Poker has featured on the silver screen on many occasions but very few movies manage to reproduce realistic hands. One famous hand took place in the 2006 remake of Casino Royale, a James Bond film first launched in 1967; Ian Fleming’s book hit the shelves 14-years earlier in 1953.
The Victoria Casino is owned and operated by Grosvenor Casinos Limited (a company incorporated in England and Wales under company number 00877080), whose registered office address is TOR, Saint-Cloud Way, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 8BN. Victoria Casino This cardroom was previously known as The Vic, and is a poker landmark in the UK, and the spot for high stakes cash games in London.
Victoria plays regular cash games at the Victoria Casino in London and tournaments on the international poker circuit, especially the EPT and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour. With a fantastic restaurant, amazing bars, sports screens and poker room, The Victoria has the perfect blend of sophistication and excitement. Our dedicated Poker room, one of Europe’s most iconic, hosts the final stage of the GUKPT, the UK’s best Poker Tour, and also holds daily cash games and tournaments.
The original Casino Royale saw James Bond take on the villain of the movie, Le Chiffre, in a game of high stakes baccarat. The 2006 reboot, directed by Martin Campbell, saw baccarat swapped for a $10 million buy-in winner-takes-all No-Limit Hold’em tournament with $5 million rebuys.
As poker hands go, the final hand in the 2006 Casino Royale is as unrealistic as they come, despite Campbell hiring a professional poker player to assist them the poker scenes. It is beautifully shot thanks to the editor Stuart Baird telling Campbell to “shoot everything he could possibly think of, especially eyes, looks, close-ups”. The hand itself is a very stereotypical Hollywood poker hand.
Polygon interviewed Campbell and other key personnel recently and it’s apparent he was please with how the poker scenes of his movie panned out.
“I think the sequence was pretty convincing. What you realise is it’s not just the card games – it’s the stakes. It’s also two guys eye-f****ing one another, basically. That was the secret.”
Campbell revealed he spent countless hours watching gambling classics, including The Cincinnati Kid, in an attempt to learn the nuances of poker on TV. He enlisted the help of veteran producer Michael G. Wilson as an informal poker consultant as Campbell strived for the ultimate in poker authenticity.
Tom Sambrook was drafted in a the film’s poker consultant. Sambrook was a regular at The Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London, better known as The Vic, where he’d won the £2,525 buy-in European Poker Championships in 2002 for £120,000. Sambrook answered the call in 2005 by which time he’d only amassed an additional £16,380 from nine more tournament cashes.
The actors underwent tuition from Sambrook who showed the actors, including Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) how to compose themselves at the table, and how to handle chips and cards.
Sambrook told Polygon he had an input in how the final, infamous hand, played out.
“I put in [the script] that Bond does the teaser re-raise, inducing the big all-in. It took maybe six weeks to get that up to martin Campbell […] I said, ‘You’ve got to read this because most people won’t know or care, but there will be hardcore poker players that will just say, ‘They’ve done it again. Why can’t they get this stuff right?’”
The didn’t get “this stuff” right despite Sambrook’s apparent expert advice.
The final hand sees four players remaining in the tournament, including Bond and Le Chiffre, and all four have made it to the river of the board. Player 1 moves all-in for $6 million, Player 2 calls all-in with his last $5 million putting $35 million in the pot.
Le Chiffre raises to $12 million before Bond shoved for $40.5 million. Le Chiffre eventually calls off his remaining $27.5 million in chips and the cards are revealed.
Player 1: for a flush
Player 2: for a full house
Le Chiffre: for a better full house
Bond: for a straight flush – what else would the film’s hero have?
The hand is flawed on many levels. You can argue a case for Player 1 and player 2 because they’re just super-rich people playing poker. Not for Le Chiffre who is billed as a mathematical genius and an elite poker player.
Le Chiffre, holding only the second-best full house could have folded, leaving himself $27.5 million to Bond’s $87.5 million and still be in with a chance of winning the $115 million pot he so desperately needed. Surely Le Chiffre would duck out of the way and fight Bond with a 3:1 chip deficit heads-up, instead he calls a three-way all-in in a hand he is basically never going to win.
Don’t think people fold full houses? Search on YouTube for Roberto Romanello correctly folding jacks full to Mike Matusow at the 2008 World Series of Poker.
Sambrook conceded the final hand was unlikely to happen in a real game, however.
