Editor's note: This article was written in 2003.

The first thing you need to know is that you can't just saunter up to The Grosvenor Victoria Casino ("The Vic"), enter the poker room, and get dealt a hand. Try that and they'll stop you at the door, make you fill out a form, and tell you to come back in 24 hours -- all the while muttering something vague about an English Gambling Law that probably pre-dates The Bard himself.

Luckily I knew about this ... restriction ... in advance, and managed to get around it by filling out a form and faxing it to them ahead of time. Another note of caution: the dress code is "Smart Casual" (which pretty much means "Business Casual").

The casino itself is located in the NW end of London's Zone 1. I took The Tube (a.k.a. "Underground") to the Marble Arch station (Edgware Road will get you about as close) and left it to one of the famous London black cabs to get me to the front door. The casino itself lies right in the middle of a regular city block, and looks just like any other city building, only somewhat nicer and with its own set of dressed-up porters, who opened the double glass doors for me as I entered.

After the porters showed me in, I was greeted by the concierge, who politely directed me to the reception desk. I handed over my passport and before I knew it the receptionist had located my fax, snapped a quick photo, and issued me my own Grosvenor Casino Membership Card. Not a bad first impression, I thought.

I used the short time it took to process my card to drop a few questions, hoping to gather some good, first-hand info. Did they track things like buy-ins? Wins and losses? Then I wondered out loud how the UK gambling and taxation laws might apply to foreigners. Turns out they don't tax gambling wins in the UK, so the casino doesn't really track anything. (Wonderful!) I was also pleased to learn that tipping the gaming room staff is illegal in the UK, meaning you can't tip a dealer even if you want to!

I'll give the Americans in the audience a moment to absorb that.

On to the Poker Room

After officially swiping in, I shot up a set of stairs and entered the first floor of the casino. I darted past the craps, blackjack, and roulette tables, blew by some funky European video games, and made it all the way to the far corner where the poker room sits (clearly management hopes poker players will make pit stops on their way to and from the poker room).

The room itself is nice. It's well lit, sports earthy tones, and holds three or four regular-sized poker tables as well as four or five smaller round tables. The sign-up board hangs toward the back of the room, next to a large flat-screen monitor that flashes its way through the current tournament schedule -- I noticed they were holding a 30 + 3-pound rebuy NLHE tournament the following day at 3PM. (Side note: you start with T1000 and low blinds, which is quite generous for a rebuy tourney.)

The sign-up board lists four different types of games: Stud, Texas hold'em, Omaha, and hold'em/Omaha Rotation. All games are played pot-limit, and high only. You can sign up for either a 50-pound (1-1 blind as we call it in the US) or 100-pound (1-2 blinds) minimum buy-in game. For Omaha, they listed a 200 and 500 game, but nobody signed up for either while I was there.

The smaller round tables are reserved for the 50-pound buy-in games. These are "player dealt" games, using the English method: The player to the left of the dealer button shuffles, then the player to the right of the button cuts and passes the cards to the button, who deals the cards. The dealer button rotates around the table as usual.

The 50-pound hold'em game generally goes at around 8PM each night, while the 100 Omaha game usually starts in the afternoon. Each table has five seats reserved for non-smokers, five for smokers. It doesn't help the non-smokers much because the smoke doesn't exactly stay put, but it's better than nothing.

Taking a Seat

The 100-pound Omaha game appeared to be playing pretty big, much bigger than a 1-2 game would suggest. Probably due to the nature of the game itself, I witnessed a lot of loose action with players playing quite a bit deeper, often in the 400- to 600-pound range. The rowdiest game in the house was easily the Rotation game. Something about playing Omaha without a dealer really gets the arguments rolling. Anyway, I wanted no part of these games -- I was looking for straight Texas hold'em. So I took a seat in the only game going, the player-dealt 50 hold'em.

I didn't spot any shady mechanics practicing their craft while I was there, but if you are having a good night, the locals may start to scrutinize your dealing technique. Continue playing well, and you might even get a sour-grapes comment about how you're not using the European Style. If you've never seen a European Poker dealer, they hold the deck flat down on the table and slide cards off the top of the deck, onto the felt, and then to the player. Since cards are pulled off the top one at a time, the flops are laid out one card at a time, which can give perceptive players a nice edge. It's very different from US dealers, but not necessarily as slow as it sounds.

The rake for the 50-pound buy-in games is six pounds per hour (about US$9.60). The 100-pound game has a 12-pound rake, but you get a dealer for the extra juice. While that is slightly high for the blind structure, remember you're not going to be tipping the dealer, which evens things out a little. You'll also discover that The Vic doesn't offer the kind of comp system you find in most US casinos and poker rooms. But if you're playing poker, you do get to order from a selection of free sandwiches. I followed the lead of the locals and ordered myself a few of the "cheddar and tomato on white toast" sandwiches. Highly recommended.

All told, I played about 11 hours of 50 hold'em, evenly split between Friday and Saturday nights. (I signed up for 100 hold'em, but that game never went.) I saw only four or five people sit down with the 50-pound minimum on either day, but these players rarely lasted long. Typically players started with 100- to 200-pound stacks. The most I saw (apart from the 700-pound stack I managed to accumulate) was another American player who sat down with about 400 or 500 pounds in front of him.

So altogether I did pretty well for myself at The Vic, and I would absolutely recommend it if you're in the area and looking to play some cards. The games have plenty of action, there's no shortage of bluffs, and there is plenty of money to be had. Just don't forget to get that form in ahead of time.