Feature

The diary of OldKing Cole. He swims with the sharks in the Caribbean sunshine you know.

A regular to our poker room, OldKingCole (more commonly known as okc on the $1/$2 and $2/$4 tables) decided to quit the relative safety of his “castle” on the Essex/Suffolk borders to mix it with the poker jet set on the Dutch Caribbean island of St Maarten (it’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it). And in the community spirit of caring and sharing, we managed to bribe persuade him to keep a journal about his experiences to provide both advice and inspiration to any other poker players who may be thinking of following in his hesitant footsteps.

With that in mind, it’s not just a story about poker. It also includes information on eating, drinking, and generally having fun. After all, these are all essential ingredients for any good tournament experience, and, as luck would have it, all activities for which OKC is well known. And as a relatively poor royal, OKC has ensured that there’s an emphasis on living the highlife while keeping one eye on your budget.

Right, that’s enough from us. Over to the man himself.

Day 0.

Getting to St Maarten involved a three-legged journey. First, I caught a bus from Colchester to Stansted Airport (£15 rtn) before picking up an EasyJet flight to Amsterdam for a further £58. The final leg of the trip involved an Air Holland flight from Amsterdam direct to the island (nestled between Antigua and Peurto Rico since you asked) which was available for a very reasonable £288 rtn. Catching the connecting flight did involve an overnight stay at the Hotel Schipol (an extra £55, but at least it included a full English).

In theory, the non-poker spend should end about now. The tournament organisers, The International Poker Federation (IPF) arranged free accommodation for all players willing to buy-in in advance for at least five of the thirteen tournaments. And considering that rooms at the luxurious Maho Beach Resort/Casino normally cost in excess of $250 a night, and the fact that the five lowest tournament buy-ins came to only $590, the $3,500 worth of free accommodation sure looked like a good deal. As a further bonus, buying-in to the five tournaments in advance also secured entry into two freerolls where the top five finishers won entry into the $1,000 NL Hold’em freezeout, the second biggest event.

To top it off, each night of the entire festival featured a sumptuous player buffet dinner for only $15 and all drinks in the cardroom are free. But just in case any of the promised facilities didn’t live up to expectations, a little internet research produced a good shortlist of ‘eateries’ and ‘drinkeries’ to fall back on.

I also packed my laptop to write my little account for Victor Chandler Poker and to also annoy some of my playing partners at www.vcpoker.com by turning up to play while sitting on my balcony overlooking the beautiful Maho Beach. Flukenstein (flukey to his friends - has he got any?) has already declared a dislike of all players from 'warm places', so he’s bound be a little rattled. Felicity, on the other hand, may be quite pleased that there will be no interruption to OKC's virtual cocktail hour. She likes Punt-e-Mes and flukey usually has a Bloody Mary, of course. As luck would have it, The Maho Hotel has just installed a new in-room internet facility - not a modem link, but a high-speed network costing $10 per day or $49.95 per week for unlimited 24 hour access. Perfect for playing poker.

As I get ready to start my journey, there are two questions I can’t help mulling over. One, will all the attractions of this holiday paradise be within the scope of OKC’s not so regal pocket? And two, can any potential shortfalls be met by successes at the tables?

Day 1 - Thursday 13th November 2003.

Everything went fairly smoothly to begin with. I caught the bus, I didn't miss the flight to Amsterdam, but I did miss the shuttle bus to the hotel by about 30 seconds. This was rather annoying because they run at 40 minute intervals, meaning I had another 39 minutes and 30 seconds to wait; nice timing. I checked out the taxi fare, but decided against spending 45 euros for a 10 minute ride. I spent a lot less than this stocking up with soft drinks and food for the next day's flight, a no-frills affair with no proper meals on offer at all. Only to be expected for £288 return!

