The State of the Quest

I haven't written in a while because, frankly, I haven't been playing a lot of poker. Domestic bliss is the state of my affairs these days and poker, while still a great hobby and a wonderful distraction, is less the focus of my life. Spending time with Ali is genuinely fantastic and I get more satisfaction out of just sitting on the couch with her, watching "Say Yes to the Dress", than I do from playing a random tourney.

Ok, I'm lying just a little. What I meant to say was, I really like to play an online tourney on my laptop while I'm sitting on the couch with Ali, watching "Say Yes to the Dress".

Whatever!

Anyhow, this month almost went by before I realized that it's the two year anniversary of my poker quest! More precisely, it was two years ago this month that I started traveling to far away destinations specifically in pursuit of my stated goal of seeing all of the legal poker rooms in the Continental U.S.

After 24 months of traveling as often as I could, I have seen or played in 135 poker rooms located in 13 different states. Come December 4th, I'll be traveling to Arizona to add another 14 rooms to that total, and 3 more in California, bringing the grand total to 152 poker rooms by the end of the year.

That's 152 rooms in 26 months for an average of 5.8 unique poker rooms a month. That's a pretty nice pace, and one I wish I could keep up. Alas, the aforementioned domestic bliss is forcing me to go to places like Paris instead of Oklahoma. Poor me. :-p

After Arizona, my next weeklong poker trip will most likely be during the summer of 2010. Ali will be studying for her bar exam around that time, freeing me up to get the hell out of her hair! I anticipate Oklahoma (I wasn't kidding) or possibly California. There might also be some long weekend (3-4 days) trips. New Mexico comes to mind and maybe Reno/Tahoe. Also, Ali and I might be going to Vegas when she graduates in May 2010. She's never been and I would love to go for a week and show her around. There won't be a whole lot of poker playing if I go with her, but if I can get her some spa sessions, I might be able to visit the dozen or so poker rooms in Vegas that I missed my last trip there.

In other, slightly distressing news, my poker table (the nice one) is being sold tonight. I was going to wait until the end of the year to sell it, but I got an offer I couldn't refuse from a guy who's opening up a new room in downtown Manhattan near where I live. The combination of the excellent price he's willing to pay combined with the thought that I might still be able to play on it is too good to resist.

They come tonight to pick it up. What this means, of course, is that for the first time in nearly 5 years, I no longer have a poker table in my apartment and can't host games anymore. This is the official end of my hosting duties (Sorry Christine!).

But I'm keeping my chips! Those go with me to the grave.