Skat event in Bloomsbury Tavern, London WC2

We will be holding a Synchron Skat tournament in London on Saturday March 15th 2008. We have a (probably temporary) new venue: the upstairs room of the Bloomsbury Tavern, 236 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8EG. The nearest underground station is Tottenham Court Road. Here is a map and another map.

It is very close to our previous venue, The Plough; to get there from The Plough, go south along Museum Street to Bloomsbury Way, turn right into Bloomsbury Way, and you will see the Bloomsbury Tavern on your left. To get there from Tottenham Road underground station, walk east along New Oxford Street for about 300 yards and it will be on your right. The Bloomsbury Tavern offers a selection of real beers, and food and coffee.

Like our recent tournaments it will consist of four rounds lasting between 75 and 90 minutes each. The Bloomsbury Tavern will let us in from 10:30. Registration will close at 11:15 and play will start at 11:30. Allowing for breaks between the rounds for tea/coffee/scoring/eating, it should finish by around 19:30.

So that we have some idea of how many players to expect, and can know how much to spend on prizes and what to tell the pub about lunches, please tell the organiser whether you are intending to play, at least two days before the event. You can contact him by e-mail at nick@maproom.co.uk or by telephone at 07890-998884.

To allow a prompt start, players must register on the day, before 11.15. You can register by reporting in person to the organiser in The Rising Sun between 11:00 and 11:15, or by calling him on 07890-998884. Anyone who arrives after 11:15 without first registering risks missing the first round.

The entry fee for the day will be £5 per person, and prizes will be awarded to the winner and possibly the runners up, depending on the number of entrants.

We welcome players of all standards, provided that they are familiar with the basic rules of the game and ideally have played a few times before. In previous tournaments, several inexperienced or rusty players have taken part and enjoyed the experience greatly.

The tournament will again be played according to the Synchron Skat system. Each player's result for each round is compared with those of players at other tables who held the same cards. For the players, there is very little difference from playing ordinary Skat, but the system of scoring reduces the element of luck somewhat – if you are dealt very good cards you will only win if on average you score better than other players who were dealt the same cards.

Players who would like to take part but don't want to play the whole tournament do not need to play in all four rounds, but will score no points for the rounds they miss.

We look forward to seeing you in London.