You can enjoy all of this whilst playing your favourite poker games at Grosvenor Casino Reading! Oh boy I wish I was kidding. Last weekend, Jen and I headed to Grosvenor Casino to play the Reading Leg of the Redtooth Poker Tour (RPT). The event itself was a £53 entry, £2500 guaranteed tournament that paid the top 10 out of a field of 120. Free poker clock and timer. Use this blind timer in your poker tournaments! Utilisez ce compteur de mise pour vos tournois de poker.

Do you want the blistering heat of the Bahamas but without the price-tag? Do you want to be hit by that familiar ‘just got off the plane’ wall of heat without even leaving the country? Then look no further! You can enjoy all of this whilst playing your favourite poker games at Grosvenor Casino Reading!

Oh boy… I wish I was kidding.
Last weekend, Jen and I headed to Grosvenor Casino to play the Reading Leg of the Redtooth Poker Tour (RPT). The event itself was a £53 entry, £2500 guaranteed tournament that paid the top 10 out of a field of 120. This Leg is one of just a few that are local to us (about a 45 minute drive) and has a VEGAS100 ticket up for grabs for the winner.
You may remember that I have previously been quite critical of this tour with regards to it’s pricing and structure. Some of you may be thinking, “why are you still playing these events if you don’t like them?” Well here’s the thing: Redtooth Poker is the heartbeat of grassroots poker. Over the years they’ve acquired many of the smaller poker leagues such as Nuts Poker and High 5 and I really want to see them succeed – particularly in the running of their larger poker events. So I will support them in any way that I deem most beneficial, whether it’s playing in the games themselves or by giving them feedback on their events. However, I’m not here to repeat myself so if you want to read my review of the RPT, you can do so by clicking here.

As you may have gathered and as many of you who were there would attest,it was bloody hot in the cardroom last weekend! As much as I craved a cool Guinness to enjoy while playing, water was the only chance I had to survive in the sub-tropical poker paradise that was the cardroom at Grosvenor Casino, Reading (they had an air-conditioning issue – the issue being that they had no working air-conditioning!).

The day got off to a slow start with each player starting with 150bbs. The tournament was ante-less for the first few hours which made for a passive, uneventful first half of play with my stack not feeling a lot of movement. However, once the dinner break was over and antes came into play, I started to gain some momentum:

Blinds are 400/800 with a running ante of 100 per player. UTG open limps. I look down at Kh Kd and raise to 3,000 off of around a 15,000 stack. The sb cold calls and the limper calls.

Flop: Ks Jd 2h

Action checks to me and I cbet for 2,500. The sb folds and the limper calls.

Turn: Ah

My opponent checks and I check behind.

Riv: 9c

My opponent leads the river for 2,500, I jam my final 10,000 chips and he snap calls.

Redtooth Poker Tournament Table

My opponent shows Ac Kc… after a UTG limp.

This was one of two big hands I played against this player: the other being a hand where I flopped a set of sixes versus his pocket aces (which were also limped UTG).
Talking of big hands:

This was probably the first hand Jen has been involved in lately where she’s not been the one making quads! Unfortunately, she was on the receiving end after flopping top pair and a nut flush draw versus a set of nines. This was the beginning of Jen’s demise and she bust soon after this hand. I wasn’t far behind either after playing a few hands poorly and eventually finishing in 40th.
Once again, you cannot fault the atmosphere at the Redtooth Poker events. They are well-run by the Redtooth staff, in conjunction with the Grosvenor team and promote the game of poker very well. I feel that as Redtooth continue developing and understanding their role in the poker ecosystem, their live events will improve and from what they’ve been teasing on social media, it sounds like they’ve got some great events lined up for 2020.

Redtooth Poker Tournament Schedule

So that’s all from me this week. I’m down in Brighton this weekend to watch James Acaster perform his stand-up show so won’t be playing any live poker. I will, however, play a few sessions for the Challenge. Until next time folks.