Fasten your seatbelts - this column's going international!
First stop is the United Kingdom, and we're tackling Scotland and the northern regions of England.
The gambling laws in the UK have just undergone a startling change. The Gambling Act 2005 is the first such act since 1968, and "replaces most of the existing law about gambling in Great Britain and puts in place an improved, more comprehensive structure of gambling regulation," according to the website of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. A new regulatory body, the Gambling Commission, was created, and Internet gambling is now legal and regulated in the UK. What does this mean to the average poker player? The act allows for a slow expansion in the number of casinos in Great Britain, and such new casinos can be bigger and more like the ones in Vegas. This undoubtedly means bigger and better card clubs in the near future, the sort that are attractive to organizations like the World Poker Tour. That's not to say that the existing casinos aren't great. In fact, poker is massively popular all over the UK, where the name of the game is pot limit.
PL Hold'em and Omaha are the games of choice, though standard limit and no-limit games appear as well, especially in areas with more poker demand. Another poker variant popular across UK poker clubs is 6-card Omaha. It's the same game as traditional Omaha with six hole cards instead of four. Players can still only use up to two of them and the five community cards to make a hand. As can be imagined, six-card Omaha is wild and unpredictable.
The hand that a player starts out betting and the hand that player shows on the river might be completely different. Though UK players might be waiting a long time to see a 6-card Omaha event at the World Series, it still remains a favorite all over the UK.
Note that technically, all casinos across the UK are private clubs and require 24 hours notice to join, though membership can be obtained on the Web; this means that the minimum age for entry is 18, even if no drinking is involved. Still, that's a four-year jump on the States' age-21 requirement.
Poker clubs in Scotland and northern England can be found in the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Blackpool, Bolton, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Some poker clubs don't have dedicated dealers and rely on the players themselves to self-deal, which might remind a visitor of their own home game. The larger casinos, such as the Gala Maybury, have dedicated dealers.
"Currently we hold poker events 6 nights per week; all games are Texas Hold'em - pot limit and no limit," says Ally Myles, general manager of Gala Maybury Casino in Edinburgh, Scotland. "[We might] possibly introduce an Omaha tournament in the near future."
"Our regular Poker programme is Sun £20NL, Mon £10PL, Tue £50NL, Wed £10PL, Thurs £20PL (last Thurs of each month £100PL), Fri £10NL," he says. [Note: £1 = $1.73.]
"Business as far as Poker is concerned is very buoyant. With so much poker being shown on television and the Internet, it has certainly created more interest in the casino, and the number of players for each tournament has increased, which has also resulted in us holding tournaments six nights each week, where previously we were holding poker tournaments 3-4 nights each week."
The Maybury isn't just for buy-in cash games: it also hosts a major yearly tournament. "We hold the Scottish Poker Championships in the Gala Maybury Casino Edinburgh each year," says Myles. "We started this two years ago in the Gala Maybury - the championships had previously been held in Dundee when I was general manager. These events are European Ranking Tournaments and attract major poker players from all over. We are also entering a Scottish poker team to play in the Paddy Power Grand Slam which is being recorded for Sky Sports in January 2006 and will be screened during March 2006."
The Scottish Poker Championships, in past years, has attracted quite a crowd from all over Europe. The event in 2005 was held from June 27 to July 3. The main event, unlike past years, was a £1000 no-limit Hold'em tournament, starting June 30 with the final table the following day. This tournament was "double chance" format, which means that players start with half their total chips and can take the remainder at any time in the first hour as a rebuy or add-on. While some players might take all their chips immediately, others might choose to start with fewer chips in order to give themselves better pot odds. The winner of 2005's event was Liam Flood, a professional who has made final tables at events all over Europe - and won the £100 pot-limit event at that same tournament. Flood took home £12,375.
"I think the interest in poker will continue to grow all over the world," Myles says. "Budding players must remember that for every winner there is a greater number of losers. I believe the interest in the game has grown so much because everyone can play, not that I'm saying it's an easy game or there is no skill involved."