I had hoped to play at Victor Chandler Poker from my Amsterdam hotel room. The dataport in the room was a direct telephone line with a standard modem plug. Quite clearly it worked, but I wasn't able to connect to either of my ISPs due to a combination of number checking and freephone complications. Net2roam.com is certainly a solution to such problems for future trips where a dial-up facility is provided rather than a network. The hotel also had a small cyber-cafe in the lobby but I was informed that it would not be possible to download poker software. Being a mischievous soul, I decided to check this out for myself and discovered that it was entirely possible… so I had a little play at Victor Chandler Poker before retiring to my bed for the next day's early start.

Day 2 - Friday 14th November 2003.

The full English breakfast at the Hotel Schiphol A4, included in the room rate, was a very pleasant surprise and set me up for the day. The Air Holland flight left as scheduled at 10.00 and, after a 9h 35m flight, arrived bang on time at 15.35.

The IPF laid on a chauffeur to meet me and I was whisked through passport control without even having to produce one. So far so good. Then it all went wrong. My bag was not on the carousel. In fact, it was still on the plane. Which was now in the air and on its way to Aruba. So here I was, dressed in my travelling clothes and without so much as a toothbrush.

At the hotel check-in, the top American woman player Barbara Enright was in front of me. Was this a representative sample of the opposition I could expect to face?

I went out in the early evening to find some food - Cheri's restaurant opposite the hotel provides an excellent range of steaks and seafood dishes and a meal for one with a couple of glasses of wine sets you back about $30. Not cheap, but it is pretty up-market and provides entertainment too. On the short walk back to the hotel, I was caught in a tropical storm and could not have got any wetter had I fallen in the swimming pool. Remember, I have no baggage and nothing to change into. Fortunately the room does have an iron and ironing board. The job I did on my shirt and trousers was not that good however and when I went out again later on for a drink I was certainly 'steaming'. And not because of the weather. Or drink. Quite literally steaming in fact.

Day 3 - Saturday 15th November 2003.

I stayed in bed until mid-afternoon to recover from the journey and consequent lack of sleep. Thankfully, my bag arrived in the middle of the day. I turned up at the Maho Casino which is directly opposite the hotel about an hour before the advertised start time for the first freeroll. I had wondered whether the event would be well attended. An effort to run a festival here last year had been rather unsuccessful - only about 45 players turned up. Well over 100 turned up for the freeroll and it was clear that there any many more still to come. The festival is widely advertised on the island and is bound to attract some holidaymakers too.

There was an opening ceremony with music and dancing and opening addresses, including a welcome from the CEO of IPF, Thomas Kremser. UK players who watched Late Nite Poker on Channel Four may remember that Thomas was the floor manager, and his partner Marina Rado was one of the dealers.

The freeroll didn’t start well, thanks to a robo-raiser sitting two-places to my left. No matter what, he raised, and it was clear that he couldn’t have the goods every time and that he was going to get caught out, sooner or later. The only decent hand I had in the whole two hours was pocket eights, and when robo-raiser raised enough to put me all-in I had to fold (I was to learn after the tournament that he was holding pocket tens, so it was a good fold). Half an hour later, I got pocket eights again, this time betting my last 200 chips on it. The chip leader called with Ace-rag, hit both, and OKC was history.

Day 4 - Sunday 16th November 2003.

The second event was the $150+$20 buy-in Limit Hold’em. I rather fancied my chances, as I play largely this format at VC Poker. Sadly, however, my run of bad cards continued, but I did stagger to about 40th place in another 100+ field. My final hand was representative of the kind of ill-fortune I am suffering. I had KJ suited on the button - flat-called in a multi-way flop. Flop K J 9 - top two pair - raised all-in - was called by A 9 offsuit - who hit another 9 on the river -goodbye OKC.

The hotel's new internet system has been experiencing some teething problems, but at last it seems to be working properly. I should at last be able to get my on-line poker fix playing the odd hour or two at Victor Chandler poker. Wish me luck.

Old King Cole will be back with more tales of poker derring-do in the Caribbean next month.