Edinburgh Poker Adventure Part I -- Arriving and Staying in Scotland

I'd played at the Victoria Ladbrokes in London back about nine years ago or so. That was back before the poker craze. I played some self-dealt pot-limit 7-stud and some pot-limit Omaha. (high only). There were only a couple of public poker rooms in the United Kingdom at the time.

Since then there's been a poker explosion throughout the UK and Ireland. I'd heard of all sorts of rooms in Ireland, Scotland, and England. But I hadn't had the opportunity to check them out -- until just now.

My wife and I usually take a summer trip. At first we thought about Barcelona, Spain where I had played poker before meeting up with her in Madrid this October. I had played in all sorts of rooms in Spain during that trip and thought it might be nice to spend six days with my wife in this beautiful place. I was a little discouraged by what I remembered to be an outrageously raked poker game at the Casino de Barcelona, but I thought all of the other tourist trappings of the place might make up for it (plus, the poker games were often so wild, aggressive, and big that I might be able to overcome even the big rake).

But then we focused on Edinburgh, Scotland where my first cousin Colby and her husband live and where neither my wife nor I had ever traveled. A little research revealed that the city had at least two poker rooms with regular tournaments and cash games. Knowing that my cousin was there and would be familiar with the place was the final determinant. So we booked our trip.

Getting to Edinburgh from Boston is not too difficult. Though we found no direct flights, the one-stop trip through Dublin proved relatively painless. We flew coach on Air Lingus. Prices were quite dear -- especially when compared with our last trip to London. Back in 2002 I flew with my entire family of four to London for just about $1150 RT including all taxes and fees. This trip was just shy of $1,000 each -- and that rate, gotten through FLY.COM was only after digging around on every on-line consolidator I could find. Still, the five hour flight to Dublin was remarkably easy for me (I have restless leg syndrome and generally find flights of more than 3 hours to be torturous). I think the Jetblue-like individual TV screens and wide movie selection really helped keep me occupied. With the comfortable seat, major meal, snack, two movies, sleeping, and Ian Rankin detective novel I hardly noticed the time. The low elevation 40 minute hop from Dublin to Edinburgh was delightfully scenic.

We stayed at Martin's B&B, a lovely place that was, literally, a leisurely four minute walk from a poker game at the Circus Casino in the Fountain Park shopping area. It was also a two minute walk from my cousin's flat and either a five minute bus ride or a fifteen minute walk to famed Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile -- the symbolic center of Scotland's capital city. It could not have been more convenient. It was also, I think, a relative bargain -- just $120/night for the two of us including a varied and full breakfast daily. Such a deal!

The B&B business is quite competitive in Edinburgh. There were no fewer than 15 B&Bs within a half mile stretch on Gilmore Place where we were staying. Our owner/operator, new to the business, was most pleasant and eager to make a good impression. She asked us what we were looking to do, offered many suggestions, gave us travel guide materials, made calls for taxis and reservations, and, in general, acted as our private concierge. So when I told her that I was looking for poker she even went to far as to hook me up with her poker playing brother. Talk about accomodating!

Nice as her personal connection to the Edinburgh poker scene was, however, she needn't have bothered since, as I mentioned earlier, there was what proved to be a great poker room about 400 yards away. It did not take me long to get over there, change some money, and play some no limit hold'em. In Part II I'll give you my impressions of this room.