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You’ve heard of the expression “taking everything but the kitchen sink”, well, we came close to even taking that with us! Along with 5 different baseball caps, various shirts, a pack of cards (obviously), along with poker table-top, no end of charging cables with sockets, and all kinds of other odds and ends, Christina came up with the bright idea of bringing the microwave! The thought process behind this was that we could buy supermarket microwave meals, and heat them up in our hotel room, rather than fork out on restaurant food or room service. It sounded crazy, but in fact, at the same time, it sounded like a good idea, so it was popped into the boot of the car, and we were off.
The tournament will take place between July 29 and August 9, 2020, at the Ricoh Arena and Grosvenor Casino. There is no detailed information about the event as of yet but — if past years are any indicator — it’s safe to say it’s going to be a big one. The 2020 partypoker Mosconi Cup will now take place at Ricoh Arena, Coventry, a change from its original venue of Alexandra Palace, London. The event will still take place from December 1-4. Promoters Matchroom Multi Sport are working hard to have fans inside the venue, should it be possible within UK government guidelines. Poker in Coventry Both of the big casino chains are represented in Coventry. Grosvenor has a large out-of-town facility at the Ricoh Arena, which plays host to the annual Goliath tournament plus legs of the Grosvenor 25/25 Series as well as their regular tournament programme.
The Goliath poker tournament, run by Grosvenor casinos, and held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, is the biggest poker tournament in the UK in terms of number of entries. The whole thing stretches over a total of 8 days. The buy-in is £100, plus £20 registration fee. That’s a lot for any small time players, but not too much for all keen regulars at any of the Grosvenor casinos around the country, and with a guaranteed prizepool of £250,000, it’s one that a lot of people like to have a go at. There are plenty of satellite tournaments where you can win tickets for a lot less than £100, and Christina and me had spent the previous few weeks trying to do just that. I’d won a ticket via a freeroll (which was also a £5 rebuy) in Swansea, not having to rebuy once, so I had one ticket for nothing, but it would be useful to have a back-up in case of needing to re-enter. Well, we probably spent about £100 between us trying to get a second ticket, and failed; I spent a frustrating week trying to download the Grosvenor poker software, without success. But no bother, we had enough funds to buy-in a couple of times each if necessary.
Patrick, winner of Swansea Grosvenor’s recent league final, and collector of 8 (or was it 9?) Goliath tickets had tipped me off weeks before that Cardiff were playing Coventry in the same week as the tournament at the Ricoh (for the first time in years, I’d barely glanced at Cardiff’s forthcoming fixture list), so making this game was a must. Even though, as Coventry no longer play in Coventry, this meant a 30 mile diversion to their current home of Northampton. As chance would have it, this is also where Christina’s nan lives, so the plan was to stop off here on the way.
Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena Seating Chart
- The Grosvenor Casino, at the Ricoh Arena in notorious Coventry, is one of the key nodes in the UK’s poker network. Its enormous floor — part of which on regular business days is sequestered behind sliding walls — is the home of the largest live tournament outside Vegas, The Goliath.
- Partypoker Mosconi Cup Moves To Ricoh Arena, Coventry The 2020 partypoker Mosconi Cup will now take place at Ricoh Arena, Coventry, a change from its original venue of Alexandra Palace, London. The event will still take place from December 1-4.
Christina’s nan has a lovely, well kept home, with an extraordinary collection of bears, elephants, dragons, and other ornaments. Her collection of Charlie Bears currently stands at over 80, I believe – she’s another one with a bit of a Shopping Channel addiction – but the main room that houses the bears looks fantastic. We engaged in some small talk while we waited for a large variety pizza to be delivered – we learned that the neighbour’s dog, for example, had caused some problems, necessitating in the installation of a 9’ fence!
The pizza really was delicious, and was washed down with a cracking cup of coffee, but we were already running late to miss the start of the match. Fortunately, the Sixfields Stadium was but a short drive away, and within minutes, we had our tickets, and despite the gates, with the kick-off already underway, being locked, a knock on a couple of doors, and we were in, with Cardiff already a goal up, and the 350-strong Cardiff support in good voice.
I think I’d missed something when I tried a chant of “Is that all you take away?” directed at the Northampton-resident Coventry fans – it would appear the order of the day was not to mock, but unite in support at their misfortune vis a vis “modern football”, apparently akin to Cardiff’s situation (while Coventry don’t even play in Coventry, we, the Bluebirds, don’t even play in blue). Still, I’m sure in the old days Coventry’s situation would have been fair game for mickey taking, rather than this thing of showing mutual support. On 35 minutes, fans on both sides were being encouraged to hold up signs of mutual bad-situationism. For me, this is just an atmosphere killer. Chants of “Can you hear Northampton sing?” would work far better, I think, or at worst, “We’ve got a bigger grievance against Modern Football than you!” or something along those lines.
