Nov 19 Michigan Poker Tour : Lansing

What a fun night of poker!

We arrived in Lansing later than we had planned due to traffic, and some other hang-ups. By the time we got dinner and checked in to the hotel, it was getting too late to get into a tournament. It was destined to be a cash game night. I punched the address into the GPS and quickly found myself in front of Club on the River just after 8pm.

Club on the River is not just a charity poker room - they've got pool tables, a video game area on big, flat-screen TV's, a small arcade, and chess. It's a very big venue with lots of room around all the tables. I'll get some photos up later on today.

Luckily, they were putting alternates into the $20 buy-in plus $10 add-on tournament. The tournament players were on break - I bought in and sat right down in seat 1 as break ended. I'm not a big fan of being in seat 1 - can't see the players on the other side of the dealer, and had some bad experiences of dealers mucking my cards when I'm raising a hand - but I was really happy to get into the tournament and thought I'd make the best of it. It only took about two hands to erase my card-mucking paranoia. Jesse is by far, one of the best dealers I've ever seen. Fast, accurate, alert, knows where the action is, and even *asked* me if I folded my cards when he didn't see me push them towards the muck. Impressive!!!

Club on the River had 70 players in the tournament on Thursday night, and one full cash game going the entire time I was there. The tournament was fun and well run. Blinds cranked up pretty good, but necessary to get the tournament finished up by closing time.

I'm also completely star-struck!! I got to meet Dean Hamrick, and managed to *not* spend the whole time with my foot in my mouth. Dean is great - lots of fun, great sense of humor, and runs a fabulous poker room.

More from Holland coming tomorrow - and photos too!