Poker Vallarta

Jan enjoys a canopy aerial cable ride.

The majority of my waking hours are spent doing something within the poker world. Whether it is running a poker cruise, event, tournament, seminar, or fundraiser, my time seems to revolve around poker. Wow, big surprise, eh? Anyway, once in a while I sneak off to a retreat and try to find something other than poker to occupy my time. Recently, I did this in a lovely villa in Puerto Vallarta, and you will never guess what happened. A poker game broke out! But, I digress …



My two business partners, Linda Johnson and Mark Tenner, and I hosted some friends and family at a five-day getaway south of the border. A fellow poker player friend owns a 25,000-square-foot villa with 12 master bedrooms located high in the hills of Puerto Vallarta, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and with the best view of the Mexican sunset I have ever seen. With car service, a chef, maid service, and even nightly massages, we thought we had found the perfect place to unwind and get our minds off how to play A-K on the button, whether or not we should have called a three-bet on the turn, and so on. It was nirvana, but poker did manage to find us. The first few days were spent doing amazing things in the wilderness, including off-road ATV and forest canopy adventures.



The ATV trip became a road race at times, with each of us trying to out-splash and outmaneuver the others to become "the leader of the pack." Of course, this silly, aggressive driving, especially for those of us "in our middle years," was frowned upon by those running the trip, and we were cautioned on more than one occasion to "settle down" or we'd have to return to the barn and the trip would be over. Imagine that, us pushing the envelope? The trip was fun, and even my 82-year-old dad joined in. As the senior member of our group, he does receive the tough-man award for keeping up.

Jan Fisher and her dad, Peter, after an ATV trip

However, as his daughter, I might have to forbid him from joining us again, as we just play too roughly! Anyway, we had a ball. The next day, several of us ventured out to the forest canopy to ride the aerial cables and pulley systems that have been installed high up in the trees. Many people go there to learn about the flora and the fauna, yet most of that part of the day seemed to elude our group. Again, achieving speed was our intent, and making a thrill ride out of the scenic adventure seemed to be the goal for most of us. It was a beautiful trip and some of the cables stretched nearly a quarter of a mile and were about 400 feet high. The rides were amazingly, and disappointingly, not scary! Again, go figure.

So, how does this all relate to poker? Well, in several ways, actually. While about 20 poker folks did manage a getaway for some fresh air and camaraderie, a poker game did break out, along with karaoke, the "not so newlywed" game, horse races (played with dice), a piñata, and Trivial Pursuit. Chinese poker seemed to be the game of choice, but a few sit-and-go events were also held, and generally during the karaoke singing! It was a hoot. The staff had never before seen so many adults acting like idiots, yet having such a great time. It also was a major birthday month, with three guests having their big day during our trip, so we had a huge party, as well, including the best birthday crème brulee you could imagine.

Card Player Cruises guests Trish and Mike Sprando

Finally, I have to tell you about one of the trivia questions we encountered. I bring this up due only to the nature of my last few columns. The question was, "In 2001, 600 pounds of what was scraped off the Statue of Liberty?" Of course, we all thought the answer was bird droppings. Well, that wasn't correct. The right answer was … drumroll, please … chewing gum! For those of you who are wondering what the heck I am talking about, please see my last few columns. For the rest of you, class dismissed.

As always, please contact me with your poker-related questions and comments. I will answer each e-mail personally as soon as I am able to do so. I can be reached at [email protected].