Well it has been over a week since the inaugural Adobe UK Poker Tournament, and now my body has recovered from Flash on the Beach ’07 I thought I do a review.
The event was held at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on the Edgeware Road, London and had a fantastic number people show up to play. There were some old faces there as well as some new, including Andy Hood, Niqui Merret, Peter Hall, Dave Williamson, Andrew Shorten (Adobe), Emma Wilkinson (Adobe) and of course Robin Charney (Adobe) and Sean McSharry, both of whom actually organized the evening. (If I forgot to name check anyone feel free to flame me :p)
Play started just after 8:00pm after about 30 minutes of training for those who weren’t familiar with the rules of Texas Hold ’em Poker. Personally I took this as an opportunity to have a few more beers; and in all honesty up to that point I was only going to socialize as opposed to actually participate. However Sean persuaded me, (the bruises have now healed), to join in and I duly did.
Game play was fast, fun and for some costly as the blinds were raised every 20 minutes initially starting at £25 / £50 for the small and big blind respectively (it is worth pointing out at this point that we weren’t actually playing for money – but the chips obviously have a monetary value stamped on them – although if recollection permits I think they were actually dollars not pounds. Either way we all started with £/$1000.
After about an hour or so we had lost about 50% of those playing due to chip starvation (i.e. they had none left). To keep play flowing as players dropped out of a game other players were migrated from nearby tables to make sure there was a minimum of 10 players per table, numbers permitting). The first five players out all received a Loser t-shirt (which considering that the final ten players got a Winner t-shirt made them more “desirable” from a schwag point of view).
Considering my initial lack on interest in participating I was doing surprisingly well (and not having to worry about it being my hard cash helped :p). I made it through to the last 16 or so but with a couple of reckless large pot losses, coupled with the fact I had to get my last train home I bowed out and left the big guns to it.
As I was about to head off after saying my goodbyes they were taking a quick recess as the final ten players were getting ready to fight it out for the grand prize. All of the final ten had already won an Adobe Product Point Release (to use Adobe jargon), which basically mean a single piece of software like Flash CS3, or Photoshop CS3 etc etc. The grand prize however was an engraved silver bracelet, which was obviously for a bloke (oops), even though there was at least one lady likely to be in the final. A CS3 Bundle – i.e. Web, Production or Design and a ticket for Flash on the Beach next week.
Like I said I left before the final ten started play so I have no idea who won (although I know Sean is going to post about this shortly, with photos). Something I will update once I hear more. My photos will have to be uploaded later on but some are quite amusing.
Rumour has it that there will be another one early next year so if you missed out (shame on you) or you fancy attending next time get yourself registered on the site (pokercoder.com) and Sean will keep you updated with event dates and locations etc as they are announced. And remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it :p
Flash on the Beach ’07 report coming up next…
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