good cards I was chipping up nicely, nothing too big or dramatic until one glorious golden orbit where the gods smiled upon me and blessed me with a concentrated sun run. 

It started simply enough, the player to my right opened, I 3bet him with AQ, he folded. Next hand, someone raises, I 3bet them with Jack's, they call, I cbet the flop and take down the pot. I fold one hand. Next hand I reraise the opener with AK, they call. Flop is K86, I cbet, they call. At this point, I'm beginning to wonder what my image is, it's only been a few hands but it could appear like I'm trying to run over the table, suddenly I've come out blasting. The turn is a blank, I bet again and my opponent gives up. Next hand player to my right limps, I raise with AQ, he calls but check folds the flop when I fire at it. Nothing has went to showdown so no-one knows what I've had but I'm certain people are getting tired of my shit. But all of these hands were just the set-up for the next hand The player to my right limps again, I raise it up with pocket 7s, he calls, as did another player. Flop comes J73, player to my right checks, I bet my middle set because betting everything is what I seem to do now, I get one call and then in a clear bid to make a stand against my incessant betting, the player to my right check raises all in for around 50bbs with JT. I call, the other player gets out the way and I scoop a nice big pot. Also  quite importantly, for the first time the rest of the players got to see I had a legitimate hand while betting, and that, along with a massive stack, allowed me to continue chipping up even after the sun run had ended.

The action, well, my action, died down for a bit after that, can't complain of course, pretty sure I was one of the chipleaders or thereabouts at that stage. Players dwindled, blinds increased and the bubble began to loom. I made a stand against a very active player with pocket jacks and doubled up against his AK. I thought this would comfortably see me into the money but I  hadn't anticipated the longest bubble I've ever been part of. 

There were 23 players left, with top 20 players paid, when play slowed almost to a halt. I had  thought I had a comfortable enough stack to slide into the money, and could see there were quite a few short stacks so felt there was no need to do anything risky, I probably tightened up too much but hindsight is a wonderful thing. It got very cagey. After half an hour we were down to 21 players, went hand for hand, and then things really began to drag. Another 30 minutes passed and nothing happened. Well, plenty happened, shortstacks went all in and doubled up everytime, numerous pleas for a saver/chop arrangement were dismissed, blinds increased and stacks shrank but we were still on the bubble just as we'd been an hour earlier. It was a good natured affair though, plenty of friendly chat, during which I discovered one of my tablemates had won over €35,000 just a month earlier after finishing second at the Dublin Poker Festival. She joked that she'd already spent it all, well I assume it was a joke, nonetheless I'm sure she was as happy as I was when a short-stack on the other table bust and we were in the money. 

Play began to pick up again but with three blind increases, very few gands played and even less won, I found myself with just 15 big blinds. What had happened? I  had a monster stack and now I'm short stacking it, I hadn't done anything! Thankfully, I seem to have garnered a lot of shortstack experience over the years and was able to deftly negotiate my way to the final table without too much commotion. Finally, I  was able to sit down in the luxurious leather chairs at the spacious feature table. I found myself as one of two players nursing a sub 10 big blind stack, looking very unlikely I was going to go the distance. But just like the short stacks at the bubble, I just would not die. I held on as much as I could, waiting for the right spots. Eventually I got my 5bbs in and won a flip. An orbit later, back down to 6 or 7 big blinds, I called off from the small blind with a dominated raggy ace but somehow survived. And so it went on, players fell around me, until I found myself still holding on with just three players left. 

Sometime after 3am, I still had two of my friends railing, while the others had gone 'home'. One of them had been on a remarkable rollercoaster of drunkeness, being worryingly drunk at one point with hushed chat amongst the rest of us to keep an eye on her but then she had come out the other side almost all the way back to sobriety by this point in the night/morning. The other friend had actually been cut off at the bar having been deemed a "security risk". I don't think he was even that drunk, he just happens to be a bit bolshy at the best of times and that seemed to have been mistaken for being an aggressive drunk. Despite the injustice of it, I did like that Dusk Till Dawn were on top of any potential misbehaviour, there was never any hint of trouble or bad blood amongst anyone the whole weekend. It's a good place to play poker.

As play progressed it turned out my last two opponents were friends and were even sharing a car to and from the venue. 4am approached a deal was suggested. Dusk Till Dawn will facilitate deal making but only to ICM, still the shortstack, I would benefit from this and decided to take the deal for £1275. Handshakes all round, we headed to the cash desk, there were a few things to sign, money to be counted, and after a few more handshakes, and distracted by the counting out of cash and tiredness, I almost walked away without my big blue £1000 wad! Thankfully, I was very kindly reminded.

Sadly, none of my friends felt the need to give me my last longer money the second time around..