Nat Arem's Blog

I’m back home in Philadelphia. The trip back wasn’t really that great…

First, I got stuck in a pretty long line to check out at Atlantis. As expected, there were about $300-$400 in extra meals on the room bill, so we had to go through them one by one to get them take off. While the Atlantis staff was friendly about taking them off, it still took awhile. I was on the same flight as Steve (stevesbets) and Bree, so we took a cab to the Nassau airport. The ride should have been about 20 minutes, but we hit a lot of traffic and it took about 50 minutes. It didn’t matter as our flight was delayed from 1:30 to 2:30.

Like just about everything else in the Bahamas, the service at the airport was awful. There was only one metal detector, so the line took about 30 minutes to get through. On a side note, Raymer was at the airport with his family and he managed to cut the security line somehow. His daughter was wheeled through in a wheelchair, but I’m pretty confident there is nothing wrong with her as I’d seen her walking with Cheryl Raymer through the resort on a few occasions during the week. While I apologize if something happened to her that caused the need for the wheelchair, I think that Raymer and his family just didn’t want to wait in the long security line. If that’s the case, putting your daughter in a wheelchair to skip the line is a pretty low move in my opinion.

After we got through the first security line, we were placed in a much more reasonable US Customs line. After about 5 minutes (a REALLY short wait for anything in the Bahamas), I got through customs and I went upstairs to another security checkpoint (No, there was no way for me to get a gun/explosive/etc in between the two checkpoints). They made me take my wallet out, but luckily they didn’t notice the large amount of cash I had in my front pockets. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable putting that through the metal detector in front of a lot of people.

Once inside the terminal, Steve, Bree and I went to get some food. After waiting in a line for 20 minutes (not joking, everything in the Bahamas takes forever), I managed to acquire an ice cream sandwich and a drink. The hot food looked terrible. We killed some time playing around on the computer, then boarded our flight to Philadelphia. Jennicide (Jennifer Leigh) and PokerGodZeus (Matt Glantz) were on the same flight, along with their families.

The flight started off great. For some reason, it was one of the emptiest flights I’d ever been on, as my whole row (all six seats) were empty except for me. The ride was smooth until we got near Philadelphia. About 75 miles south of the Philadelphia airport, the stewardess announced that there were delays in Philadelphia and that we were going to go into a holding pattern (aka, fly in circles) until we received further clearance. We first heard about this at around 4:10 PM and we were supposed to hear more at 4:30 PM. Around 4:25, we were informed that we’d actually hear more at 4:40 PM. At 4:50 PM, we were told that we wouldn’t even hear more until 5:25 PM, which caused a number of groans on the airplane. Our hopes rose a bit at 5:10 PM when we were cleared to proceed further and we finally got on the ground at 5:30 PM, about an hour late.

We’d planned on going to dinner near Univ of Penn, so we took a cab to Steve’s apt. Of course, the cab, which should take about 15 min, took about 45 min due to horrible traffic on the expressway (the main artery into downtown Philadelphia from South Philly, which is where the airport is located). Once there, we finally got to dinner and the forgettable trip back was over.

All in all, I had a great time. I got to meet a lot of people that I’d only talked to online and one of my best friends in online poker (Ozzy, obv) managed to make the WPT final table in his first live tournament. Not only that, but my other roommate (Empire2000) made it to the final three tables as well. There are obviously a lot of things wrong with the Bahamas and the Atlantis property, but the people there definitely made it a fun trip. I will go again next year if I’m free (remember, I plan on being in law school, so I may have other commitments).

Thanks to shaniac, mockturtle and TillerMaN for giving my blog a mention in their own blogs. If you also linked me in your blog, let me know at natarem@gmail.com so I can give you a plug in this entry.

I do plan on continuing to post in this blog, so check back if you’re interested. I’ll also do more picture blogs at all events that I go to in the future.

Obviously Ozzy made the final table, so Ozzy, Roman (Empire2000) and I got up pretty early this morning to get ready. The final table started at 10 AM, but we had to get down there much earlier.

Like usual, I took a lot of pictures:

Clockwise: Empire2000, Ozzy, gambler21 and MrSmokey1 (in the white shirt) waiting to go out to the deck for the final table

MrSmokey1 on the left and Bushman on the right talking before the final table.

