PartyPoker Million Cruise

I just spent 7 days completely offline for the first time since I've had a computer. I must say that it was completely refreshing and I didn't even have the urge to go online because I was enjoying myself so much on the cruise. There was just always something to do and though I won't be able to write about all of it, I do want to jot down a few things accompanied by random photos from throughout the week.

One of many reasons for not being in my room or online: sunset

The $8k Main Event started off well for me. I had a pretty good table despite having Bond18 and Benjo at my table. A couple guys from Ukraine with very unorthodox playing styles kept the table active and flowing with loose chips. I got my hands on a few of them in several different pots but nothing too significant. At the end of the day I had doubled my starting stack from 10k to 20k. Day2 did not last long for me, though. After losing some sizeable pots I had 7k left with blinds of 250/500, Adrian Koy raised in MP, I pushed AJo from the button and the BB reshoved over the top with AKs. The flop was 5K5 and I was toast.

Day1 in the Main Event, a rare smile at the poker table

With the Main Event out of the way I had plenty of time for drinking and a few excursions as the ship made stops along the way. The first time I went offboard was in Izmir, Turkey, where several of us took a couple "horse taxis" to the local bazar in a mission to buy ping-pong paddles and balls.

It was semifrightening when the cars honked/buzzed past and our driver refused to check if the lane was free before switching lanes. An accident is basically GG for the horse and passengers so I'm surprised he was so careless.

At a local restaurant in Istanbul. Great service, great atmosphere, not so great food

Alex and Julia at the restaurant in Istanbul

I really enjoyed Istanbul the next day, though the weather was not that great. Croatia, specifically Dubrovnik, took the prize for best stop though. A truly awesome city with an amazing view and crystal clear water, wow.

Group photo in Istanbul: (l.t.r.) Flo, Alex, Mirijam, Benny, Tim, Seb, yours truly, Benjo, David and Chris

Dubrovnik, it was awesome to say the least

I did play a fair amount of live cash game on the cruise, much to my surprise. I've written several times how boring full-ring live cash games can be, but little did I know that our Russian friends from Vienna would be there playing every night so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I lost by biggest live pot but I also won my biggest live pot ever and I did manage to make some money against them overall so that was good news.

For the last night of the cruise I decided to bust out my suit if Mirijam wore her golden cocktail dress, so we each held our promise and celebrated Alex's win in the disco. It was disappointingly empty, but one drunk Russian kid provided plenty of entertainment on the dance floor.

Looking spiffy

Congrats again to Alex Jung for taking down the Main Event!

Our last day we spent hanging around in Venice just enjoying the last rays of sun and eating a nice original Venetian pizza. Yum. I would be lying if I said I didn't completely enjoy the vacation, though it wasn't a complete vacation because I still did play plenty of poker. Hopefully PartyPoker will organize this again next year because having an active poker room on a ship definitely adds a nice spin to a cruise. If not, I probably won't go on a cruise for a while because 90% of the crowd was over 60 years old and they aren't very much fun to party with :)

Now it's a matter of a 3-week countdown until I fly to Vegas for the WSOP on June 3rd. In the meantime I need to find a new laptop that can support a 30" monitor. That basically means I need a graphic card with dual link DVI, if anyone has any suggestions please drop off a comment!
*Edit: $50 reward on Stars or FTP if you can find me a nice laptop that meets my qualifications:
-dual link dvi
-either 15.4" or 17" display
-not too loud and does not get too hot
-I do not want a Mac

gogogogogogo!