Welcome to the Gutshot

I’ve been in London for coming on three weeks now and kind of dipped my toes so to speak into the massive poker scene over here. I had done a little bit of research prior to coming over, checking out various poker clubs online sites etc. I found a joint called ‘The Gutshot’ and the website looked pretty flash so I made it my choice to check out for real once I arrived.

On day one here I took Tarz on a walking tour of London so she could get her bearings a bit – I have lived here before about 7 or 8 years ago but she had only ever visited. I made sure that the tour magically went along Clerkenwell Road (a bit north-west of the CBD) and there, in a nondescript brown-faced building, proudly stood what I hoped would be the place where I would really start my live poker career.

I play a lot of online poker but there is only so much enjoyment you can get out of sitting at a computer and making bets against faceless opponents for hours on end. The real reason I like poker is the social side to the game – to me, a great night can involve little more than having some good friends around, swigging on beers and talking crap as we battle it out for tiny little stakes – the money is irrelevant in games like that as its all about the banter and the smacktalk. Win or lose I always go home happy after a good session of live poker. Also – there is something fun about mucking around with chips that you obviously can’t experience online.

So back to the Gutshot. Now that I knew where it was, I felt it was only a matter of time before I went in to try and ply my trade against the local competition. We had arrived on a Sunday and I was registering with an employment agency nearby on the Tuesday arvo so I figured what better time to go and join up to the club. I wandered over and had a chat to the guy on the desk while I joined up. He was cool and told me to come back that night which was ‘beginners night’. Although the prospect of beginners night didn’t enthuse me, I figured it would give me a taster of what the Gutshot was about without the threat of killing my already almost non-existent bankroll. 6:45pm rolled around and I hit the tube to make my way in to the city for the 8pm ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ call.

The Tuesday night tournament is a variable buy in freezeout. I’ve never seen this kind of buy in structure before and don’t really rate it highly but each to their own I guess. The way it works is you can buy in for £5, £10, £15 or £20 and you get 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 chips respectively. I guess this is good if you can only afford the smaller buy ins but I can’t see the point in buying yourself in as a short stack from the first hand. Needless to say I bought in for the max.

The table talk was friendly and although I didn’t play to the peak of my powers (I’m sure I have powers – still waiting to unleash them once I figure out what they are) I enjoyed my first live experience in the big smoke. There was 87 runners and I got busted out in about 45th after I donked most of my chips off on a stupid gutshot straight draw. I don’t usually chase gutshots so maybe it was the whole ‘I'm playing at the Gutshot so I'm making this gutshot’ thing happening. Regardless, it was stupid and I ended up busting the next hand when I pushed my shortstack holding KQ and got no help from the board against his Jacks.

I checked the website the next day and the winner took down about £520 which isn’t a bad return for a £20 investment and a few hours work. I had a great time and with the possibility of taking down 500 big ones for a £20 buy in I’ll def be back. They also have juicy looking cash games and this is my forte (yeah I have powers and a forte!!!) so I’ll be checking them out once the bankroll starts climbing.