SCOOOOOOOOOOP

As much as I love the SCOOP, I skipped it last year to play more of the WSOP instead (not that they overlap, but I can only afford to spend so much time focused more-or-less single-mindedly on poker), and it was looking dicey for this year as well. Then, a few days ago, I got the greenlight and managed to pull together a reasonably priced trip to Montreal.

I booked my accommodations on AirBnB, as is my wont. I decided to be forthcoming about the purpose of my trip in my initial contact with potential hosts, as they usually ask eventually anyway and it helped to explain my nitpicky questions about workspaces and internet quality. This led to some unexpected hostility when, after explaining that the apartment wasn’t available, a woman unnecessarily added that besides she was “not particularly interested in this type of work/energy in my home.” In ten years of playing poker, this literally the most negative comment I’ve ever gotten, so I guess I’ve been running hot.

Thankfully, others were more gracious, and I ended up renting an apartment from a woman who both found a monitor I could borrow and began her initial response to me with “Pro poker player, that’s cool!”

I’m currently in the Philadelphia airport, awaiting my connecting flight to Montreal. My stomach is roiling a bit with the usual flight-day combination of too little sleep and too much caffeine combined with a special anxiety that will be alleviated only when I am safely in Canada and no longer reliant upon the arbitrary whims of a border agent. Not that I should or ever have had a problem entering the country, but it still sucks knowing that the possibility exists and I’m powerless to do anything about it.

I won’t be able to stay through the main event, but I should be able to get ten full days of poker (I’m taking at least one off). That should mean a bit more of the online poker content that’s been largely lacking from this site since I was last in Montreal in September. Stay tuned!