London Trip Report - The Western Club

[StevieG]

I have played at the Vic, Sportsman, and the Gutshot, but this week I was in London overnight only, and staying near Heathrow. The Western Club was close, so I gave it a shot.

The Low Down

The Western is a card club, not a casino. So there is no rake, and games are on a time charge basis. Membership is required, though it is free, instant, and only required a driver's license or passport.

The club itself is decent. New carper, upholstered chairs. Mostly round tables that seat 8 or 9 for the self dealt games, but a few oblong tables to seat a full 10 with a dealer. The walls are pretty bare, though, except near the bar, and even that has a no frills feel to it. Not as nice as the Vic or Sportsman (proper casinos) but nicer than the Gutshot, which really feels like a fraternity basement.

Bar has beer for £2.50. Sadly for London, no draught, only bottles.

Food is cheap and there is waitress service for the tables. I had a burger and fries (sorry, chips) for £5. Generous portion. The food was OK.

There are also a lot of keyboard-video-mouse setups for people to log in to Full Tilt online and play. The Western is an affiliate and they set up the machines for people to log online and play Full Tilt only. Must have been at least 20 machines open for use. I inferred from a sign that they let you transfer to their account and redeem cash from them, but I did not ask about it and I do not know if that is the case.


The Games

When I arrived, there was one cash game going, a pot limit dealer's choice game with a £10 ante and deep stacks. There looked to be one or two live players, the rest sharp.

I joined the £30+3 Freezeout No Limit Hold 'Em tournament.

Decent structure, 3000 chips to start with blinds at 25/50, intervals of 20 minutes. Self dealt game, but we managed to get at least one orbit every interval.

I played tight, stole some blinds, and doubled up with QQ against JJ early on. Then I went card dead in the middle stages, and was soon losing chips to the blinds. Eventually I went out with AJo losing to Q8s, 25th of the original 63.

Some point after people started busting out a new cash game started up, pot limit hold 'em with a dealer and a minimum £50 buy-in.

But for the most part, people left the club after busting out. Eventually another £25 minimum buy-in no limit hold 'em game started, that one self dealt, but that was it.

I looked over at the dealer's choice game for a while. The live players were gone, and what remained was a bunch of solid players who all knew each other. I watched a whole orbit of Omaha where there was not one showdown. Ugh.


My Self Dealt Debacle

If you don't already have an appreciation for professional dealers, try playing a self dealt game in a club environment. Even if you can handle it with no problem, you still have to deal with the other players who might not be good. Like yours truly.

For the most part I did OK, until I flipped over someone's first hole card. Everyone was relatively cool about it, yet I got rattled and that hand got worse and worse. Let's count my mistakes in this hand.

1. I flipped over the card, revealing the 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
2. I then dealt directly to that player instead of dealing the rest out and returning.
3. Facing a raise, I did nothing as the button and instead told the small blind it was his action.
4. Before dealing the flop, I burned a card, rather than treating the 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] as the burn.
5. Despite the extra burn card I just dealt, I did it again on the turn, exposing a K that paired the board.

Somehow I managed to get the river correct, awarded the pot, and the exposed K did not impact the players still in the pot.

Summary

Nice enough place, and they draw a good crowd for the well run nightly tournament. But it was really disappointing that all those tournament players can't sustain a few cash games, and that instead they either leave or play online.

I think the place is nicer than the Gutshot in some ways, but I have now been to both on Friday nights, and the Gutshot had easily a dozen tables going until the wee hours of the morning, whereas the Western barely had 3.

[StevieG]

Tube

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. Easy access from the Park Royal tube sop on the Piccadilly line, but make sure to use the pedestrian tunnel to cross Western right outside the Tube station. It's the only good place to cross.

[StevieG]

and photos:

The bar



The games. Note the bank of flat screens on the right, for the online players.

[KJS]

What was the time charge for the live games?

KJS

[LoosenUp]

Im curious, what other games did they spread

Is there alot of poker in London

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
What was the time charge for the live games?


[/ QUOTE ]

They collected £3/hour from the self dealt NL HE game. I do not know if the time charge was more for games with a dealer, but I suspect so.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Im curious, what other games did they spread

[/ QUOTE ]

The cash games I saw were a no limit Hold 'Em game, a pot limit Hold 'Em game, and a pot limit dealer's choice game.

[ QUOTE ]
Is there alot of poker in London

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering the size of the city, no. There are a number of places to play, but probably only a couple that you can count on for regular games.

[redsoxsalty]

interesting trip report. i'm going to be working in london this summer around there, so i'm thinking of playing.

is the play any decent in the freezeouts?

[LoosenUp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Im curious, what other games did they spread

[/ QUOTE ]

The cash games I saw were a no limit Hold 'Em game, a pot limit Hold 'Em game, and a pot limit dealer's choice game.

[ QUOTE ]
Is there alot of poker in London

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering the size of the city, no. There are a number of places to play, but probably only a couple that you can count on for regular games.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about LHE and Omaha h/l do you know of any london Card clubs/ casinos regularly spreading these?

[betgo]

Limit poker is considered a vulgar Americanism in the UK.