PartyPoker Million V Day 5

Party Poker

Day 5:  Thursday, March 16, 2006

Tonight we learned that Phil Helmuth is a sweetheart!  We had dinner with 2 of the  poker dealers on the cruise.  They both deal the tournament circuit and had experienced several well-known pros.  Apparently, Phil Helmuth is a normal geek who needed an act to distinguish him from some of the other pros.  So he came up with a “brat act” so that everyone would surely remember who he was.  Glenda, one of the dealers we chatted with said that Phil once pulled  a dealer aside before live action and asked her if he busted out if it would be alright to throw his cards at her and throw a fit.  He also makes sure to tip each of the dealers who work while he’s playing.  Very interesting, eh?! 

Glenda and Debbie had a bunch of stories to tell us about the whole poker circuit and how it’s changed over the years.  Our normal 1 hour dinner turned into a 3 hour chat-fest.  By the end I was convinced that Glenda should write a book, “Poker:  a Dealer’s Perspective.”  Maybe we’ll see it on the shelves 5 years from now…

Today’s port city, Georgetown, Grand Cayman was surrounded by some of the most beautiful turquoise waters I’ve ever seen.  T.K. and I tendered from our ship to shore and walked over to the first dive place we could find.  We got out our new snorkeling gear and dove into some rough water.  Colorful fish of all shapes and sizes greeted us under the surface.  There were even some huge fish that looked like they could’ve had us for a snack had they wanted.   After a while we got tired of being thrown up against the reef and went in search of calmer waters.

We found a crazy cab driver to take us to Seven Mile Beach—literally 7 miles of the whitest sand and clearest water I’d ever seen.  Although there weren’t as many fish, we enjoyed snorkeling around the clean waters.  We both got a little too much sun, but went back to the ship happy.

It seems that the Cayman Islands are completely dependent on the cruise ship industry.  In total five ships had thrown down anchor just off the island.  So between 8am and 5pm on any given day there are upwards of 15,000 people wandering around the capitol city.  Places like this are designed to be tourist traps full of overpriced sundries.  Usually this kind of place doesn’t appeal to me at all.  At least there was a great beach to spend time at instead of getting caught up in retail mania!

We’re back to sea for 2 days again before arriving back in Ft. Lauderdale.   The big tournament is down to 6 players who will face each other tomorrow!

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