I recently took another of my trips to far away places. I went to Jacksonville, Florida, on my first stop for a three-day visit. Howard Korman, the head honcho of St. John's Greyhound Park invited me to host the
Chips for Charity Tournament, which was invitation-only. Several local dignitaries, including one mayor, one former mayor, one state senator, and the county sheriff were all in attendance. In addition, several people from the various local media also participated. More than $10,000 was raised by the winners for various local charities. There was a bounty on my head that was ultimately collected by the sheriff. He caught me stealing. The only time I tried to bluff all night, he called my straight draw with two overcards to the flop, and then proceeded to pair up and knock me out after I put all of my chips into the pot. He snapped off my 6
5
when I flopped a gutshot-straight draw. Of course, he didn't need to pair up on fourth street with his K-10. I just got no respect at all (smiling). Tournament Director Josh Zuckerman was very gracious and asked my opinion of several things. One thing I have always had is a lot of opinions, especially where tournaments are concerned.
The following night, I hosted a sold-out tournament of 200 participants. At least 50 players were turned away, because the event had to be concluded by midnight. There are some very poor laws in Florida where poker is concerned. It is obvious that state officials have no concept on how poker is played, so some of the regulations border on the ridiculous. I was reunited with my friend Ashleigh Sleiman at the tournament. She is a native of Jacksonville, and is the lady I wrote about in two of my earlier columns this year. She was at my starting table in the
World Series of Poker main event and kept the entire table laughing all day with her wit and lively conversation. They placed a bounty on my head, a beautiful TV set, and I eventually went out in 34th place. It was a respectable showing, but not good enough to make the money. Earlier in the tournament, one of the players who had driven in from Georgia to play was at my table. I was short-stacked at the time and got my chips in preflop with 8-8 against his A-Q. He cracked the whole table up when he said, "I ain't got no TV and no money. I need to bust you and win the tournament." My eights held up and it crippled him. He then said, "Now I don't even have a good story to tell because you didn't bust me." Later, he shook my hand and told me how much fun it was playing with me. That made me feel good, and I was sorry that he didn't win his TV.
I got to spend three nights at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club during my stay in Jacksonville. My room was right on the beach, and it is a fabulous resort. My girlfriend, Jennifer Snyder, said she did not want to leave. I had a commitment to do a seminar in Fort Lauderdale, and she told me to leave without her. Now, that was a fine how-do-you-do. I dragged her kicking and screaming to Fort Lauderdale anyway. She soon discovered that they have a wonderful shopping area there, and it wasn't so bad after all. I enjoyed doing the seminar, and it was followed by a charity tournament. My friend and student Lou Paterno won the event. Lou also made the final table in Jacksonville and then drove Jennifer and me down to Fort Lauderdale. Once again, one of my students showed up the teacher. He added insult to injury by busting me out in the Fort Lauderdale tournament.
After three days in Fort Lauderdale, I was off to the Bahamas to participate in the WPT Boot Camp. There was a tournament there that was billed as "The Battle for the Season Pass." The winner got a year's worth of buy-ins to
WPT events, plus $14,000 in travel money. The second-, third-, and fourth-place finishers got buy-ins for one event, with fifth and sixth places getting a lesser prize. I will provide my journey through this event in my next column. In the meantime, if my students don't bust me before I get to the final table, I hope to join you in the winner's circle.
Tom McEvoy is a representative of PokerStars.com. He also is the voice of ProPlay, a new and innovative way to learn winning poker strategy. Find out more at ProPlayLive.com/tommcevoy.
