O-Poker

First off, I had a blast at the PCA. I met a lot of fun people and had a great time.

I don't know where to begin, so I'll start at the beginning and probably break this up into a couple of posts.

My wife and I were both excited about heading down to Atlantis. We hadn't been there since our honeymoon (6 years ago) and were looking forward to relaxing away from the kids (5 yr old and 15 month old).

The Orlando airport showed the first signs of the poker week ahead. As we arrived at our gate, I noticed several people playing poker on their laptops. (A lot of flights from around the country connected with our direct flight to the Bahamas.) A majority of our flight was heading to Atlantis for the tourney. I talked to a couple of people in the airport:

Samenole (I had met him briefly at the WSOP)
A guy from Norway that we later recruited to be a Gator fan complete with all the obnoxious rowdy fan qualities that make football so fun
A couple of guys from Gainseville - one of which had won a seat in the Moneymaker Million. (He wound up finishing in 8th place)

We had a smooth flight, proceeded through customs and went to collect our luggage. About 15 minutes later we only had two of our four bags. Somehow, the other two never made it to the Bahamas. It is easy to see how two of the bags never made it there. I mean, we had so many connections and traveled such a long distance that they could have been left on a several different planes or in several different airports. Oh wait, nevermind, we had a direct flight that was less about 1 hour in the air.

We met another couple while filling out the lost luggage paperwork. They were from Jacksonville and he had won a spot into the Moneymaker Million. Jerry seemed like a good guy and he is from my hometown, so he was definitely the guy that I was rooting for in the Moneymaker Million. He managed to finish 2nd. I can't imagine played heads up poker for $700k (1st place was a million), but he still seemed pretty excited about winning enough to buy a house. I guess $300k is a nice consolation.

Our cab ride to the hotel was crazy. I am not sure how old the driver was but he told us a story about when he was doing some work in Orlando in the early '50s. He couldn't stand up straight and I am guessing that he couldn't see much farther than 50 feet. It took three tries to get the cab started. For some reason, he took us on the "scenic route" (not at our request) at about 10 mph while people were honking and passing us. We almost ran off the road more than a few times and he nearly hit a couple of other cars. We started feeling better about 45 minutes later when the bridge to Atlantis was in site. A few minutes later, he left me wondering how strong the barricades were on the side of the bridge as we almost rammed into it when the steering wheel slipped out of his hands.

Somehow we arrived safely at the hotel and were ready to begin a week of relaxation (and a little poker.)

More to follow.....