This year my Bahamas experience was different than any of the other four years I’ve gone–the weather wasn’t good. Although it is all relative. 70 degrees, cloudy, and 10mph winds really isn’t the end of the world. But in the Bahamas that’s just unacceptable! So for the most part, I stayed inside. I brought my brother this year—well, I shouldn’t really say that. He won the seat this year so technically he brought me, which was kind of cool considering how often I’ve taken him on trips. He brought his best friend Jesse as well so it was a good trio.
The trip started with us taking a brutal, never-gonna-fly-again, 31 minute flight from Fort Lauderdale. Kudos to you if you detected any sarcasm. Internet sarcasm is a tricky thing to pinpoint. Anyway, we got there and stayed in the part of the Atlantis hotel called The Cove. If you think the hotel itself is extravagant, The Cove is on another level. The only issue with it was the location. Atlantis, being one of, if not, the biggest hotel on the planet, is a bit of a trek to get around. It was on the other side of where all the action was. It ended up not being that big of a deal. It’s a tradeoff of what you want. It was way more chill and not nearly as crowded, which on the weekends, is a minor issue in the other towers.
The tournament did not pan out well. For the 5th year in a row, I didn’t make it past day 1 or the 300/600 level for that matter. The main event at the PCA has always been a massive failure, but I’ve done pretty well in the side events at least. This year I only got to play 1 side event, the 5k 8max. I wanted to play the 1k 6max but it was on day 2 of the main event so there were still 900 some odd players still in so there was minimal room. Ideally they should’ve ran an 8 or 9 max tourney that day and a 6 max tourney the next day.
The 5k didn’t go so well either, although I played some really interesting hands. One hand was against a friend of mine, Randal Flowers a.k.a. RandALLIN online. The hand went as follows: Randal opens to 775 at 150/300 25 from 3rd position 8 handed. He has 18k in his stack and I’m directly to his left of him with a 15k stack and AQo. I decide to flat given the stacks and the fact that Randal probably isn’t going to monkey in 50bbs with AJ. Everyone else folds and the flop comes J77hh. Randal bets 1200 into around 2k and because I have the Qh I decide to call the flop. Turn is an offsuit king and he checks to me. At this point I’m thinking he doesn’t have a huge hand but he does have something that wants to see the river. If he had nothing or a draw he would most likely double barrel the king here. Now I picked up a draw. While I do not think my hand is good here, betting doesn’t seem that credible unless I had KJ or some sort of draw so I opted to check back. The river is a brick 4. He checks and I decide to really try to sell me having a jack so I bet 1800 into 4400. A fairly small bet but I wanted my bet to wreak of valuetown. He then proceeds to check-raise to 6500. Now, I’m totally confused. I thought he didn’t have a strong hand on the turn or river and then all of a sudden he check-raises??? And not just any check-raise, some massive check-raise that’s four times my initial bet. I really want to call but I still only have Ace high. I thought for a while and then realized that a lot of hands he has here he’s turning into a bluff like 55,66,88,99 which is really annoying. I also thought about the fact that if I called here he might instantly muck those hands and then I would win the pot but I didn’t think he would so I ended up mucking. He then flips over the 5 of spades and confirms my thoughts of him having 55. Yes, he could’ve had 57ss but he didn’t check to see which card it was before flipping indicating that both of the cards were the same. Pretty crazy hand and it seems like the only way I could’ve won the hand was by shoving and while the thought occurred to me, it just seemed ridiculously nuts to shove in there. After that I got 3 outed and it was game over.
The last night in Bahamas I got to experience a 5 star dining experience at this place called the Graycliff hotel. Apparently, an actual pirate of the Carribbean built the place in 1740 and it’s been kept in tact all these years. We had an 8 course meal full of foie gras, lamp chops, beet salad, and 3 different types of souffles for dessert. It was probably the priciest meal I’ve ever had at $300 a head but was simply magnificent and a great way to end the Bahamas trip.
Well, that’s all for now but one thing’s for certain Aruba is much better than the Bahamas for a poker destination on so many levels. Don’t know if I’ll be going back to the Bahamas next year but there’s no way I’ll be missing Aruba this year that’s for sure!