A Day of Leisure

The day after the tournament started with generous helpings of hangover cures for some of the players, before we gathered in the hotel lobby to start the day.

Jumping in the back of a few of London’s famous black taxis we all headed through Westminster and across the Thames to Waterloo, where towering above us stood the London Eye in its full glory. At 135m high the London eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world and, surprisingly, the weather had been truly kind to us, giving us a crisp clear December morning to watch the impressive vista of the whole of London spread out below us. As the wheel rose into the sky, some of the most famous landmarks in the world crawled into view including such renowned buildings and monuments as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, St.Paul’s Cathedral, Nelson’s Column and Cleopatra’s Needle.

A view of Big Ben from the London Eye

The players saw the famous sites from water, land and air.

The view was breathtaking and ‘the Eye’ was truly a marvelous experience. Just below the London Eye is Waterloo Pier where a river cruiser was just coming in to take us up the river. As the boat started to pull away toward our next destination a distinctly ‘local’ voice rang out of the speaker system onboard, and proceeded to give us a history of the buildings and sites we saw along the way. The tour-guide on the boat was hilarious and informative, making the cruise down the river the highlight of some of the players’ and wives’ day!

The Tower of London.

After a laughter-filled cruise down the Thames we reached our destination. We were immediately confronted with one of the most amazing places in London – The Tower of London. Walking through the 800 year old gates to the Tower we were met by one of the famous Yeomen Warders or Beefeaters and were given a guided tour, again both humorous and incredibly informative. The Beefeater told us about every aspect of the Tower from the first brick (nearly 1000 years ago) to the legend of the Tower Ravens. The history of the tower is fascinating, and we all got to walk in the footsteps of the ancient kings and queens of England. We also got to see the royal crown jewels including some of the biggest diamonds in the world!

Jstgivr and his wife on the Thames River Cruise.

After some lunch in the grounds of the Tower we then took a walk over Tower Bridge and stopped for some much needed refreshments in a local pub before walking down into the London Dungeon. The Dungeon recreates some of London’s gory and macabre history in an effort to scare the crap out of you, and is a different way to find out more of London’s historic past. From the dungeon we took taxi’s back to the hotel for some well-earned rest before the ‘Player’s Banquet’.

In the oldest square in London - Covent Garden - sits a restaurant named Tuttons, and this was the setting for our farewell banquet. Underground in a private vaulted ceiling cellar was a gorgeous grotto where we each took our seats to enjoy some great company, fine wines and truly excellent food. Beautifully presented and tasting delicious I am sure the players and their wives would agree that this was a fine ending to the day and the trip.

A Gourmet feast in a private VIP Room ended the trip.

It was a great experience getting to know some of our top players and treating them to the experience of a lifetime.  We look forward to give more players the VIP treatment with the “$30,000 US Poker Experience Promotion” which begins mid-December and will bring players to the beautiful Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and award a $25,000 buy-in WPT Five Star World Poker Classic.