Ashley Adams

by  Ashley Adams

 I wrote my last column, “Driven to Distraction,” to show how occasional poker players have specific challenges that aren’t encountered by card room regulars. I divided these into three groups: The Lure of Action, Free Stuff, and Other Gambling Opportunities. In this column, I’ll let you know my thoughts on how to keep those distractions from hurting your best poker game.

by Ashley Adams

 I regularly drive down to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, one of the largest poker rooms in the world, and one of the nicest, where I usually play $1-$2 no limit hold’em or either $10-$20 or $20-$40 stud.

 Two broad categories of players that can be found at Foxwoods, and every other public poker room for that matter, are regulars and tourists. Regulars habituate the same poker room at least a few times every week—if not daily. Everyone else is a tourist.

by Ashley Adams
 
 I learned something about the dangers of momentum both in football and in poker—during a Super Bowl Sunday trip to Illinois.

 The winning Super Bowl touchdown by the Giants was actually an unsuccessful attempt by Ahmad Bradshaw not to score. Bradshaw tried to stop himself from scoring—but could not halt his forward momentum and scored anyway—leaving enough time on the clock for the Patriots to try to score. (As it turned out, of course, the Patriots failed to score.) Even so, Bradshaw’s failure to stop his goal line momentum was an interesting side note to the Giants’ Super Bowl victory.

by Ashley Adams
 
 I enjoy taking trips to places where I can play poker. I think of them as poker adventures. So when my daughter Hannah announced that she was going to spend a semester studying in Delhi, India, I started to look into poker playing opportunities there. I figured that meeting up with her would be as good a reason as any to look to India for my next poker adventure. She and I decided to meet in the state of Goa, a resort area on the coast of the Arabian Sea, in the southwestern part of India. It also happened to be one of very few places in India that had legal, live, poker and casino gambling. How could I say no?

by Ashley Adams
Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
 
In the last three installments of this four-part David J. Valley series I wrote about poker rooms my friend Andrei and I played in during our recent visit to Oklahoma and Kansas. In this, the last article of the series, I’ll tell you about our experiences in Kansas City, Missouri, with a quick story of a poker side trip to Texas thrown in for good measure. Kansas City is worth visiting even without the poker. It has all of the amenities of major American cities including excellent art museums, restaurants, music, architecture, and outdoor activities. The area is best known for great barbeque, fantastic steak houses, and of course the combined Jazz Museum and Negro Leagues Museum. My friend Andrei and I spend half a day touring around these famous sites and eating local cuisine. But we saved the evening and night for poker.

by Ashley Adams
 
Read Part 1 and Part 2
 
On Wednesday, my friend Andrei and I left the magnificent 65 table Winstar Casino poker room in southern Oklahoma ready to head back toward Kansas City, but wanting to play some more poker before our Friday morning flight. By Wednesday afternoon we had arrived at the major poker room in the Oklahoma City area—the beautiful, 24 table, Riverwind Casino (1544 W State Highway 9, 405.322.6000) just south of Oklahoma City in Norman.

by Ashley Adams
 
In my first part of this three part series I covered the journey with my friend Andrei to poker rooms in eastern Kansas. I continue my account in this second part with our Oklahoma poker adventures.

 Oklahoma is full of poker rooms—including some of the largest and best in the United States.

by Ashley Adams

I have my biases against the Plains States of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. I’ve been conditioned with movies like The Wizard of Oz to think of this part of the United States as flat, gray, and … well, boring. Even so, the large number of poker rooms begged for a visit. So my friend Andrei and I set out for six days of exploration.

I’m happy to report that in just about all respects my biases were ill-founded and flat out wrong. Eastern Kansas, western Missouri, and northeastern Oklahoma are filled with rolling hills and scenic beauty. And the poker is at least as exciting in these states as anywhere else I’ve played. There is variety, action, and a lot of money to be won. I’ll spend the next three articles writing about my experiences.

by Ashley Adams

Part I of this article covered my trip to the Colorado town of Black Hawk and its five poker rooms. [Read Poker in Colorado, PART 1 OF 2 now] My trip continues with the adventure in Central City and Cripple Creek, Colorado.

 Central City is only about two miles northwest of Black Hawk. It was also a mining town back in the 19th century. But unlike Black Hawk, which now has little in it but large casinos, Central City has preserved much of its mining town character. The casinos are smaller— and they are interspersed with other small store fronts.

by Ashley Adams
 
When you think of great poker destinations in the United States you probably don’t think of Colorado. But you should. I’ve just gotten back from a trip there. It was filled with poker. Let me share with you what I experienced.