Party Poker Million III Cruise
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Party Poker Million
March 28th, 2004
by MJ
PPM III - Introduction
As luck would have it, I won a trip on the Party Poker Million cruise, which
was also going be be a World Poker Tour event. There were 550 odd players in
the tournament, of which around 480 qualified online through Party Poker. The
rest paid the $7,500 for a direct buy-in to the tournament. The game type was
limit hold'em poker, which was a change from the usual no-limit games that they
show on the World Poker Tour. Overall, the prize pool was
worth $3.8 million dollars, so it was going to be one exciting trip!
Cruise Day - Port of San Diego
Party Poker chartered the MS Ryndam from the Holland America line for the cruise.
I've been on one of Holland America's cruise trips before, so I was looking forward
to the stay because it was pretty class act.
Arriving at the port, I'm checking in at the front gates when lo and behold, who
steps out of the taxi behind me? None other than Scotty Nguyen. At the time I wasn't
sure who all might have bought in to the Party Poker Million, but now that Scotty
was right behind me, I figured I'd probably be seeing a few other familiar poker
personalities on the boat.
 
[Left] Cruise check-in area [Right] Eric Seidel (bald guy)
.. And I was right! As I was standing in line to board the cruise, I realized the
person directly in front of me was Howard Lederer, who was the winner of the Party
Poker Million II tournament last year. About 5 people ahead of us, Erik Seidel was
waiting in line, so it was rather unreal to be around all these top stars. Most
regulars in Vegas have probably seen these guys so often that it's nothing, but
we don't have many pros frequenting the Northwest poker rooms, so this was quite
new to me.
Party Poker Cruise Accomodations
 
[Left] Cabin rooms [Right] San Diego Port
Unfortunately being in the port, I was unable to take a picture of the boat from
inside our check-in building, but here are some pictures from inside the cruise ship
and the port from atop the boat.
The cabins weren't huge, but it wasn't small by any means. Each room came equipped
with bed, sofa, table, bathroom, desk, tv, closet and safe so it was pretty much
like living in a hotel room, minus being on land.
After unpacking, I decided to explore the ship a bit and get to see some of the
other faces on the boat. There was also a Party Poker welcominging ceremony
in the ship's lounge in a few hours, so I was going to be sure and check that out.
[Top] Aft swimming pool [Bottom] The Verneer Lounge
The ship had eleven different floors, so it took awhile to go through most of them
and look around. Of course the first thing I went to go look for was where the poker
room would be, since a tournament of this size was going to require some hefty space
for all the players. It turns out that they ended up converting one of the upper dining
rooms (dining rooms are large on a ship) into the poker room, so there were about 40 tables
setup and ready to run for the Party Poker Million, in addition to the constant side
games that were bound to pop up. On board, they also had a movie lounge, with a pretty
good selection of current movies, multiple bars on the ship (woo!), a casino,
a card room (which they converted to the Party Poker press room), spa, sauna, gym,
pool, gift shops, smoke and liquor shop and a large auditorium called the Veneer
Lounge.
Party Poker Million Welcoming Ceremony
After the boat left the harbor, the Party Poker welcome aboard ceremony took place
in the Veneer Lounge, where Linda Johnson CardPlayer Cruises,
who organized the event) and Mike Sexton both spoke and welcomed everyone onto the ship. There
was a slideshow of last year's Party Poker Million II event with photos of the winners
and participants. One of the funny pictures was of Phil Helmuth Jr lying on the floor
in defeat, which if you are all familiar with Phil's 'reputation', makes it all
the more funny. (I actually heard Phil was the second person knocked out of the
tournament this year as a result of oversleeping and coming in the game late.)
With that, it was a pretty exciting day one even though not much happened. Just
the idea of being on a poker cruise was a new one for me, so it was going to be
interesting to watch all the play and also be playing in the games for that
matter.
[Top] Cruise ceremony show [Bottom] San Diego sunset
PPM Part 1 | PPM III - Part 2 | PPM - Part 3
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