To some people, the following is going to make me look like a huge degenerate. This isn’t a story I’ll be telling people that are not poker players because they just would not understand it. For those of us that are, however, I hope you can find it as funny as my friends and I did while it was taking place.

First, a little background information: I am from the Cincinnati, Ohio area and that is also currently where I am living. I was in Vegas most of this summer, as I was last summer. I am quite bad at making plans or deciding on anything really and basically left myself homeless after the summer was over. I had an apartment in Columbus for the last 4 years (I only went to school for 2.5 of those years) but all of my roommates graduated so I did not renew the lease. I went to Reno and then Tahoe after Vegas and did not get back to Ohio until the middle of August, not even two weeks before I had to move out of my place in Columbus. I originally planned on moving to Vegas but I decided against it and moved back home to my parents’ house until I could find a place. Had I been a normal, responsible person, I wouldn’t have even been there and none of this could have happened.

On the Friday before the storms hit, I won the PokerStars Nightly Seventy Grand and took third in the $10 rebuy $80k guaranteed at the same time. It was really big for my confidence and made me excited to play the weekend WCOOP events. I was too tired to play on Saturday and when I woke up on Sunday around 1:00pm, the power was out. So much for that idea. I called everyone I knew in the area and no one had power. If I had to guess, I’d say 80% if not more of all houses around Cincinnati were without power. There were wind gusts up to 70 mph and a lot of trees fell; damaging power and telephone lines. I couldn’t even leave my house because a tree fell across my driveway completely blocking it. Awesome! I love the NFL so I entertained myself for the remainder of the day sweating games on my phone. Thankfully the gambling boat nearby did have power so I went there and goofed around for a little while to pass the time. I cannot stress enough how incredibly boring life without electricity would be.

When I woke up on Monday around noon, the power was back on. My friend called and asked if he and two of my other friends could come over and play that day at my parents’ house. They had a $5k total cash bet with some other guys from PocketFives on the event and the power and internet was out at all of their houses. They were way behind from a previous event and could not afford to just skip it. I agreed and they arrived just in time for the tournament to start.

The WCOOP event that day was a $530 mixed Omaha high low tournament that started with 620 players if I remember correctly. I usually play at least 4 tournaments at the same time but just didn’t feel like putting in a long session that day. I listened to music and browsed the internet for most of the beginning of the tournament – not really paying all that much attention. Omaha high low is definitely my second best game besides no limit holdem but I usually play cash games because most of the tournaments are too small. I won a big pot during one of the pot limit levels and had around 16,000 chips; good enough for 20th with 325 to go.

Two of the guys that were there with me are also my backers throughout the WCOOP. I let one of them know I was doing well and yelled across the room to also tell the other one. He was wearing headphones and was facing the other way so he couldn’t hear me. I went to his table and told him in the chat to take his headphones off for a second so that he could hear what I was saying. At the exact second he takes the headphones off and turns around to see what I want, the power goes out. I really wasn’t even mad at first because I was thinking it would only be a minute or two and it would be back on. After 10 minutes though, we were all on absolute tilt. One of them was already out of the tournament but was in a few others and the other one was pretty short in the WCOOP event and also playing multiple tournaments besides that. We decided we couldn’t wait and had to drive somewhere to find working internet.

The first place we went was a local bar that I knew had internet the day before even when no one else did. We got there and obviously their internet was not working. Next we tried B-Dubs. It looked promising at first because all the TVs were on when we pulled up, but after at least 10 minutes of trying to connect, we finally gave up. Our last hope was a McDonald’s we passed on the way that looked like it had power. I thought there was 0% chance this was going to work out but it wasn’t like I had any other options.

I walked in and asked the first employee I saw if their wireless internet was working. She said she knew nothing about any of that stuff. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. We walked to the back of the restaurant and tried it anyway. For those of you not familiar with McDonald’s wireless internet (I had never used it before but I now feel like a professional in the matter), you have to pay $2.95 for 2 hours using a credit or debit card. I input the information and it allowed me to connect. I logged onto Pokerstars and the tournament was on a 5 minute break. I had 12,000 chips and was now in 100th with 210 to go despite sitting out for over an hour. My friends were short in all of their tournaments and within a few minutes I was the only one still in any tournaments. One of them wanted to go watch the end of the Monday Night Football game so he left and my other friend and I stayed.

The next few hours were pretty uneventful and I was around 45/90 when we got down to the money. The McDonald’s we were at is open 24 hours but it is drive thru only after midnight. We got into the money right at midnight when they told us we had to leave so I decided I would have to finish it out in the car. My laptop was fully charged, as was my friend’s, and I really didn’t think the tournament would take too long to finish even if I did get deep.

Not only was it extremely uncomfortable to play in the car, the internet wasn’t quite as reliable. It was also annoying to have to put my credit card information in and renew the internet every 2 hours, usually costing me to use a lot of time bank and even missing a few hands. After my laptop died I switched computers and it became pretty clear that I was not going to be able to finish this tournament if I did not get another computer. I called the friend who had been at McDonald’s earlier and he was now down at his house, 45 minutes away. He had a big piece of my action so he didn’t mind making the drive to give me his computer, just in case I needed it.

By the time he arrived, I had 800,000 of the 3 million chips in play with 15 left. My friend’s laptop only had 10 minutes of battery life so I switched computers again. The inside of McDonald’s reopens at 5am and it was now around 4:00, so as long as his laptop lasted an hour, I could go inside when they opened and plug it in. It was definitely a sweat — his battery is awful, and we even drove through the drive-thru and asked one of the workers if they would be able to plug my computer in for a few minutes. They got the manager and she said I’d just have to wait until they opened, she couldn’t help me out. I even offered a tip, which she declined. