Cardiff Review

POKER:

Main Event: Happy enough with my play overall, certainly didnt play too tight and felt reasonably comfortable at the 3 tables i experienced. Maybe would have been suited to it more if it was 9 handed but cant complain. In the end i made it up to my exit hand with all my chips only ever being in danger in 1 pot on that 4 outs river when i hit trips, thats always a good sign gaining chips steadily or uncalled in these long multis. Could moan about the cards but i aint gonna as i know they could have been better or worse and i pretty much achieved what i could with what i was given. I was also pleased with my stamina and didnt feel mentally tired much all day which even surprised me a bit.

Shootout: Very happy with this and bearing in mind the strange shit that came over me at the end im happy with the result and it means im £120 up from the trip as well :)

General Set Up:
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Some of the dealers were shocking with players needing to constantly aid them. One guy had never taken collected antes before. Ive grown up playing with top quality dealers in big live events so i guess thats all i have to compare with. The non smoking rule was a joke as people could stand at the rail 2 yards away and i absolutely stank of smoke at end of the day (something im definitely not used to in poker as all been smoke free everywhere ive played before) April 1st smoke ban introduced in Wales so only 1 week too late :( . They tracked everyone with an id card and number which we had to leave on table by chips every break so they could do updates online easier (good idea). Only problem with this was some dummy decided to use playing cards and write a number on them so it just made it damn confusing sometimes to see exactly who was in the pot when most people kept this card by their chips at all times. Ridiculous idea especially if its already been done at other events which i assume would be the case. Also prompt restarts were not common after breaks and the announcements were not very audible if you were in the wrong part of the casino. I also got sat next to an air conditioning unti twice which blew ice cold air on me for long periods. The tables were far too small for 10 players and a lot of them wobbled as well. All of the above sounds very negative , no 1 thing was terribly annoying, they just small concerns really that add up.
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On the plus drinks service was very regular and the buffet wasnt too bad. Also i should mention i got some help from a manager lady when i felt dizzy and she got me a drink, crisps and chocolate which all helped in perking me up a bit before pointing me to the cardroom supervisor who assured me the local welsh guy would honour the deal (despite the fact the casino doesnt officially allow deals).

TRAVEL & ACCOM.

Just under 3 hours returning and just over getting up there. Cant complain but as ive said before its always important to get up there the night before a big event, i lost count of the number of times i yawned in the shootout. Good clean hotel at £60/night. I was told it was £6/hour for internet which sounded a lot. It turned out i had no spare time and didnt even use the laptop so i never logged on to check those costly charges. The bonus of busting and being able to head straight home, i certainly wouldnt have wanted to hang in that casino longer than i had to.

PEOPLE

I didnt expect to see many people i knew to talk to but as it turned out i saw Clothey (CPC 2005), Fraser (CPC 2006) and also the Mad Turk (both CPCs) as well as meeting a few new people who im sure ill play against again.

FUTURE

Possibly more GUKPT events but im not too bothered if i fail to sub for more at the same time. Positives/Negatives outway each other and its business at the end of day. I expect to keep playing winners choice subs on Littlewoods but im a lot less likely to play any $100 rebuys on Blue Square now for the effort/time/reward factor to the $300 buy in.

Not sure what other events im looking at for now, the obvious WSOP is one i will try but im sure i wouldnt buy into that anyway if cash is available. Saying that if i can still get the hotel part of the package i would still go over for the holiday and play side games at other hotels if i was to win a package.