The Gutshot Card Club, London. Review from a regular player.
by AC-Cobra
on 09/06/2007.
AC-Cobra has played this room more than 20 times.
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| Overall Impressions |
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The Gutshot Card Room is one of the most known clubs in Europe. The club is clean, well kept with tournaments twice a day and cash games also available. Staff are always very helpful and friendly and the clientel are also a generally great group.
The Club recently went through a legal battle (literature can be found easily via google) which has unfortunately resulted in a cutback at capacity at the club, and also new payment plans. The club still can hold approximately 120 players for tournaments and also regular cash games.
Fees are different here (due to the legal issues) so I will outline them here. Upon your first visit to the Club, you join as a member. On the form when you join, there is a box to tick if you want to pay an optional rake (exact values outlined) at all cash games. If you do not opt to pay the optional rake you must play with a large "D" button in front of you at all cash games. It is also £3 to enter the club at any time in order to compensate for the fact that there are absolutely no tournament fees.
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| Atmosphere |
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This is a good looking modern club, that is well kept and clean.
Whilst not the most spacious club (anymore), the club is still an enjoyable atmosphere in which to play poker. The club can often get crowded but I never find myself suffering for lack of space.
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| Dealers |
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When dealers are used (most cash, tourneys of £75 or above) they are friendly, helpful and keep the game moving along at a nice pace. You will often find yourself chatting to the dealers as they are generally great guys. They are also particularly helpful to those who are new to the game and in my experience have never been unreasonably out of line torwards a player.
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| Food and Drink |
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The Food at the Gutshot is simply great. I have often gone to the club when Im in the area just to grab a steak sandwich or sit down to an enormous, and delicious, rack of ribs. There are plenty of choices and while the food isnt necessarily cheap, it certainly represents value for money. Drinks are easy to get, waitresses often come round checking on players. Unfortunately alcohol cannot be brought to the downstairs card room, it must be purchased at the bar (wierd UK law).
Food is available in the bar, poker room and internet rooms.
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| Wait Time/Overall Service |
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Whilst I dont know of any calling ahead details for cash (never needed them), Im pretty sure they dont take them for tournaments. This is due to the fact that the tournaments regularly fill up and the club operates these on a first come first serve basis. However for the clubs bigger tournaments (particularly the quarterly festival main events) offer advance registration.
On peak nights you may have a long wait for a table, but I would rarely see it being longer than an hour. Theres always the internet cafe to pass this time away as well. For tournaments I would advise getting to the club around 30 minutes before the tournament for hassle free registration.
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| Comps |
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I have no experience of comps at the club except for when the club used to be 24 hours and higher cash players were often offered breakfast (delicious full English) by the card room manager. This isnt to say there is absolutely no comp service, Im just not particularly aware of it at least.
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