Despite its impending court case London’s trail-blazing cardroom The Gutshot has opened a new 165-seat tournament room, cementing its place as one of Europe’s largest poker clubs.

The new room, which is adjacent to the original site on Clerkenwell Road in London, opened last month in a show of confidence as the club prepares to go to Crown Court to face charges of breaching the 1968 Gaming Act. Packing ’em in

Gutshot manager Jim Banks confidently stated: ‘We want to fight our corner in the court case. We want to win and we’ve got a good case to go forward with.