On Wednesday, Barry "the Robin Hood of poker" Greenstein posted a blog on traveling to find the best games in poker. Barry wrote that he hasn't been traveling much as of late and as a result of that he has missed out on many good games.
"One of the things that I haven't done recently as much as I should have is travel to play in good games. When I was younger and single, if there was a good poker situation I found out where it was and went there, because I was free to travel. I just hopped on a plane, had some contacts, and got in the game.
The last few years I've played primarily in LA and Vegas. As a result I missed the boat on some good games in other places. What a lot of people don't know is that big games don't usually start overnight. They build over time. The winners of smaller games get more money and start playing bigger, especially if there are amateur players who can buy in bigger."
Barry's last poker trip was in October. Then he traveled between Atlantic City and Philadelphia for weeks just to find the most profitable games to play in. Eventually his girlfriend (the lady wearing a black cap in the photo), who had asked him to come back home several times, joined him for some poker.
"I stayed in Atlantic City for a few weeks, moving between AC and Philly with the games. After a while, my girlfriend and my daughter were asking me to come home. I kept saying, "As soon as Commerce starts having mixed games, I'll come home." I would check with Commerce almost every day but they never had any mixed games going. I figured I had to work. That's my job. The games were best on the east coast, so I stayed and played.
Eventually my girlfriend joined me in Atlantic City. She hasn't played that much poker since Black Friday because she used to play mainly on PokerStars. Once she hopped into the East Coast mixed games, she said "Wow. Why didn't you tell me poker's like this here?"
That's the reality of playing poker for a living. While it's great to have good live games close to your home (and even better to be able to play online), sometimes finding the best game means traveling."