Ozzy and Empire2000 on the left, Bushman and thorladen (in the yellow) on the right

Final table getting ready to start

Final table getting ready to start

The players pose for a picture

Last minute prep before play starts

Mike and Vince

thorladen, Bushman and MrSmokey1 sitting down on the steps waiting for the action to start

Ozzy heading away from the table after taking a beat to go out in 6th place

ZeeJustin arriving on the scene moments after the final table starts only to find out that he missed watching Ozzy play. To his credit, he only missed one hand of play, so it was pretty good timing under normal circumstances.

Justin in shock

Joe Hachem talking to thorladen about how sick the AA v 77 hand was

Ozzy in good spirits after he busted

Again…

And again…

A view of the final table deck from far away

Tonight I plan on going to dinner with stevesbets and his girlfriend. There’s also a PokerStars party. I fly back in the middle of the day tomorrow.

Sorry about the delay, but here are some pictures from the Battleship poker event and the 1500 NL event:

-db- playing in a STT

hazards21 packing up his laptop to move to a different table

SetofKs

NUTZREALBIG in the red hat and wrldsgrtst (from the Party STTs)

twin-caracas

The Shrike

The Battleship poker area

StuDaKid in the black and dabest24/7

Another shot of their match

Another shot of the same match

hazards21 on the left, P0ker H0 on the right.

JERRRY v serb2127 (although he was playing on ‘nenad’)

P0ker H0 with JERRRY and serb2127 playing in the background

Dustin Dirksen (JohnSmiley1 on Stars) sitting down watching the 1K HU event

Raymer and McEvoy playing HU

StuDaKid and curzdog talking with twin-caracas looking on

SetofKs and clayne

NUTZREALBIG and strassa2 (on the right) playing HU

The same matchup

JoeHachem and mntbikr18 in the blue shirt

twin-caracas in the white hat

The Shrike in the Orioles jersey

ShuMoney on the left vs thegrumpyone

The Grinder in the 1500 NL event. mock turtle is to his right.

theory in the hat playing in the 1500 NL

MrSmokey1 in the white sweatshirt. He got a ton of chips early in the 1500 NL, but didn’t go deep in the money. Bebop86/Raptor517 is on his left, our right.

shaniac

stevesbets in the grey shirt

legggggggggy and P0ker H0

curzdog in the sunglasses on the left and Tom Sartori on the right.

Bushman

I wasn’t there, but luckily SKOAL managed to capture some live drunk poker action. These pictures are all courtesy of SKOAL:

moledaddy

Sooners in the striped red shirt and BeL0WaB0Ve standing up

croth8 in the blue hat

MrSmokey1 bad beating Sooners in a big pot. Sooners flopped top pair, MrSmokey1 held K3 and hit a king on the turn to take the side pot. I think a set of 5s took the small main pot.

MrSmokey1 and his favorite hand: K3.

SKOAL, Lee Jones, 55lucky55

Sooners, BeL0WaB0Ve and moledaddy

moledaddy and BeL0WaB0Ve

BeL0WaB0Ve bluffing moledaddy out a big pot. BeL0W held 82 while moledaddy laid down JJ on a A high board.

WB123456789 and Morgase (SKOAL’s wife). I don’t know who the guy on the right is.

Barny Rubul and Sooners

The second day of Battleship poker is set to start in about 30 minutes, so I’m going to head down there with my camera and try to capture some of the action. Be sure to watch it on Stars at 1:20 PM.

You’re short stacked going into the final table, what’s your plan?

I’d like to avoid making a raise and then folding — that’s my number one priority. Play fairly tight and look for good double up situations.

How would you describe your mood at this point?

I’m fairly confident in my game and I’m hoping to bring a good appearance to the table. I’m excited and I’m looking to the WPT main event final table.

Okay, good luck to Ozzy at the final table.

—————-

We just ordered room service and we’re going to head to sleep after that. Tomorrow is a rest day for the players, so I’m not sure what we’re going to do.

6th is getting about 177K, first is 1.36 million. The final table will be played on Tuesday, so tomorrow is a rest day. Unfortunately, Ozzy is the short stack so he’ll have to get lucky and have good timing to move up in the pay ladder.

I’ll get a report from Ozzy after he finishes filling out the various forms that are required.