That’ll be me in January.
For the past two weeks I’ve been playing “Step” sit ‘n go’s on Pokerstars in vain effort to win entry to the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure (a.k.a. the PCA, a.k.a the WPT Bahamas), which begins the first week of 2008. The Pokerstars Steps are a series of one table tournaments, starting with Step 1 ($7.50 entry) and ending with Step 6 ($2000 entry) with the winner of Step 6 receiving entry in the $10,000 tourney along with a free week at the Atlantis.
I have had relatively little trouble breezing through steps 3 ($82) and 4 ($215), but every time I’ve reached step 5 ($700), I’ve stumbled. On Friday, I had won yet another step 5 seat when I decided it was time for a break. I decided to take the weekend off and return to the steps today.
So it obviously came as a bit of a surprise when I just discovered that the Pokerstars PCA Steps have been shut down for this year. The PCA doesn’t start for another five weeks, so I’m not sure why Pokerstars would kill the satellite action this early. I suppose they have reached their quota–they might have a finite block of Atlantis rooms set aside or something. For the record, Pokerstars has already assured me that my $700 step 5 ticket will be redeemable in some other kind of satellite tournament in the future.
This means I will likely freeze my ass off right here in New York for the entirety of January 2008. Since I am sticking to my super nitty plan of only entering $10,000 events via satellite, there will be no Bahamas for me.
On the one hand, I am not especially phased by this. Loyal readers will recall that I was less than impressed with the Atlantis in January 2006, so I can’t say I was dying to return. On the other hand, because the PCA is the online poker player’s Mecca, my absence this time around is a minor blow to my ego, reinforcing the fact that I’m not a bigtime online baller.
So it goes.
Meh.
davidzeitlin 
Hey David,
It was nice meeting you up in Foxwoods…and congrats again on your big score up there! I hope you didn’t think I was a freak for just coming up to you and introducing myself while you were playing…hahah. I just recognized you from reading your blog and following your progress ever since Timmy introduced me to it. I actually went down to AC w/ Timmy and a few other people last weekend, and he told me about how you guys met back in the party days….pretty funny. Are you gonna play the Harrahs WSOP circuit in a couple of weeks? Hey…if you make another big score there, you can use that dough to buy into the PCA…hehe. The hotel may have it’s flaws…but you gotta admit, all the exotic fish and creatures in their aquariums are pretty awesome. Anyways, keep up the great work and maybe I’ll see you at Harrahs…
Inspiration hit? 😉
Hmmmm — since you’re not going to Atlantis, it sounds like the perfect opportunity to take a vacation to Cayman. You could even learn to scuba dive while you’re down here!
Hey Dave 🙂
guess who?? Yes this is Lena (“the board” ), been watching you here 🙂
Imagine that, I’ve been so into poker in the past year, and it is really all your influence. I won three times the 5,000 ppl tournaments (free ones) and got qualified into the paid ones… earning real money) then gradually go play on real money tables, then from $0 little by lilttle I made about $1200. I have to say alot of time was spent however that is promising to turn into something bigger. Definetely won’t quit my day job lol but hey! It is so much fun. One of those tourneys lasted about 6 smthg hours. I play on PS and AP.
wishing you luck~~~!!!
haven’t seen you in ages.
Keep up your game.
cheers,
Lena
Felix: nice meeting you too. It’s totally cool to come say hi to me, I’m glad you did. I’m playing the Harrah’s events on Dec 10-13th so I hope to run into you down there.
Christian: yup.
O (and everyone else): they actually just reopened Bahamas sats (minus the free hotel), so I might get down the the Caribbean after all.
Lena: You go girl! Feel free to ask me any questions about poker stuff if they ever occur to you. Nice to hear from you.
🙂