Home and Away!

This blog will be coming to you from a higher level today, 36,000 ft. in the air in fact. I’m heading back home to Las Vegas right now on SouthWest.

After scoring a soft touchdown, I’ll be hitting the ground running. With 2 personal coaching sessions later this afternoon, backgammon club tonight and all the unpacking, laundry, mail, etc. there is much to do in a short amount of time. In just a couple of days I’ll be on my next journey.

Thursday I’m heading to Arizona for an annual poker-golf-baseball ABC fundraising event. A fun-filled 3-day weekend with some of baseball old time greats led by Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry and Fergie Jenkins. 

That's Fergie on the right today, but here's how I remember him. Watching him play as a kid at Wrigley:

Our event has raised 100’s of thousands of dollars over the years for underprivileged Arizona youths, so that anyone of them, who wants to play baseball, can play baseball. Providing equipment uniforms, building and maintaining fields, donating to little leagues, etc. My son played a lot of little league and its’ a nice way to give back to the organization. Sadly, this will be our last year.

So, if you’re around Arizona and want to be involved in something really special, come out and join us. You’ll be paired with a baseball or poker celebrity for the golf tournament on Friday. If you can’t join us for golf, on Saturday we have a poker tournament at Ft. McDowell Casino that has 2 flights and all the celebs play in that as well. Although I can tell you now, Gaylord is no poker player. He likes to gamble too much and play every hand. He plays poker like he pitched. Gambling it up by greasing up the ball or looking for any kind of edge he could get away with. His competitive spirit is there in poker, but his mechanics need quite a bit of work.

One thing Gaylord Perry does do really well is fish. Usually the day before the event we go out fishing. He always catches the biggest and the most. A skill he has definitely developed during his retirement years. A good day for me is not hooking someone in the head while casting.

Besides raising money for a good cause, the friends you make and the camaraderie with Hall of Famers is wonderful. After all, it’s all about the people. I was 8 or 9 when I would go to Wrigley Field in Chicago and watch these boys play and now having the opportunity to stand on the field with them and play next to them is really special.

Players ask me from time to time if I’m more of a tournament player or a cash game player. Well, I play both, but my answer would be tournaments. My friend Mike Caro said it best when describing the differences between cash games and tournaments.

“A Cash game is a card game played by people. Tournaments are a people game played with cards.”  - Mike Caro

Since I’ve always been more of a people person and into the psychology of the game and what makes people tick, I suppose tournaments are my thing. I find people more interesting, challenging and complex to deal with. I mean a card will never lie to you. A King is a King and a Deuce will always be a Deuce. Now people, they are like the joker in a pack of cards.

If you’ve ever wondered which poker format to focus on (cash or tournaments) start with the one that fits your personality the best. If you like the psychology and reading people choose tournaments. If you’re more of a math person and prefer less variance and volatility, choose Cash.

Well the runway is in sight and so I’ll end off here. I enjoyed travelling these past couple weeks, but as Dorothy said; “There’s no place like Home!”

Enjoy the Journey!

Kenna