PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

The planes that slip out of the sky over the Bahamas fly over waters so teal and shadowed with dark reefs, it's possible to believe the airliner's wheels are going to touch down on a giant postcard from paradise. In the middle of an American winter, the Bahamian sun seems too bright to be real.



A $27 cab ride from the Nassau airport delivers one from the crowded island streets, over the Paradise Island bridge, and onto a resort so enormous that getting lost is not so much a possibility as prerequisite for vacation. A bellhop illustrates the enormity when a guest asks how to get to one of the ornate ballrooms. He points and says, "It's about a 20- minute walk that way."



And he's not kidding.

Reynaldo rolls cigars in a little cigar shop.

This place, the Atlantis resort and casino, has just about everything. Multimillion dollar yachts pack the harbor. Sea life dances in the Caribbean and roams through the resort's giant aquariums and lazy rivers. A 75-degree-drop waterslide empties into one of the countless pools on the property. And if you want a cigar as big as an anteater's nose, a guy named Reynaldo can roll you one in the little cigar shop near the casino.



Still, it was early January, and the one thing the Atlantis didn't have was live poker. While slot machines, craps tables, and a sportsbook kept the tourists happy, the Bahamian Gaming Board had long frowned on the world's new favorite card game. That was until PokerStars.com and the World Poker Tour brought the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to the island.



The Gaming Board officers have sharp, strict eyes. The smallest of infractions – like tourists betting on a friendly game of casino trashcan basketball (true story) – can draw their ire. So, imagine the officers eyes when an army of poker players invaded the resort to introduce an entirely new game with a multimillion dollar prize pool. Indeed, gaming agents stood with stern faces as the first-ever live hand of poker got under way, a game of $20-$40 hold'em. That was only a side game, however. The main event was what everyone, including the gaming agents, wanted to see.



The field of more than 450 players played in two starting flights over two days. The collection of longtime pros and increasingly experienced online players from PokerStars endured the long days and virtual muggings that inevitably take place on the river.



One day, though, the talk was all about a real mugging. World Series of Poker Champ Greg Raymer had been holding court at his tables for a couple of days when his tablemates finally chatted him up about getting jumped at Bellagio last year. He told the tale as he had many times before: Two guys jumped him and pulled a gun as he made his way back to his room. He fought them off and they took to running. He told the table he was lucky they didn't decide to use the gun.



" Miami" John Cernuto chuckled, "Good read."



Raymer would not survive the beating in the Bahamas, though. Although he would fare fairly well, and although 80 players cashed, only six found their way to the final table. Cernuto was one. Online player Patrick Hocking, Swedish pro Mikael Westerlund, student Nenad Medic, professional gambler Alex Balandin, and English management consultant John Gale rounded out the final table.



Although poker had been taboo just days before, the final table of the event appeared outdoors for all the tourists, seagulls, and passing yachtsmen to see. Shaded by palm leaves and the occasional parasailing tourist, the six men took to battle in the Bahamas.



From the start, Nenad Medic didn't have many chips with which to play, and ended up calling all in with 10-8 offsuit. He lost and departed in sixth place. " Miami" John Cernuto, although it was his birthday, sat on a desperately short stack all day, as well. After pushing in with K-4 from under the gun, Cernuto ran into Gale's pocket jacks and left the contest in fifth place. Oregon's Patrick Hocking did his best to ride out the blinds, as well, and had hung on for some time before fi nally pushing in with a naked ace and running into A-J.



That left three players, all of whom have spent their time playing in major tournaments to varying degrees of success. Mikael Westerlund is a Swedish pro who later in the year went on to make the final table at the European Poker Tour's Scandinavian Open. A wild and aggressive player, Westerlund got caught in the Bahamas trying to steal with a reraise and ended up calling an all-in bet with 6-4 offsuit. It was an image he crafted well, and it pushed him all the way to third place. In the end, though, with three players left, facing a sizable raise, he pushed in for the rest of his stack with K-10 offsuit. His opponent held A-10 and Westerlund departed for his native Sweden.

The Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas hosted the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Westerlund's exit left the tournament with just two players: Englishman John Gale, a chainsmoking, Tic-Tac popping gentleman, and a mysterious New Yorker by the name of Alex Balandin. Throughout the tournament, Gale rushed to the lobby in between hands for a quick drag from a quickly lit Marlboro Red. Balandin deflected questions about his profession by describing himself, without elaboration, as a "professional gambler." Later, Balandin would admit he traded for himself on the American Stock Exchange.



"Fundamentally, the stock market is a big game," Balandin said, "and that is my love: games.



" He also spent some time on a blackjack card-counting team. "I have played plenty and been kicked out of plenty of casinos," Balandin said.



In the end, the heads-up match would not be the epic battle it took to reach the final table. Although they began with even chip stacks, it took fewer than 10 hands to end the battle when Gale raised four times the big blind with K-Q and Balandin came over the top for enough to put Gale all in. Balandin held A-7, but Gale flopped a queen. The loss crippled the pro gambler and he lost on the next hand when he got the rest of his chips in the middle with 8-7 versus Gale's pair of jacks.



With that, Texas hold'em hopped a boat and again drifted away from the Bahamas. The question remains: Will it be up to PokerStars and the WPT to bring the game back next year, or have the Bahamians finally caught a taste for a game the rest of the world is quickly embracing?