Good Times Happen in Tall Places

My whirlwind life continues and my frequent-flyer mileage is quickly reaching gargantuan proportions. Recently, I was fortunate enough to visit the Canterbury Card Club in Shakopee, Minnesota. It has a racetrack and poker room, and hosts some great poker action with very friendly people (ya, you betcha!). I was there for a fundraiser, along with many basketball and poker superstars. All proceeds from the no-limit hold'em tournament were to benefit the Trent Tucker Nonprofit Organization for Twin Cities Youth Programs. The organization's partners in the venture included Canterbury Park, the World Poker Store, and Polaroid. It was both an honor and a privilege to be included with the likes of Greg Raymer, Johnny Chan, Marcel Luske, Phil Hellmuth, Liz Lieu, John Phan, Linda Johnson, and others in the poker world. However, the true hero of the night was Trent Tucker himself. Tucker was an NBA player as well as a standout for the University of Minnesota. Since his retirement from basketball, he has selflessly devoted his time, energy, and financial help to many youth programs in the Twin Cities. He is loved by the local community, and deservedly so. To learn more about this very generous and special man with a big heart, please check out his website at http://www.trenttucker.org/. It was an honor to meet him.

There were many funny things about the event. The one that struck me the funniest was the poker celebrities running around with their cameras snapping photos of the basketball players. The ironic part was that the NBA guys didn't know who these bracelet winners were! One noted World Series of Poker champion even brought a few basketballs with him to be autographed! Present for the event were Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing, and many more whom I recognized but couldn't name. I was a huge NBA fan back in the Celtics-Pistons rivalry days. Am I giving up my age? Anyway, I was fortunate to get a snapshot of MJ, LJ, and me.



There was a charity auction during the first break of the event, and three items were auctioned off, with all of the money going to the organization. Jordan bought the autographed (by all of the poker and NBA stars) Harley-Davidson, and then donated the bike back. Cool, eh? There also was a signed poker table and poster auctioned. Local philanthropist John Morgan bought both of these items. He is another local with a huge heart. He's a poker enthusiast, and when he heard about the event, which had a $2,500 buy-in, he bought 10 seats and gave them to a variety of players who were in the card club that night. I had heard about this wonderful gesture and wanted to meet him. When I took my seat at my starting table, I was pleased to note that he was seated there, too. I was going to introduce myself to him after the first hand, when an amazing thing happened: I busted him on the very first hand! I did speak to him immediately afterward, and thanked him for his generosity. Then, he sweated me all night. I made it down to two short tables, but busted out in 12th place. I had already stated that if I cashed, I would donate all of the money back, but I fell four spots short. Linda managed a sixth-place finish, and donated her cash back. The winner of the event was none other than Michael Jordan himself!



The evening wound down, and the next day the club looked more like a normal poker room, with the average person's height less than 6 feet, rather than 6 feet 8 inches. Linda and I gave a poker seminar to about 80 women at the end of the weekend, and then played in the Minnesota Ladies State Championship. We both made the final table and finished fifth and fourth, with me getting the honor of busting her out. The weekend was awesome, and the kids will get some equipment, some education, and some opportunity. Life is good. Class dismissed!

As always, please send your poker-related questions and comments to [email protected], and also please check out www.cardplayercruises.com for your poker cruise needs.