A Problem We'd All Like to Have

Although business called me home before the recently completed championship event at the World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, I did arrive in time to play a few preliminaries, and to talk to some of the folks who play the tournament circuit.

One of them, who agreed to be identified as "Irish Mike" (but who specified that he is not the "Irish Mike" who posts online a lot), told me about a problem he'd had en route to the tournament, and I quickly realized that many of us share Irish Mike's problem, although often on a different scale.

Mike had more than $30,000 with him while coming to the tournament, because he intended to play in some big side games. He had some of the money in his pocket, but most of it was in his carry-on bag, in two different places. When he reached airport security, he ran into one of the random security screens that are, unfortunately, necessary these days, and they asked permission to search his bag.

Like any sane person carrying that much cash, Mike didn't want the bag searched unless he was present, and this objection, coupled with security finding the money when they did search and Mike's insistence that security keep their hands off his money, led to a three-hour detention, and the missing of his flight, before airport security was convinced they had merely detained an innocent poker player and not some kind of drug lord or terrorist.

This incident led me to think of a number of related problems and issues, and recommendations for how to handle them. At the outset, let me first note that we are talking about a flight entirely within U.S. borders. When traveling internationally, the law requires that you declare if you are carrying $10,000 or more in cash, and that leads to an entirely different set of issues.

The narrower issues I want to discuss here are what you can and should do when considering carrying an amount of cash that's significant to you. Carrying $3,000 makes many people nervous, let alone $30,000. There are issues when flying, and also issues when merely driving to and from casinos when carrying a lot of money (the amount that constitutes "a lot" is to be determined by you).

In Mike's specific situation - going through airport security - he and I both agreed that he probably would have had fewer problems with security if he had told them he was carrying the money, rather than letting them find it. Security people get a lot less jumpy when they aren't surprised.

If Mike had told them that he was carrying a significant amount, he probably wouldn't have had to fend off numerous attempts by the security personnel to count the money. "Keep your hands off my damn money," he kept telling them. "You can see there's a lot of it; you don't have any reason to start putting your hands into it, and you know that."

While I might have tried to be a bit more diplomatic about it, I would have taken the same position that Mike did, because airport security people aren't immune from temptation. If you ever get caught in the same kind of situation, I would suggest you very politely insist on not being separated from your money. It's not like the money is going to explode or is in any way dangerous. Security may have legitimate reasons to worry that someone carrying that much money is a risk, but the money itself isn't a risk, and if you walk in with $30,000 and walk out with $25,000, whose word do you think the authorities are going to take?

I asked Mike if he considered carrying some kind of proof that he is a professional poker player, but he couldn't, because he isn't: He's a very successful businessman who likes to play high-stakes poker. He kept telling them to go look at his website and maybe they would understand why it wasn't so strange for him to carry that much cash, but, of course, that kind of proof helps only after the detention process has begun.

Mike also considered that he could have simply put all of the cash in his pockets, because that certainly would not have set off any security alarms, and there would have been nothing to be found in his luggage. There are, however, significant risks to this approach, specifically those presented by a class of thief called "the pickpocket." Unless you have special clothing with Velcro seals, the hustle and bustle of an airport can create all kinds of opportunities for jostling, and getting your pocket picked is probably a lot worse than getting detained for three hours.

Airport security can be the least of your concerns when carrying large amounts of cash. You might hate to give the valet $1 or $5 or whatever it takes, but that's a wise investment when compared to the risk of taking a lot of money into a free casino parking lot. I mean, let's face it, most people going into casinos are carrying cash. Even if casino security is excellent (and it is more excellent in some casinos than others), you could still get robbed. Use the valet.

Just as the true martial arts masters usually look for ways to avoid a fight, you can look for ways to avoid troublesome situations by not carrying lots of cash around with you. Just about any casino or cardroom around is willing to let you establish an account, into which you can wire money from your bank, or from which you can wire money to your bank.

If you frequent a particular cardroom, it makes sense to get an account there, so you don't have to carry cash in and out every time you visit. Even if the cardroom or casino is one you don't visit regularly (and Irish Mike's once-yearly trip to Tunica is a good example of this situation), it is still possible to call in advance and set up a wire transfer.

Some people don't like wire transfers, for varying reasons. Some want to cheat on their income taxes, although in most cases, the records will wind up helping you prove losses more than they will prove that you won. Others just don't like the bank fees or hassles associated with wire transfers. Those folks can investigate cashier's checks or the hated (by anyone standing behind you in line at the bank) traveler's checks.

It might seem ironic that the two groups we have to protect our cash from are the law and the criminals, but human beings populate both groups. Nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, you probably won't have any problem whatsoever carrying your wad of cash around, and you'll thank yourself for skipping the hassle of taking some protective steps. On that thousandth time, the hassles will suddenly seem miniscule by comparison. There's enough gambling going on inside the cardroom. You don't need to gamble outside it, as well.*

Andrew N.S. ("Andy") Glazer, "The Poker Pundit," is Card Player's tournament editor, writes a weekly gambling column for the Detroit Free Press, and is widely considered to be the world's foremost poker tournament reporter. He serves as a quality control consultant for www.TotalPoker.com, for which he also writes the free biweekly "Wednesday Nite Poker" e-newsletter. Andy welcomes your questions through the "Ask Andy" feature at www.poker.casino.com.