Live!

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. That's mostly because I haven't been playing.

Friday night my brother and I drove over to Port Canaveral and took the Sun Cruz casino tour. On the way to boarding they had a sign-up board for poker. They were offering a $60 sit-n-go that would start as soon as the ship cast off. All the other poker, and other gambling, had to wait until the ship passed the 3-mile marker. They can apparently start the sit-n-go because no money changes hands until the ship has crossed the gambling line. My brother and I both signed up.

Poker is on the top deck. Thankfully, the entire floor appeared to be non-smoking. They had eight tables, though only two were in use -- one for the tournament and one for what I think was a $1/$3 NL cash game.

Eventually eleven people sat down for the tournament. The mix of players was about what I'd expect at such a venue. A couple guys who had more than a clue or two, a couple complete novices, and a few who probably thought they knew what they were doing. I'm not sure exactly how long the levels were. We got about one full rotation in each of the first few levels. The blinds went 100/200, 200/400, 300/500, 500/1000, 1000/2000. The whole thing felt reasonable to me. Certainly not designed to be a long tournament, but not rushed to the point it was an all-in fest.

Not surprisingly, the novices busted out early. I got a couple good hands I was able to take advantage of and managed to build a comfortable stack. Once we had a bit more elbow room, the game tightened up. I grabbed the initiative and stole a few pots. One hand I woke up with pocket rockets, which turned into quads, but I couldn't get anyone to play back at me.

When we finally got to three the dealer immediately started pushing chop. I thought I was better than either of the other two so I suggested we keep playing for a while. Nobody seemed to care much one way or the other, so we played on. When we got down to two the other guy offered to chop, but I had him two-to-one in chips. Plus, I knew I was better than he was. Sadly, the cards dried up for me. The other guy ended up taking it, and then, being the good winner he was, rubbed it in that he'd offered to chop it.

They immediately offered a $40 "beginners" tournament. About all I recall about that one is that Mr. Good Winner was the first one out, and the guy who took third in the first tournament and I were the last two. We went back and forth for about 15 minutes. I was up by a few hundred and offered to chop it. The other guy agreed.

Another $40 tournament was immediately called. Willing participants were getting scarce. We only had six at this one. My largest accomplishment in this one was sitting around watching as the first three players were eliminated, not losing many chips while it happened. Then I managed to catch a hand and eliminate the third place player. Mr. Good Winner and I were the final two. Not wanting to have it rubbed in again if he lucked out, I agreed to chop it.

For the night it was one second and two chops with me ahead in chips. Total, adjusting for tips, +$200. My play was solid, though could have been a bit more aggressive at times. Only one suckout, and even that was only 2-to-1 against when the chips went in.

I was a little disappointed there wasn't more poker action on the boat. Just the one tournament table and one cash table. The cash table was full pretty much the whole time.

If this is the kind of crowd the boat is drawing, I can see why the other gambling cruise line went out of business. There is a new one that's supposed to open soon. They're advertising all sorts of free stuff, so it will be interesting to sail on that one and see what kind of crowds they get.