by Bob “Silver Eagle” Thompson
When the phrase “America the Beautiful” was written, they must have been thinking of Alaska. Classic Poker Cruises just codmpleted its second cruise to Alaska with 240 satisfied and satiated cruisers.
If you have never been to Alaska, it’s one of the places you must visit before you play your last hand of poker and cash in your chips.
Trees, glaciers, mountains, salmon, bear, eagles, otters, whales, caribou, and, of course, the thing you really expect from a cruise — food, food, food, eight times a day!
Put all of this together, along with poker, and you have the perfect vacation. For those who didn’t play, there was plenty to keep them occupied — lectures, bingo, tours, horse racing, massages, dancing, saunas, jacuzzis, swimming, and some of the best entertainment outside of Las Vegas. If you can’t have a good time on a cruise, you just aren’t trying.
Five tournaments were held — two freerolls, one for past cruisers with a $1,000 prize pool, and one for early bird sign-ups with a $1,500 prize pool. When Classic Poker Cruises say they pamper their players, they mean it!
Three $100 buy-in tournaments were also held: a limit hold’em, an Omaha high-low split, and a seven-card stud high-low split.
Limit hold’em started off the action with 44 players. Opting for part of the prize pool were Harry Thomas, World Series seven-card stud winner, along with his wife Jerri (who finished third in this year’s World Series ladies event); Doc Stevens, Super Bowl winner in the $10,000 no-limit event at Caesars Tahoe a few years back; Bob Ensley, aka “Oklahoma Bob,” winner of the first poker cruise tournament that I held in 1989 in the Caribbean; P.K., winner on several cruises and of numerous tournaments in Las Vegas and California; Gerry Klawitter, winner on last year’s cruise; Joe Ryan, who had the best cruise of all, with 35 of his children and grandchildren on board, along with his wife Lillian; retired Senator Fritz Windhorst from Louisiana, along with his buddy Ed Tannenbaum and their wives.
The winner of the first tournament turned out to be a first-time cruiser, Andrew Fritz from Munich, Germany. No stranger to tournaments, he has two final finishes at the World Series. The key hand that put him in the driver’s seat was when he held an A-K and Doc Stevens picked up a K-Q. A king came on the flop, Fritz checked, Doc bet, Fritz raised. The next card was a blank — Fritz checked, Doc bet, and Fritz raised. On the last card, Fritz bet and Doc called; Fritz won the pot with his A-K. At that point, the limit was $300-$600, and the pot was worth $4,800, building Andrew’s chip count to $10,000 of the $22,000 in chips in play. A deal was made a few hands later with Andrew awarded the title and first-place prize money.
A great time was had by all with lots of fond memories of Alaska, friends, and poker. My thanks and accolades to the poker dealers, who did a super job — it’s really a pleasure to work with such professionals. Looking forward to seeing you on the next cruise — Bon Voyage!
Poker Digest Magazine – Volume 1 Number 4