Never say Never

G Casino Coventry

It saddens me but I really don’t think I will be going to the G Coventry very much any-more.  I won’t say I’ll never go there as that would be daft, but unless they make changes it’s unlikely I’ll be going there much in future. Even though I love the place/people, there is just no tournament that merits going.

Looking at the schedule there just is not any comp that has everything I look for in a tournament. I want…
1 a good structure & a decent clock
2 decent number of runners (50 +)
3 preferably guarantees but if you get #2 it’s not so important
4 deep starting stacks
5 Freeze out format (I’m happy about re-entry, but don’t like re-buys)
6 Fully dealer dealt (though that is getting better at Cov)
7 Something decent to eat if I’m hungry
So for the following reasons Mon night is out (re-buy), Tuesday is just a satellite, Wednesday the laughably called “Deep & Steep” structure (i.e. 15 minute bingo), Thursday only 10k starting stack and 20 min clock, Friday I will talk about in more detail below, Saturday 15 minute clock, Sunday 8k stack and 20 minute clock. The Fri, Sat and Sun afternoon comps are all 15 minute clocks.
Just lately I’ve only been going on a Friday night to the £50 comp and I’ve come to the conclusion that I shouldn’t go anymore. I would have stopped a few weeks back when I first realised that the structure was shite.
It took me a few weeks to realise it was terrible as with a 30 minute clock throughout I thought it would be really good. However with only 10k starting stack and lots of missing levels having a 30 minute clock does not make up for it. There is no 75/150 or 150/300 so at level 4 after the break if you are down to 8k (which I often am) you have a mere 20 big blinds. That removes 90% of your wiggle room and 30 minutes later if you haven’t progressed you are probably down to 10 – 12 big blinds and looking for a hand to shove in with.
It’s not as if they are doing chip counts at 5.30 am because they are not. The tournament gets around 40 runners (plus some re-entries to make just about the guarantee £2,500) and the last two weeks they have been down to two tables at 11.30 and 11.45 respectivley. From then on it does slow up but only because of the style of play most of the players have. There are many who are willing to get blinded down to 4 or 5 big blinds waiting for AK, or JJ+.
I’m reluctant to moan too much about the way a lot of them play for fear of it sounding like sour grapes (I’ve never cashed in this comp and I’ve played it 8 weeks running) and yet I’ve seen people on the final table limping in early position when they have 6 big blinds and then folding to a raise.
A lot of the time casinos think if they give fewer chips it won’t take so long. I actually disagree with this assumption.  I tighten up my starting range, 3 bet less often and call raises in position less often with fewer starting chips because I have no choice.
What they don’t seem to realise is without these multi-way pots less people get busted at the early levels. What little edge I have over the Muppets in this comp is just lost if I can’t play pots with them.
Once the blinds are 300/600 (level  5) if it’s folded to me my normal opening bet will be 1,500 but if you only have 8k that’s just too dangerous without a real hand. You can’t raise/fold more than once with that stack size. So I just have to sit there and wait like the rest of them.
For this comp to only have a 10k starting stack it should have the same structure as a GUKPT event with the 75/150 and 150/300 added, plus play 100/200 twice the second time with antes. The antes come in far too late. For me the earlier the antes come in the better as I’ll be opening pots and taking them more often than the average player there.
If they don’t want to put all the levels in then the starting stack should be increased to 20k.
They are running a £100 2 day comp once a month starting on 26th October, but I definitely will not be playing it. Although the clock is 40 minutes it also just has a 10k starting stack. For a £100 2 day comp that is just ridiculous. I don’t know what levels will be in the event but if it’s like the normal Friday one it will struggle to last 2 days that’s for sure.
I’m fairly sure that they will be down to such low numbers by the end of day 1, that the players involved will probably ask if they can carry on and play it out rather than come back the second night. Personally I’d rather sit and play cash with £100 than play a structure like that.
As I say I realised some weeks ago that the structure/starting stack wasn’t great but I wanted to support the comp as I along with a lot of other players had been asking for a better comp on a Friday night for some time.
I always felt that the £15 was just so low as to make it hardly worth bothering with. It used to get about 60 – 70 runners on a good night but it was daft when you could play all night and min cash for £20.
Personally I was hoping that it would just be raised to £25 with a £1,500 guarantee which is enough to just make the prize pool more worthwhile and yet it would not price out the casual/social players.
There are 3 girls who played the £50 comp 3 or 4 weeks running but when two of them got busted the 3rd one would just shove in blind to deliberately bust out so they could go into the bar for the karaoke! But at £50 each that’s an expensive comp to enter when you have no real intention of playing it seriously.
I noticed that this week they didn’t enter the comp even though they were there.  Also there is a girl called Kayleigh (I think that’s her name) who didn’t enter this week as she said it’s just a bit too much money for her. Too be honest I think she was wise as she’s new to the game and that’s not meant to be patronising. She’s no worse than a lot of the players at Cov but to her credit at least she has the brains to realise her limitations.
It’s always entertaining to have her on my table as she’s as nutty as a fruit cake. She really makes me laugh with some of the stuff she comes out with.
Anyway Friday just gone I did say to a few people at the start of the comp that I probably wouldn’t be playing it again. Shame really as I really do like the people up at Coventry far more than any other casino I go to.
After busting the comp in the usual manner I just hung around and chatted to people rather than go home. The £1/2 game was way too deep for me to sit down at so I just had a punt on roulette (small win) and then sat on the 25p/50p PLHE table out in the pit.
Paul Hall

