my 2009 PCA
I seem to recall the Bahamas airport having free wi-fi when I was last here two years ago. This is no longer the case.
Today will be the longest day of travel I have ever had in my life. At 8:20, CO 9229 from Nassau to Fort Lauderdale departs. It touches down in FLL at 9:30, where I will spend just less than an hour before flying to Newark. From Newark, I fly non-stop to Hong Kong. With a distance of 12,980 km and a duration of 15h50m, Newark to Hong Kong is the 11th longest commercial non-stop flight in the world, and Continental's longest in operation. I will be flying in economy.
I woke up at 5:45 AM to arrive at the airport at 6:30, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Every year that I have left the PCA, the lineups have been fairly nightmarish due to a mass exodus of around 3000 poker players, poker staff, and significant others. It seems that this early, it is substantially less so; all the lines (check-in, security #1, customs/immigration and security #2) were very short. Most of the people on my flight seem to be Bahamian instead of foreign poker players, whereas on my incoming flight from DFW it was almost 80% poker players. Also, In the spirit of, "you think you run bad because you never notice when nothing bad happens," I will note that I had absolutely no problems with US immigration and customs today. Maybe I have managed to get off the watch list.
Overall, I'd say the 2009 PCA was quite enjoyable for me. The Atlantis has made substantial improvements in customer service seemingly all across the board. I've been in many different conversations where people have noticed this. So while it is still expensive as shit, you end up feeling far less resentful about it. I still cling to that faint glimmer of hope that Stars will one day consider a different location, but I know well how difficult it is to establish a new event: negotiating new contracts, dealing with different people, managing expectations, logistics, dealing with new governments and gaming commissions -- the list goes on and on. And since the Atlantis shows signs of improvement, there is promise for the future. Still, it's hard to swallow paying $26 for a large smoothie and a sandwich from Jamba Juice. (I love smoothies so much that if I hadn't come here, it'd be hard to conceive of a place that actually managed to charge almost my marginal value for one.)
The trip felt like just the right duration as well. I never got bored and always had something to do and people to hang out with. I know more people at the PCA than any other event in the world outside the WSOP, and the WSOP has a significantly different, more workmanlike vibe to it. While there were people I was hoping to spend time with and wasn't able to, I feel any longer would have been too long and any shorter wouldn't have been long enough. Others' experiences may vary. I am quite excited (because I am weird) about going back home, eating normal food (as opposed to alternating nights between decadent fine dining and burger/pizza joints), and going back to the gym twice a day. (And by "gym", I do not mean that place on the resort where they charge $15 to run on a treadmill like a hamster and/or do boring-ass lifting exercises.)
The bottom line is that while on Monday I was strongly considering not coming back next year (especially from an ocean away), I had enough fun to swing me from a small dog to a favourite for the 2010 PCA.
***
Well, I've arrived at Fort Lauderdale. The flight to Newark is (currently) delayed an hour. My layover in Newark was scheduled to be 1h43m. I asked the guy at the desk whether the delay might cause me to miss my flight to Hong Kong. He looked at me like it was the stupidest fucking question he'd ever been asked in all his time there.
Today will be the longest day of travel I have ever had in my life. At 8:20, CO 9229 from Nassau to Fort Lauderdale departs. It touches down in FLL at 9:30, where I will spend just less than an hour before flying to Newark. From Newark, I fly non-stop to Hong Kong. With a distance of 12,980 km and a duration of 15h50m, Newark to Hong Kong is the 11th longest commercial non-stop flight in the world, and Continental's longest in operation. I will be flying in economy.
I woke up at 5:45 AM to arrive at the airport at 6:30, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Every year that I have left the PCA, the lineups have been fairly nightmarish due to a mass exodus of around 3000 poker players, poker staff, and significant others. It seems that this early, it is substantially less so; all the lines (check-in, security #1, customs/immigration and security #2) were very short. Most of the people on my flight seem to be Bahamian instead of foreign poker players, whereas on my incoming flight from DFW it was almost 80% poker players. Also, In the spirit of, "you think you run bad because you never notice when nothing bad happens," I will note that I had absolutely no problems with US immigration and customs today. Maybe I have managed to get off the watch list.
Overall, I'd say the 2009 PCA was quite enjoyable for me. The Atlantis has made substantial improvements in customer service seemingly all across the board. I've been in many different conversations where people have noticed this. So while it is still expensive as shit, you end up feeling far less resentful about it. I still cling to that faint glimmer of hope that Stars will one day consider a different location, but I know well how difficult it is to establish a new event: negotiating new contracts, dealing with different people, managing expectations, logistics, dealing with new governments and gaming commissions -- the list goes on and on. And since the Atlantis shows signs of improvement, there is promise for the future. Still, it's hard to swallow paying $26 for a large smoothie and a sandwich from Jamba Juice. (I love smoothies so much that if I hadn't come here, it'd be hard to conceive of a place that actually managed to charge almost my marginal value for one.)
The trip felt like just the right duration as well. I never got bored and always had something to do and people to hang out with. I know more people at the PCA than any other event in the world outside the WSOP, and the WSOP has a significantly different, more workmanlike vibe to it. While there were people I was hoping to spend time with and wasn't able to, I feel any longer would have been too long and any shorter wouldn't have been long enough. Others' experiences may vary. I am quite excited (because I am weird) about going back home, eating normal food (as opposed to alternating nights between decadent fine dining and burger/pizza joints), and going back to the gym twice a day. (And by "gym", I do not mean that place on the resort where they charge $15 to run on a treadmill like a hamster and/or do boring-ass lifting exercises.)
The bottom line is that while on Monday I was strongly considering not coming back next year (especially from an ocean away), I had enough fun to swing me from a small dog to a favourite for the 2010 PCA.
***
Well, I've arrived at Fort Lauderdale. The flight to Newark is (currently) delayed an hour. My layover in Newark was scheduled to be 1h43m. I asked the guy at the desk whether the delay might cause me to miss my flight to Hong Kong. He looked at me like it was the stupidest fucking question he'd ever been asked in all his time there.