17 years old I stepped onto what was a newer casino.  Becoming 18 was a rite of passage present from my gambling enriched mother who was my base for loving a game of cards as well as taking as many prop bets my wallet could handle.  Grand Casino Mille Lacs was nothing more than a few rows of nickel slots (with believe it or not you had to actually feed the round coins in to play), a huge bingo hall, and a bank of blackjack tables.  Silvers would be under my stack for the whole evening as the $3 tables suited the guy working for $4.25/hour at the local Target in Crystal.  By the end of night though I would be sporting a wide smile and a nifty black chip on the winner’s trot to the cashier’s window before the bumpy trek along highway 169 back to Maple Grove. 

Fast forward to today. I’ll find myself playing for a little higher stakes as black chips sometimes find their way into my stack by the end of the night.  The casino has exploded into a family destination with a beautiful golf course, entertainment center, child care (which just re-opened), and a bank of slots that would rival an off-strip Vegas casino.  But, I’m here today for the first official event of the Minnesota State Poker Tour and as of press time 130 players are seated in this $1,000 + $100 NLHE event at the fabulous Waabizheshi Marten conference room at Grand Casino Mille Lacs.  This is my first setting in a live poker tournament as part of the media rather than making someone cry from my lack of poker skills on the felt.  Instead, you the reader get to put up with my lack of English skillz and simple sentence structure mangling that would have a creative writing professor pull her hair out. 

Currently seated at Table 14 with my new media center hook-up after some stumbling blocks like sitting in the restricted cashier’s area that the security people failed to see the 6’4” 210 lbs guy in the Chicago Cubs t-shirt slither behind them to reach an outlet.  After a stern talking to from the gracious Grand Casino hosts we’re settled in for some poker action.  John Dragich winner of the first MSPT event at Canterbury Park is sitting over at Table 12 ready to start another run at an another bracelet.  Table 10 seat 4 found co-head honcho of the MSPT Bryan Mileski as his cohort Phil Mackey after winning his buy-in via satellite nestled into seat 9 Table 6. 

Table 5 found three lady rounders taking their shots at the same table, eyeing the $36,990 first prize of this two-day event.  To be honest I expected coming up here to see 60-70 players, but instead got treated to a near full room of Minnesota’s best card players including seven ladies three of which we’re gathered at Table 5 to beat up on the guys.  Not surprising was their high level of play, as I watched hand where the fairer sex took down a near $5K pot with blinds at 100/200 holding  just a pair of deuces after getting called down by ace high.

It’s a little daunting at the live tourney versus my usual online presence.  Chip counts are a huge difference where usually a click of a button shows just how much each player has and who the chip leaders are.  Here I had to walk around the tables, and use MATH!  Counting up the orange $1K chips and try to tell the purple $500 chip from the pink $5K chip will take some time getting used to as the first break I used the opportunity to guess the chip leader was around $33K.  Another thing is these icons move!  The table chatter is mostly friendly as the group of people who play these tourneys have most likely seen each other at different venues.

Also put away any thoughts of this being a young gun’s playground as the average age of the players was not 22.  Young and old were evenly represented tonight as they played until midnight stopping for the evening regardless of the number of players left.  18 of the 124 would get shipped some money for their time at the tables, but only one would walk away with the bracelet (from Continental Diamond of course!) and the $36,990.00 first prize.

Me, I’m taking away an experience of top-flight poker being played right here in my home state before my very eyes and hopefully folks will drop by here to read about it.  Maybe next time I’ll stick around a little longer than the first few levels and experience the all-nighters my co-workers at the PokerStarsBlog chat about, but for now there’s a couple of kids with a massive blanket fort at home hoping their daddy comes home soon.