That was fun, I was sat with Paul Hall to my right and then Steve Owen sat down three to my left after about half an hour. He couldn’t resist it. Steve normally plays the bigger cash games at Cov six night s a week but tonight he’d suffered a couple of horrid beats on the £1/2 table. The second one I witnessed when he flopped a set of 8’s and lost a really big pot to a river straight.

Even though he’d still got lots of money on him he decided to leave the game. Steve had been stood behind me sweating my cards telling me I should be “raising the pot every time”. It’s only 50p big blind and most of the players on the table are very lose/passive so I prefer to see flops cheaply (unless I have a real premium hand) and then get maximum value if I hit something big.
Anyway the table is fun and when Steve sits down true to his word he starts making pots sized raises pre-flop every hand. I fold the first few hands (without even limping for 50p) as I know what’s coming, then 4thhand Steve is big blind and I get AKs and limp along with several others.
Steve Owen

I know he’s potting it and of course he does, everyone folds to me so I re-pot it and much to my surprise the lady to my immediate left who also limped for 50p now calls my re-pot-raise of about £12 and so does Steve.

We are 3 way to the flop and I miss everything and Steve checks to me, I check and so does the lady. On the turn Steve checks again but I’ve picked up a gutter ball Broadway draw so I bet the pot which is me all in except 50p. (Max sit down is £25) The lady calls though she has less than me and Steve calls as well.
I river the nuts and flick my last 50p in, Steve calls me. He had a pair of 9’s and was ahead on the turn. Ha Ha! See I can run well when it’s penny pots.
After that Steve tries to bully the other players in a few more pots but just gets mullered. Then a real funny pot happens when he raises pre, gets loads of callers and then when he pots it on the flop all 6 players fold. Normally he’d get 4 or 5 callers as they just hardly ever fold but this time they all did. To my great amusement Steve turns over pocket Aces in total disgust when they all fold. Paul and I rib him mercilessly.
It was actually really enjoyable poker as it’s perfectly acceptable to laugh and take the piss out of your mates in those sorts of games. Obviously at the £1/2 table it’s not the done thing to start laughing when someone gets unlucky 🙂
The standard of play on the table in the main is terrible and it’s actually quite difficult to adjust to the way they play.  One funny hand that happened just before Steve sat down I tweeted about: My bb, 2 limpers then guy min raised. Small blind and I both call as do the original 2 limpers. So 4 of us call him.
Everyone checks to him on flop, so what does he do? …… He folds. I genuinely laughed out loud.
After I’d left Steve somehow managed to win a £130 pot with 63 when he turned a boat, not bad at a 50p table.
Anyway I shall miss Coventry and the people there. I’m sure I will go there occasionally but it’s back to the Gala for me from now on. Though on Fridays I may give the Broadway crap-shoot a try. The structure is as bad as Coventry’s but it makes £4 or £5k.

My blog gets just over 200 unique visitors a week nowadays and a lot of the regulars at Coventry read it so hopefully I’ll see you all before too long. The fact that so many of the regulars read it now has slightly changed the way I write it as I have to be aware that anyone I mention may read it or be told about it. Hence why I didn’t describe any of the girls mentioned. Suffice to say… “nice shoes”.