Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Cheers to Jason at the Bluebird Microcreamery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district! He saw my tweet about how I had a few hours to kill in Seattle and invited me out to the shop where he hooked me up with coffee, ice cream, and a Wifi password. So this is how it works, people: you give me free ice cream, and I will gladly pimp your business on the Thinking Poker blog!

Honestly though I’ve eaten at a lot of good ice cream places all over the US and this is right up there with the best I’ve had. It’s homemade and really creamy and delicious. Cool atmosphere in the shop too.

When Jason told me that his favorite flavor was peanut butter, I knew we would get along well. He ultimately suggested a triad of chocolate, peanut butter, and banana pudding, which was a good recommendation.

If you’re ever in Seattle, definitely check this place out!

After a low-key Friday night, Nico and I resolved to live it up on my last night in Madrid. We started off having dinner and watching the Barcelona-Seville game at a restaurant/bar across the street from his apartment. It was a bit of a dive but had surprisingly good food and there were a wide variety of people just kind of hanging out there, some drinking and watching the game, some just having dinner. Nico said that Spanish people spend a large percentage of their time in places like this, and that his roommate goes to this place every morning for breakfast. So despite the game ending in a draw, a good outcome for all the Madrid fans in the establishment since they won their game, it was a good time and a neat place to hang out.

From there we took a subway to Tribunal for some botellon, the fine Spanish tradition of outdoor, public drinking. I’ve never been a big fan of bars, since I’m mostly going to talk to the people I’m going with and could do that more easily and cheaply with drinks at home, but there is something to be said for the atmosphere and for being among people. Botellon is the perfect combination: you’re outside with plenty of other people milling around, but you’re drinking your own alcohol rather than buying it at inflated prices!  Read the complete post...

The rest of the trip report will have to wait until the next 2+2 Magazine, but here’s a little write-up from the WSOPE party, which proved pretty amusing:

The night before the start of the main event, the WSOP hosted what they called a beach party that actually took place in a function space just off the beach. They had an open bar with top shelf liquor, but I seeing as how I was playing the next day I just had a glass of champagne. I didn’t spot any of the players I’m friendly with, so I just hung out with Nico for a bit until they announced that the speed boats had arrived.

That’s right, speed boats. The WSOP chartered them for the party. With nothing better to do, Nico and I got on the first trip, and it was a hell of a time. We were out for about twenty minutes, first pushing away from the dock for a panoramic view of the Cannes shoreline at night, the casinos and hotels looking far more glamorous at a distance than they do up close.

Then we went full throttle, supposedly up to 100 MPH, tearing out across the Mediterranean towards St. Marguerite, the island where the Man in the Iron Mask was held prisoner. It too looked majestic at night, the prison and surrounding island dramatically illuminated by floodlight.  Read the complete post...

After all the hassle, the money did successfully make it to Cannes, so I am all bought in and ready to go! Play starts in a little over two hours, but I´m already having a great trip and have the beginnings of a trip report to share with you. I’m trying to set up Nico´s phone so that I can send occasional tweets, but since he´s in a different country it´s not cheap and I probably won´t be sending a lot of them. I’ll definitely update the blog at the end of the day though (and hopefully not before!) Until then, here’s what I’ve been up to so far (pictures forthcoming):

Our journey began at the tobacco shop, where naturally my continental companion needed to stock up on rolling papers, tobacco, and filters. Then we were on the road, zooming past revelers preparing to celebrate Fiesta Virgen del Pilar. The land surrounding Madrid is dry and brown, scorched by an eternal sun burning through a cloudless sky. Occasionally a crumbling stone cathedral set into the countryside would break up the monotony, but overall it was a dreary landscape, and I told Nico as much. He assured me it would get better.

It did. The brown hills turned green as we pressed northward. Mountains rose up out of the arid brush, and a dense fog clung to the horizon. We were in Basque Country.  Read the complete post...

We woke up early on Thursday morning with plans for an all-day hike in a nearby alpine meadow, but we were looking at the worst weather we’d seen since we’d been in Canmore. Massive gray clouds were hanging over the mountains in all directions, so much so that at their worst you couldn’t even see that there were mountains there. We decided to reschedule for the next morning, but it looked virtually the same on Friday, so finally we had to just suck it up and hope that the weather improved.

It did. By the time we got to the parking log, the fog had lifted and the sky was a clear, beautiful blue. We caught a ride with a ski resort “shuttle” that turned out to be nothing more than a school bus that was hardly suited to the task of climbing a steep, winding dirt road up a mountain.

We arrived safely, though, and almost immediately the views were magnificent. It was surprisingly warm even at elevation, but with a cooling breeze. We were immersed in crisp mountain air and a vibrant sea of green grass peppered with wildflowers. After a short walk to even higher elevation, we came upon the first of three alpine lakes:

 Read the complete post...

I know I never finished my Montreal story but it just feels like really old news now so I’ll just give you the short version. Emily and I were in Montreal for about two weeks, and while it was a nice city in a lot of ways, it wasn’t what we were looking for. We got by just fine using English and my broken French but we didn’t really feel at home or at ease a lot of places because of the language barrier. If we were going to be there long enough to learn the language it might have been an interesting challenge/opportunity, but that wasn’t in the cards. Also with summer fast approaching we wanted to be somewhere with better outdoorsy experiences nearby.

While I was in Las Vegas, Emily was looking into short-term rentals elsewhere. She ended up finding a good deal in a town called Canmore near Canada’s Banff National Park. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pricey, but the place is pretty sick and we’re in an amazing area at the height of the season, so I do feel like we’re getting what we’re paying for, which wasn’t really the case in Montreal.  Read the complete post...

I played five tournaments yesterday and whiffed them all, nothing remarkable about that. And it wasn’t a particularly frustrating day or anything, cash games went well so I was up despite the tournament losses. What was remarkable was that after a long day of playing, I had a ton of awesome hiking opportunities to choose from just a few minutes’ drive from my home.

What’s more, the new Euro-friendly schedule on Stars suits my preferred playtimes perfectly. I can start playing between like 11:00-14:00, play for several hours, and have time for an hour or two of hiking in the evening. Right now it’s staying light out until ridiculously late, like 22:00, so there’s plenty of hours in the day.

After yesterday’s session Emily and I hit the trail. We bootlegged it a bit to get on top of the canyon wall for a vista of Grotto Lake with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Then we hiked through a canyon (the creek was running extremely low) to a small waterfall, which seemed a good turning around a point. It was a very fine way to decompress from a long three days of poker!

My girlfriend was kind enough to let me plan our Valentine’s Day around an interview with Mike and Adam. We spoke for a little over half an hour about all kinds of stuff: blogging, coaching, traveling, and of course strategy.

My only regret is with regard to the last question they asked me, about discussing a current controversy. I paused for a long time trying to choose something good, and then I got self-conscious about how long it was taking and just started talking without really organizing my thoughts. Turns out they edited out the pause anyway, so I wish I’d just taken my time and given a more well thought out response. You can find a more thorough explanation of my take on the ethics of endorsing a certain disreputable site on the premier edition of the Poker Ethicist.

Check me out and please let me know what you think. You should really listen to the whole show, but my interview starts when they return from the break around the 50-minute mark.