Cardiff won the game 2-1. Not too bad a game. The Coventry (or was it Northampton?) keeper, Burge, came in for a fair bit of stick, but not too much else untoward. My phone’s battery had died, so sadly, no photo of Christina at her first ever Cardiff City game. She has the ticket and memories, of course, though.
A quick stop at the Ricoh to see how things were getting on. We had a quick look in the main room. There were a number of masseurs on hand, as it were, which Christina has an objection to. As she sees it, this gives male players an unfair advantage, and she finds their presence a little offensive. She asked one of the Grosvenor staff why there are no male masseurs for female players, and was met by the slightly predictable response that the gender of the masseurs is not the issue, when quite clearly it is – I don’t think a team of male masseurs would be nearly as popular. Well, the guy said he would raise the issue with his manager, but in the meantime, if Christina needed her back rubbed during the tournament, it was probably going to have to be me doing it! She paid her entry into the tournament, and we headed to our hotel, which we hadn’t even checked into yet.
The Grosvenor Casino, at the Ricoh Arena in notorious Coventry, is one of the key nodes in the UK’s poker network.
Its enormous floor — part of which on regular business days is sequestered behind sliding walls — is the home of the largest live tournament outside Vegas, The Goliath.
After shutting down for several months due to COVID, this week they have reopened their poker room, allowing games to run from “6 PM to 6 AM. Times are subject to change.”
Their app now has waiting lists on tables for £0.25/£0.50 £0.50/£0.50, £1/£1 and £2/£5 no-limit hold’em games, and a similar number of pot-limit Omaha tables at similar stakes.
One player described arriving at 11:30 PM and finding there was “a decent cash game on [with] about 4 – 7 players throughout the night.”
Very few of these games will be running though. The Casino confirmed over the phone that they are putting on just enough capacity for fourteen players for now.
They are not running tournaments as yet. In a pandemic, discretion really is the better part of valor.
A David from a Goliath
For comparison, last August, the Goliath attracted 9,300 entries all of whom ponied up £125. That was the largest field since the year before when 7,854 players piled in.
We can assume that at the time, most of those 9.3k people had never heard of Wuhan province. This year the Goliath moved online.
The Grosvenor Casino Coventry closed down on the 20th of May 2020, in line with UK government restrictions, as the nation went into lockdown.
Though lockdown restrictions have loosened since then. The government has held off on opening until just a few weeks ago. This makes casinos one of the last places to open. This is understandable when one thinks of all the chips and cards being passed from dealer to player and back again.
Betting shops reopened on the 15th of June and bingo halls on the 4th of July, but casinos had to wait until the 15th of August to crack open the shutters.
Coming up for air
Poker rooms have lagged even farther behind table games as a whole.
Poker is a much higher risk than table games. Every card and chip is a potential viral vector and can pass through every hand at the table. Players sit for hours crowded about the baize, breathing each other’s dust.
Besides, the house makes less per hour raking a £0.50/£0.50 hold’em table than they do putting out another blackjack or roulette table.
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Dusk Till Dawn, another of the biggest names in the UK’s live poker scene, remains closed. As do many of the smaller Grosvenor Casino’s poker rooms.
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So the Grosvenor Casino Coventry is leading the way out of the crisis for live poker. Or they’re risking making themselves ground zero for a second wave, depending on your point of view.
To avoid the latter scenario the casino has — as one player we spoke with put it — “screens between each seat and between the croupiers and players, cleaned after every player […] If you were scared of the flu then that place would put you at ease one hundred percent.”
They also mentioned that the atmosphere was somewhat “subdued […] due to the militant enforcing of it. However, it depends on your outlook as to whether that’s a good thing or not.” Adding, “Personally, I think it’s excessive, but they have to do what they have to do.”
Screens and sanitary wipes
The security protocol of screens and disinfectant reassures many players and going some way toward protecting staff. The UK government also requires customers to wear masks in casinos, as with all entertainment venues.
Not everyone is confident in the system. Another visitor to the casino this week said the casino floor “seemed quieter and so many people didn’t adhere to the mandatory mask-wearing while walking around.”
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Overall, the atmosphere seems to be one of a well-meaning casino doing its best while trying to herd cats.
“The screens are a really good idea. But people standing behind people is a problem. And it seems like no one wants to say anything,” this visitor went on. “All in all I think people just want normality back. And the casino is trying it’s best.”
He paused then added: “People are just idiots.”