For any interested parties.
Caz, myself and a group of friends played in the Pot Limit Holdem event last night.
Gala hold tourneys Thursday to Sunday, inclusive, as follows:
Starting stack = 3000
Blinds start at 50/100 (first two levels 30 mins, every 15 mins thereafter)
There are no rebuys, and betting is pot limit.
Gala provide the dealers.
Thursday/Saturday £10 buy in (plus £1 fee)
Registration from 7:00pm, tourney starts at 8:15pm
Friday £20 buy in (plus £2 fee)
Registration from 7:00pm, tourney starts at 8:15pm
Sunday £10 buy in (plus £1 fee)
Registration from 5:00pm, tourney starts at 6:15pm
The card room at Gala Bradford holds 6 round tables, each of which will accomodate 8 players and a dealer. The room itself is no smoking, obviously the rest of the casino will join it come the 1st July.
Dealers were pleasant, proficient, and in some cases, quite entertaining. Most of the players were friendly, although there were instances of bad language but without the malice that you might normally associate with such language - I think the term might be "banter".
Anyway, three of our number made the final table, including Caz - Naturally, I didn"t make it to the final table.
During and after the tourney there are a number of Sit and Go"s - I think the buy in was £10
I quite enjoyed the structure and will certainly go again, but Caz had a couple of critisms which I kind of agree with;
1. The 15 minute blind levels from level 3 onwards are a little quick.
2. Pot limit is ok, but would much prefer no limit.
I think if we"d never played the APAT events we"d probably not levelled these critisms. As I pointed out to Caz, we have been spoiled because of our very positive experiences playing the APAT series.
In conclusion, it"s worth a look, and is certainly better than a certain other casino in Bradford that promotes an all in fest from hand one.
Ian Burnett - APATs West Yorkshire Poker correspondant