Tournament Travels

My life as a poker player provides me an opportunity to travel, meet new friends, and play in some wonderful tournaments. I recently completed a month-long journey that took me to tournaments in Minnesota, Costa Rica, Connecticut, and San Francisco, California.

My first stop was Canterbury Park in Minnesota. Canterbury Park is a racetrack that added a poker room about 18 months ago. If you are ever near Minneapolis, do yourself a favor and stop by Canterbury Park. The games are good, the staff is crackerjack (excellent floorpeople and very good dealers), the place is clean, the people are friendly, and there is a "no abuse" policy that is strictly enforced, which makes playing poker there a pleasure.

Deborah Giardina is the VP of cardroom operations at Canterbury Park. I met Deborah and her wonderful family years ago on a Card Player cruise. I was "wowed" the first time I saw her work. The ship was getting ready to sail and she was running the sign-up board. It seemed like 100 people were trying to get on lists at the same time. Within five minutes, she had everyone seated in a game and happy. I was very impressed by her calmness and efficiency. She is the consummate professional and Canterbury Park follows her standard of professional efficiency.

My next stop was Casinos Europa in Costa Rica. It is one place where players are respected and appreciated. I've been all over the world playing poker, and there is nowhere that comes close to the hospitality that is provided the players in Costa Rica. Casinos Europa provided airfare, transportation to and from the airport, hotel accommodations, three meals a day, unlimited free drinks, organized tours, and hospitality extraordinaire for all players. Hats off to Nick Gullo and his wife, Janine, Linda Johnson (for her coordinating efforts), the entire Casinos Europa staff, and owner Luis for "making it happen."

The uniqueness of the tournaments in Costa Rica was worth the trip by itself, and so were the hostesses at the tournaments. These girls were stunningly beautiful, and as friendly and helpful as they were pretty. If only every tournament had them! Four of the five tournaments featured a $10 buy-in events with rebuys (and I do mean rebuys), and a $40,000 guarantee! The last tournament had a $500 buy-in and a $100,000 guarantee. Every event was no-limit hold'em, and made its guarantee easily.

Here's something you don't see often: In Costa Rica, they shut down all the cash games when the tournaments begin. Tournaments have top billing there. If you like to travel, enjoy having a good time playing poker, and love being treated generously, put Costa Rica and Casinos Europa on your future agenda.

I then went to one of my favorite places to play poker – Foxwoods in Connecticut. This casino and its success just amaze me. It's beautiful, and busy. Everyone should see it.

The tournaments (and structures) at Foxwoods are as good as you'll find anywhere. Tournament Director Mike Ward and his staff simply run excellent tournaments. They also have the earliest starting time of any major tournament – 10 a.m., and they do start on time! Most players seem to grumble a little about starting at that hour, but the day I arrived, they had 380 players in a $300 buy-in limit hold'em tournament – and it was a Tuesday!

The last stop on my "tour" was Lucky Chances Casino, near San Francisco. I must say that I was given the VIP treatment there. I helped conduct a poker seminar (along with Tommy Angelo and Andy Glazer), and it was great fun and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone – especially me.

Lucky Chances is a beautiful card club in which it is a pleasure to play. It's a pleasure because they also have a "no abuse" policy that means just that – no abuse. Poker is so much more enjoyable when players respect the dealers, the floor staff, and their opponents. Hats off to Poker Room Manager Scott Fiedler and Tournament Director Matt Savage for the terrific job they do in bringing us one of the finest and most well-run poker facilities in the country.

Perhaps the highlight of Lucky Chances' Gold Rush tournament was the hold'em shootout event. A shootout event is one in which you draw your seat and play at your starting table until one player remains, like a one-table satellite. Then, the winners advance and play on. Most players love these events because they either make the money or they don't within two hours. Everyone who wins his table makes the money.

At Lucky Chances, this $200 buy-in event was limited to 10 tables, which was unfortunate, as many more players wanted to play, but couldn't due to space limitations. They play down to two players at each table. This leaves 20 players (two tables), who essentially start a new tournament at that point, as chips are not carried over. Those two tables then play down to five players each. It doesn't matter what a player's chip count is, as all 10 surviving players start with an equal amount of chips at the final table. This format requires an interesting "survival" strategy, creates a lot of excitement, and is tremendously popular with the players.

These four totally unique poker rooms in wide-ranging environments have one common trait – they host well-run and enjoyable tournaments. Traveling and playing tournaments is fun. Take care.