Portugal
Landed in Portugal a couple days ago for the Portguese equivalent of the GUKPT to be held bimonthly. This leg is being held in Estoril about 30Km north of Lisbon, the capital.
Betfair Poker kindly put me up in a lovely 5 star hotel with 24 hour room service, however the room service doesn't deliver to the rooms between 2 and 6am. Portuguese 24 hour clock, got to love it. Naturally, since i landed the weather has deteriorated into typical London weather, sun covered by cloud, drizzle of rain and random gusts of strong wind. However, the people here are very hospitable and luckily most speak English which helps when ones portuguese is limited to 4 words.
The first day we just met up with some betfair staff and portuguese players, had a lovely dinner then went over to the Estoril Casino where the touranment is due to be held. Incredibly, this casino is the largest floor space casino in the whole of europe! It is quite bizare though, as you walk in there is a HUGE bar area in front of you and the casino gaming floor is scattered around it with some cool restaurants on the outskirts. Upstairs is a more plush gambling area followed by the official "Gambling Room" which I was surprised to find out that you had to pay 4 euros to enter. I asked the cashier why I had to pay 4 euros to enter, she kindly informed me it was so i could play casion games such as blackjack, roulette and punto banco. Well, why would i pay 4 euros to play them in the "gambling room" when i can play them for free in the rest of the casino. Her answer was very simple, "Sir, you pay the 4 euros so you can play the roulette, blackjack or punto banco." Well that makes sense! Needless to say i paid the 4 euro out of curiousity and of course to see the cash games they had. The poker cash games were just incredible. You would not believe the rules they have. 2 tables, 10 handed. Max buyin 1k, minimum buyin 75 euros. Blinds 5 - 10 euro. BUT, every hour there is a 5 minute break and a redraw for seats and tables!!!! WHAT??? If that is not enough to tilt you, every hour when they have the redraw you can only start the session with a max of 1k. Some people who won a few K previous session would start all over with 500 or less. If you get unlucky early or get caught bluffing and lose a few buyins, its very difficult if not impossible to recover given this random structure. Anyway, i still played as i am an addict and had fun. It was more of a social atmosphere and was very chilled. The second night I played, I wanted to leave at about 1am or so to attend the Betfair Welcome Party at the local nightclub which was situated 5 metres off the beach, I was told I wasnt allowed to leave the table until the session had ended. I thought it was a joke but they were deadly serious. I would have had to leave my chips there and collected them the next day if i needed to leave. They also blind you away in the cash games if you go to the toilet or need to leave. They play them as if they are STTs. Utterly bizzare, you cant leave the table until that hour session is over. WHAT THE HELL???
Anyway, after the compulsory donking of money we headed over to the Betfair Party, attended the free bar, drank all the tequila until none was left then i'm actually not quite sure what happened. It tends to get messy even when you hit the nightclub at 2am. Portuguese apparantly dont start clubbing till 1am and stay out till 9 or 10am. CRAZY CRAZY !!!
Anyway, today is a new day and the tournament starts in a couple of hours, 90min clock, 15k starting stack and the tournament is maxed out already at 200 players with alternates.
Run goooood oneeeee timmmmmeeeeeeeeeee
gl kunku wap
Comments (5)
lol
I was out there in late July (didn't stop by the casino though), ah, I miss those crazy cats in Portugal :D
strange betting structures tho, wtf :S
gl
Bossanova | 29 August 2008
Good luck fella.
Wish I was over there... i'd school you again in tequila drinking. what a lovely blog by the way, congrats. xx
muggymug | 29 August 2008
Do they serve Rice and peas in Portugal?, and don't forget to thank Steve if you see him!
banksoir | 30 August 2008
Hey bro what's up its Amir's buddy, met u in Vegas at the WSOP this year, just want to drop a line and say good luck.........
HUMDIGGERS | 03 September 2008
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Good luck John, you run better in Africa and Europe than the US so should be in the bag ;)
Keep updating, interesting read.
Cheers
Fatharry
fatharry | 28 August 2008