Golf & Poker: Le Touquet, France – Day 1

I recently spent two days in Le Touquet, France, playing golf, a little poker and having a lot of laughs! I thought I would write about it as it was a good trip and I wanted to share a record of it. This is day one so let me know what you think and i’ll post day two sometime in the future.

Two of my friends and my brother were picked up at the ridiculously early time of 5am, (unfortunately necessary) and from there we spent the best part of 4 hours joking around and listening to dodgy music from my mates police, duffy, and Dire Straits albums. Crossing the toll roads into France we were under a deluge of fog which made it look as if the bridge we were on was floating. Not great for a golf trip when you can only see 50 yards in front of you. Thankfully the weather cleared but the cold set in. I hate playing in the cold. I’m never able to play well due to not being able to feel my hands yet i’ll always go. Such is the allure of golf! Although I was excited to be playing abroad I think these trips are best left for the summer.

Anyway, we arrived at Le Manoir hotel which was pleasent and were allowed to check in with our best French lingo a little earlier than our 3 o’clock appointment.

We dropped our bags off and made our way over the road to the Le Foret course. A parkland course set amongst lots of pine trees. I wasn’t impressed with it given that the first two holes had temporary greens and the condition of the rest of the course was not much better. Needless to say I didn’t shoot a good round as did two of the others. One guy played well considering the conditions, shooting sub 100. I think the course is more of a space filler, it’s not very scenic. Even for winter greens they were over sanded (to stop them freezing) which made them less consistent. I tried to keep my moaning to a minimum but even so it wasn’t a very cheery day to start our trip with.

Looks better in the summer!

Thankfully the evening loomed and the four of us got changed quickly
at the hotel and made our way out to the town of Le Touquet. Being a coastal area the setup of the streets was much like something we have in England. Memories of Brighton sprang to mind yet I can say without a doubt the beach at Le Touquet was nicer, very panoramic and sandy. A quality stretch of seafront for sure. We watched the sand-yachts on the beach with their three wheeled buggies using the strong breeze to get up some roaring speeds. We thought about making some enquiries but it seemed that they were private and not for hire. We’ve had a few memorable go cart races between us and so this seemed like a great idea. It wasn’t to be though so we settled for some French adventures in town. The promenade was mainly homes with most of the restaurants and bars set back into the side streets so we wandered, coming across numerous enticing waterholes but we only had time for a few. We settled on a rustic looking pub that stretched a lot deeper into the building than we thought and made our way through with a particularly expensive round of drinks from the very friendly staff. With our French only passable at best our English served us well enough. Knocking back a few beers with the guys, playing pool and some pinball wizardy was a welcome respite from the cold. Given the currency valuations the folk in France appear not to have changed the price tags of the goods you can buy and are certainly making the most of the favourable economic climate. I can’t say I blame them! Either way we had a few drinks and laughed at our inadequate linguistic skills, recalling the earlier events of the day where our friend attempted to ask for the breakfast ‘menooo’ at McDonalds and hopelessly failed much to our pleasure and amusement. He quickly gave up after getting louder stating he only wanted a double cheeseburger, but thought better of it as the response was a fast jumble of elegant French. We went in and he was left to point at the menu for his order. Priceless!

So, we quit the drinks and made our way to an easy going diner with a fairly authentic looking menu. Three of us had a set 3 courses and one other made up his own. I had a warm goats cheese salad with homemade batch bread, accompanied by a zesty sauce I can’t remember, followed by a flavoursome medium done steak in a cream and shallot dressing, and steamed new potatoes, finished with a desert of homemade chocolate and a tart raspberry ice cream. Very nice. An overly strong onion soup was left by one of us and served as a reminder of local tastes or bad cooking, we weren’t sure which!

A few bottles on vino later and we made our way down to the local
casino to get into the poker cash game we’d found earlier. We couldn’t resist sampling the local casino. After killing a little time the game began and two of us were sat 7 handed at a 1/2 euro game. Trying to gauge the competence of the table whilst a little drunk was a fun time but knowing a bit about common euro tendencies I had no doubt it would be soft and passive. I wasn’t wrong, Fishtastic! I got into the thick of things quickly enough with straddles being the norm, multiple limpers entered and I found 99 in the SB. I felt I didn’t want to push my luck just yet, and I was sure a raise would be called anyway, so decided to take good implied odds and just call. The flop came 466 two tone. not bad for an overpair but only when raised preflop, dangerous times. I checked and it made it’s way round to the button who led for just over half pot about 7 euro. I opted to call and we made it to a turn 2 handed. I checked again, another half pot bet on an offsuit 2 turn by my opponent, I called. The river brought a king, with no flush and a very unlikely straight getting there on the turn I looked to check call. That’s precisely what occured and I put in the 12 euro to see a showdown and my French opponent turned up J6 off suit to show flopped trips. Always possible but so be it. I think maybe I couldve been more agressive preflop but my reading of the game wasn’t terrible at the time. My line although passive was more of a feeler into the game, not standard by any means, and frankly that one would have got expensive very quickly had I raised preflop!

The table fool was sitting 4 seats to my left and was in almost every pot regardless of the price. This hand in particular, he had straddled and the table folded to me in the CO with AJo. I opened for a pot sized bet but negated the straddle so it was more of a minraise to the fish, a small mistake perhaps. The BB called as did the fish. The flop was J high and two rags. The BB checked and my target opened for just short of half pot for 8 euro, I had about 60 bb left and decided I was getting it in but only against him. He could quite easily have a worse J in his hand. I raised to about 30 and had 30 euro back. My opponent called. The turn blanked and he bet small again giving me opportunity to shove. I did. My friend asked if I was going to double up as if he was confident I would. I on the other hand said “maybe” as I wasn’t sure once my opponent casually called after thinking for a moment. Sure enough he flipped over a passively played KK and I was looking to suck out on a river. Not to be, I was railed by a bad player. Gracious as I am I offered my praise and it was accepted. I opted not to rebuy as it was getting late even though I knew it was massively +EV poker just to be at the table, C’est la vie! Watching a little longer he proceeded to spew his chips to others with such gems as calling allins of 100 bb’s with A4o. Classic. I was too tired to care for the most part and was looking forward to getting back to the hotel as were the others. After seeing my friend make an easy 150 euros we returned at just before midnight looking to get a good nights sleep prior to playing the championship links course, La Mer, noted as in the top 100 courses in Europe. Knowing todays weather we expected a blustery day two…

The testing links course of La Mer

 Check me out on www.twitter.com/tmte.