The "Become a Poker Pro" Cruise (Day 2)

Day 2 of the "Become a Poker Pro" cruise started off a bit sluggish for Brandon and I.  The ship arrived at Coco Cay, Bahamas at 8am and the BaPP finalists were free to do what they pleased on the island until the scheduled 11am PokerRoom.com Photo Session at Coconut Willie's beach area.  After a late night of drinking and partying, Brandon and I didn't even wake up until 10:50 - so by the time we got changed, got off the boat, and stumbled onto the island all hungover, it was well past 11am.

Coco Cay, Bahamas

Fortunately, Coco Cay was less than a mile wide and less than 200 yards long, which made Coconut Willie's beach area really easy to find.  Upon my arrival, I was immediately summoned to have my picture taken by a professional photography crew.  Again, I can't stress enough how much PokerRoom went out of their way to make the BaPP finalists feel like rockstars.  

PokerRoom Photo Session at Coconut Willie's beach area

Afterward, all of the BaPP finalists gathered around a poker table that they had set up on the beach for a rousing game of Blind Man's Bluff:

This was an opportunity for the finalists to kick back and have some fun before things got serious at the BaPP Final Table.  As a reminder, you can view these pictures in better quality, along with dozens of others that PokerRoom took by following this link.  As added incentive, there is a sequence of photos where you see me getting tripped by Jack "Dragon2" Arnold.  That bastard...

After the photo session, we ate a buffet style lunch at Blackbeard's Grill and at 5pm, we were back on board the "Majesty of the Seas" en route to Nassau, Bahamas, where we were to arrive at 8am the following morning.  Back on the ship, we had some time to kill before the 7:30pm meeting regarding the rules and logistics of the BaPP Final Table, so myself, Brandon, Jim, Dustin "HustlerPoke" Goff, and Thomas Falkenstrom from PokerRoom played a few pick up games of basketball.  We all worked up a pretty good sweat before the meeting, and to avoid running late once again, I had to throw my PokerRoom bathrobe on over my basketball clothes.  Needless to say, my attire earned a few laughs, but the meeting reminded me that there was still a Final Table to be played.  As such, the BaPP finalists got a brief rundown of the rules and afterward, the poker journalists got an opportunity to interview the players.  I spoke to a few of them, but not for long since I had to shower and dress up for the formal dinner at 8:30.  To be sure, the dinner was exquisite and my table mates and I capped off the night with some kind of chocolate-cherry shot around 10:30pm.  Soon after, I returned to my room for some much-needed rest.  I was spent after a day's worth of activities.  Plus, I couldn't afford to spend the night drinking and partying like the night prior - not when I was about to play arguably the biggest poker tournament of my life.

To be continued...