Poker News

Cruising

There’s a line to an old Del Amitri song about being “…wired and tired,” and something about cruising-Type “A” personality that I am-that wires and tires me because I want to do everything possible on a poker cruise, even though I know I can’t.

I want to see everything I can possibly see at each port of call, play as much poker as I can while still trying to keep up with my e-mail and other projects, and find time to go to the gym so I don’t feel too guilty about eating everything in sight. Although I’m not about to challenge Joey Chestnut or Kobayashi to an eating contest, I did manage to scarf down nine lobster tails in one sitting on a cruise a few years ago.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I’m going on a poker cruise this March, and I’d like as many readers as possible to join me. We depart March 2, 2008 on Royal Caribbean’s 2,435 passenger Vision of the Seas from Los Angeles, and return seven days later on March 9. During that time we’ll visit Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta-the Mexican Riviera, as it’s called-and play poker whenever we’re in international waters. I’m going to conduct a few poker seminars too. I guess the success of the recent California Poker Players Conference at Hollywood Park flipped a switch in me, because right now I’m really keyed up about conducting seminars, and I’ve been developing a lot of new material for this cruise.

If you’ve never been on a poker cruise, take it from me, the game is different on a cruise. The fun factor is a lot higher and by the second night you’ll have gotten to know all of your fellow travelers. Poker friends are like old friends. We know them beyond pretense and pretension, and they know us for our foibles and our flaws as well as for our skills and grace, and perhaps it’s because of such a completely honest perspective that we bond to poker friends like few others.

Or maybe it’s cruising. I’ve been on eleven poker cruises and the camaraderie is always the same. In a word: wonderful. While there are scads of malcontents and miserably unhappy souls who always seem to wind up at your table in a casino, that’s just not the way it is on a poker cruise. There are two reasons for that: The self-selection mechanism of those who enjoy poker cruises, and the unrelenting efforts of the folks who run them. Together they go a long way to make sure that guests enjoy themselves.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences on the poker cruises I’ve taken.I love the Mexican Riviera ports too. Though I’ve been to all of these ports before, there’s always something new that I didn’t have time for on my last visit. My poker buddy Peter Secor is fond of telling the world that, “You can still have fun in a poker room,” and “There are no strangers in poker, only friends you haven’t met yet.” Peter’s right, too-even more right when it comes to cruising.

I may be wired and tired from too much poker and too little sleep on poker cruises, but this particular combination infuses me with energy that lasts until the very end of the journey when it all seems to dissipate at once, like air escaping a balloon, or a draw to the nut flush that never gets there. It happens so quickly that you can count on me being the guy who’s dead asleep on the trip home. And oh, yeah, I’m also the guy who just can’t wait to go again.

If you want to join me, just contact the folks at Sunshine Players Poker Cruises. You can call them toll-free at 1.888.842.0212 or email from their website at http://www. sunpg.com and inquire about the 37 poker cruises they have planned for 2008.

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