Cruise Report: Day 2

Ahhhh, our first full day at sea. With room service due to deliver breakfast at 8 am I arose at 7:50 and donned the one-size-fits-all robe provided by Holland America. Now the term one-size-fits-all should represent just that, but it doesn't. Apparently there is the petite one-size-fits-all and the normal one-size-fits-all. Our cabin steward thought I would look better in the petite version. I can honestly report that this is not the case. I'm a large guy and this thing barely covered the essentials. When room service knocked on the door I had so seek refuge under the covers to spare myself what I'm sure would be embarrassing cooler talk by the ship's crew.

After breakfast and a little lazy time I headed to the cardroom. Today Cardplayer was hosting it's first of three tournaments during the cruise. This event was a $100 limit hold-em tourney and I chose not to participate as I don't care for limit tournaments. This tournament like all those that followed, used every table in the room. As players were eliminated they would open up live games. As luck would have it I arrived at just the right time and was seated after a short wait.

I was destined to enjoy myself on this trip and my fellow players made sure that would happen. Being seated with some of the same players as the night before I began to pick up on their idiosyncrasies and was taking advantage of it. The deck was also doing it's part and my big hand of the afternoon was another full house, K's full just like the night before. This time however I had the lead from the time the cards were dealt and I scooped a nice pot. I finished the afternoon session up $113 and feeling quite pleased with myself.

Ending on a very good note I went in search of my wife. She had found her own oasis of bliss in the form of the spa. A very nice layout with saunas, massages, workout equipment, everything you'd expect from a spa on land. We had also managed to meet a couple just a little younger than ourselves during the boarding process the night before so my wife had someone to hang out with during my hours of absence.

The dinner was again amazing and after countless desserts we retired to the Vermeer Lounge for a Broadway Review performed by the Ryndam Dancers. It wasn't exactly on par with Broadway but you get what you get when your in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Mexico. It was very obvious that the male dancers were much more talented than the women which seemed just a bit odd. All in all though it was enjoyable and afterward I found my sealegs carrying me back to the cardroom.

I managed to be seated with a player who I had sat with every time thus far. He was almost old enough to be my father and he was there with his parents. In fact his mom was seated at our table. This player had a name in common with a very famous TV deputy so I'll refer to him as deputy from here on out. I wanted to call him deputy on the ship but I wasn't sure he'd find it that humorous.

Anyway this guy was a tilt waiting to happen. Many players throughout the week complained about him but I loved playing with this guy. He was predictable and was more than willing to lay down a winner to the proper aggression, especially if he was already on tilt. Another bonus was that he had a bad habit of telling people what he thought you held on occasion. He had paid enough attention to know that I have tight starting requirements but failed to think that I may change those requirements once I knew he had figured this out. This was a habit many players would mistakenly fall into. (you reading this duggle)

Moving on I was able to use that to my advantage and logged another winning session. Midnight was approaching and I had to be in the cardroom by nine for the no-limit tournament in the morning. I was riding a high with 3 winning sessions and I felt like only good things were going to happen in the morning.

More to Come.....