“It’s not representative of an average hand. But the thing about hold’em is it does create these factories of madness. That’s why I love the game. It creates this very close, explosive situation. Once you’ve got a board with cards that close together, everyone’s thinking about the house, everyone’s thinking about the flush, everyone’s thinking about the straight. And in there is the sick feeling, Christ, does one of these guys have a straight flush?”
Victoria Casino London Poker
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sambrook hasn’t cashed in a live event since November 2009 although he has some pretty cool memories of playing cards with legitimate movie stars.
“I played my last game literally as the wheel of the plane hit the tarmac in Heathrow. I won with king-high, it was just fantastic.”
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The Grosvenor Victoria Casino (known as ‘The Vic’) sits in the heart of London and is one of the longest established casinos in the country. 2014 sees The Vic celebrating its 50th anniversary. Spread across three storeys, the casino is situated inside a pleasant building and boasts one of the largest gaming floors in London.
Drivers are able to avail themselves of the casino’s car park and their car valet service, whilst for those using public transport, Edgware Road and Marble Arch tube stations are a five minute walk away and given its central location, it has easy access to London’s main rail stations and airports as well as a plethora of hotels within walking distance.
The casino features 14 Roulette tables, nine Blackjack, four tables each of Three Card Poker and Baccarat, one Super Stud Poker as well as over 60 electronic roulette and slots. The recently refurbished Poker Room is one of the largest in the UK and has 35 tables. Cash games take place around the clock and tournaments run daily. Gamblers can play Hold’em, Omaha and other varieties of poker 24 hours a day seven days a week. A range of stakes are available and a wide range of buy-ins and game types means that all poker players should find a game to suit. The casino holds regular learn to play evenings (see website for details).
Poker Victoria London Actress
The restaurant serves a la carte international cuisine as well as traditional classics and there is a full bar menu available seven days a week. If you fancy something a bit different, ask the steward about the daily specials. There is also a coffee shop with a wide range of coffees and teas to choose from. The smoking terrace is a relaxing seating area which shows live sporting action on giant plasma screens.
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User reviews
Good
The Vic is a fairly large casino which is spread over multiple floors. On the top floor, which is where I spend most of my time, you'll find one of the biggest (or rather, the biggest) poker rooms in London.
Cash games start at £1-£1 (10% rake, £5 cap) and the £1-£2 game at the Vic is one of the best value in London - 5% rake with a £10 cap. There are also £2-£5 and £5-£10 games running most nights (5%, £5 cap). Games are mainly hold'em but there is also the occasional PLO table.
The Victoria also run multi table tournaments each night at 7:45 as well as an additional afternoon game on the weekends. Surprisingly, some of these tournaments have no registration fee.
The Vic is also home to a number of large events including legs of the GUKPT.
The quality of play here varies significantly, and there are plenty of donks pooring money onto the tables as well as the resident sharks who take the donks money. Plus there's always a guy at every table who never bluffs and whose play is so predictable they might have well have a copy of Harrington on Hold'em in front of them.
The poker tables and chairs are starting to look a little worn, so it might be time for them to spruce things up a bit!
Also on the top floor is a restaurant that serves a variety of cuisine (standard fare plus, depending on what day it is, thai and chinese offers), a bar (just under £4 a pint) and some electronic roulette terminals.
Not that bad
I think the guy in the review before me has a case of 'my casinos are better than your casinos' syndrome. If you want Vegas, go to Vegas...
The Vic is nice enough - plenty of poker action and the occasional famous face playing. There are also a number of big poker events throughout the year which you can qualify for online or through live satellites. General standard of play varies and some of the locals are pretty good but there are enough fish to go around.
Rest of the casino is pretty standard. Food is similar to what you'd find in a decent london pub - ok but nothing to shout about.
All in all it's a decent casino so long as you're not looking for Vegas flash - for that you'll need to head to the empire on Leicester square.
Dissapointing
I flew to London, England for a big poker tournament at the Victoria and was quite dissapointed with what I found. Being from LV I'm used to big flashy casinos, cute cocktail waitresses and wasted tourist on tilt. None of these were at this casino and you even had to PAY for your drinks.
Maybe all casinos in England are like this, but I came with the expectation of the high class gaming you see in the movies. And not once did the Queen or any of her cohorts sit next to me at the poker table.