Casino Royal - Texas Holdem British Style - Mate!

After a morning in the office I took a quick tour of London's sites. I Started with a taxi ride to Harrods, and a walking tour of the Queens Calvary, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, SOHO (Theater District), Dinner at the Italian Restaurant (Ristorante Cappuccetto, a stop by the Empire Casino and a Tube (Underground) ride back to London Tower Station.

So I started with a Cab ride from the office to Harrods and got to see a lot of the historical sites of London and it started with a drive by of past the London Eye.

It's pretty amazing to see things like Big Ben and Parliament.

In between there were a lot of places that I really didn't know what they were? But I did know this was the Royal Palace.
 
Then into Harrods Department store. All of this area on the West side is quit different than the business section where the office is. I understand that this store is around 1 Million Square feet. I've been in some high end stores and this one is tops. Everything you would could think of was in there. The food market areas were pretty cool.

There was Fish, Meats, Gelato, Sushi, Chocolate, Italian and more and more and more. Everything was very pricey and pretty fun to look at.
   
 
After walking around and up and down through Harrods it was down the street to get on the underground and see more things.

All of the areas on the west side were more tourists and people from everywhere. 
 
I wasn't familiar with the area and how to find my way but I did come across some interesting  things on my way to Trafalgar Square.
 


I found the Royal Calvary grounds where I was able to take a free tour of the grounds and a little museum.


 
Can you believe I was really there, here.

There are a lot of cool statues and things all over.
 
I made it to Trafalgar square and the National Museum.
 



I will have to post all the photos on the web page, but there were a lot of nice buildings and things to see here.
I was able to take a free tour of the National Museum and they have some amazing art on display. The big thing going on is the Titans display. They are trying to raise 100 million pounds to by two paintings that are on display. The Titans.

I then ended up in SOHO that Theatre district. It is the Broadway of London. Lots of theatres and shops.

I also walked through China Town. How is it that all big cities have a China Town? You have to love the Peking Ducks in the window.


Dinner was really good, they have the marinated olives to start, then bowl of Pasta Fuggoili (Bean soup with some pasta) I really liked it. The main course was a pizza and finished off with a yummy Cappuccino.
I was by myself again and they sat a couple next to me, I was able to start a conversation and he was a very nice gentleman and his wife. they were from North West England, near the border of Wales. He was a golfer and they had been to the states and visited Zions and and things. It was nice to talk with someone. When they were leaving he said, "don't you want to take a picture of us"?  Here you go
  
Next is the Casino Royal part of things. I couldn't believe that I found a Casino so I had to take a look. As always there were a lot of Orientals. I asked if they played Texas Holdem and they pointed me through the doors. They just happen to be starting a tournament with a 20 pound buy in and 20 pound re-buys. I said to myself that I would give it a try and that I would do the re-buys.
I was a little different that Vegas, It was more like a home game and they didn't have a dealer and everybody took turn dealing, cutting and shuffling.
There were five tables and about 60 people, the blinds went up every ten minutes and after a bit there were no more re-buys. I doubled up a couple times with straights on the river and some crazy pairs. They were very good players and thought that going all in was an automatic way to win? Before I knew it we were down to one table. We moved to a center table and they had a dealer. Felt a lot more like normal at this point, I was the short stack and I wasn't getting any cards, but  some people went off  going all in and I was able to sit back and two people went out before me. I ended up in 7th place and winning 70 pounds.
I was pretty excited to win and spend some time playing.
I made to the Underground and a ride back to the hotel. It was fun to play and really  different. Glad to make it back to the hotel, my poor feet were worn out.