Location: Key West, Florida

Hey guys! Well I'm 5 days into my trip and there so much to talk about. Our first stop was in Panama City (known for wild spring breaks). Of course when we get there, the town is pretty much dead. Matthias and I hung out on the beach during the day and went to the famous Club La Vela at night. It's the biggest night club in the USA, but the night we went there was like only 30 people total!!!!!! Way too much space for so few of us. Nothing eventful happened to say the least. The next day we headed to Orlando "the place where dreams come true". Sorry just had to throw that in there. We ended up at Sea World which was ok but nothing spectacular. That night we headed to Pleasure Island. Its where all the night clubs are in downtown Disney and each club has a different theme. There's a club for hip-hop, 70's and 80's joint, and beach club etc... So the first night at Disney, we end up at a Top 40 club Motion. I really only like dancing to hip hop, but they were playing mostly techno so it was a challenge for me to shake my moneymaker. We met some cute girls from Conn. and danced with them at the club. The one girl Joseline seemed really into me so we got the girl's numbers to hang out the next night. So the night after we ended up at club called Mannequin. This spot was hot b/c it had a rotating dance floor. Matthias and I met up w/ the girls there, but Joseline seemed out of it the whole night. I ended up finding out she was into extra curricular activities and since she was sober was not herself. Nothing really transpired w/ the girls :(, but the trip is still young!!!



Some random guy, the girls we met and me (on the right) at Pleasure Island



Mannequin dance club

After leaving Orlando, Matthias and I finally had a chance to play some poker for the first time on the trip. There are some weird laws in Florida that prohibit NL cash games, but I found a cruise ship sailing off of Palm Beach that spread 2-5 NL cash games. The cruise ship sails for 4 hrs. so there would be a limited time we could play. I was nervous for Matthias as I am staking him for the trip and he has no casino poker experience. So we get there and the 2-5 NL game has a cap buy-in of $300. This means no real poker will be played and you just have to sit back for hands and hopefully get paid off. The average stack at the table was $200 so it was an uneventful session w/ no interesting hands. I ended up $300 after 4 hrs., which I thought was good considering how small the game played. Matthias watched me play for the first couple hrs. to pick up the basics and then I decided to put him into the game. He ran really well and was up $215 after 2 hrs. Not bad for his first cash game session of poker ever! I've talked to Matthias about poker strategy and since he's a really smart guy, I believe he will be a winning player very quickly. We just arrived in Key West and are about to go out for the night. This place better be the bomb, b/c we are driving so out of the way just to hit up this spot. I don't expect to play any poker until we get to Chicago (no card rooms from Georgia to Illinois) boo to that!!! Later everyone!!

PS
On a side note, does anyone camp anymore!? Every campground we stop by, there are just RVs and we end up being the only idiots camping for real. I guess nobody camps b/c motel rates and camp fees can be really close at some locations.

5/30/07
Location: Mobile, AL

Hey everyone and welcome to my blog! I am in a unique position of having the freedom to travel the country for the next 5 weeks spanning over 7000 miles to explore this great land and play poker of course. I have been playing poker as my sole income for the past 6 months. My friend Matthias just graduated with his Masters from University of South Alabama. His poker experience is limited to $5 buy-in home games and I will guide him to becoming a winning casino poker player. I am just fresh off of a weekly tournament win at the Borgata in AC and usually play 2-5 NL cash games. I plan to stopping at 10 to 15 casinos during our trip to negate the expenses through poker. This will all culminate when we head to Las Vegas and the WSOP!

Frankly, I am quite nervous about this trip. I expect to encounter the unexpected and I plan on rising to the challenges that await me. We are driving Matthias' 88' Subaru station wagon with 150K miles on it. We are praying the car holds up for the duration of the trip. To keep the trip low budget, we are primarily camping and occasionally crashing at friend's places. I have ZERO camping experience so this should be an adventure for me. Luckily, Matthias was an eagle scout for 10 years and will be able to show me the ropes. My life has been all poker the last year and I've taken this journey to step beyond my horizons to hopefully new and greater things. I hope everyone enjoys my adventures!

foxypham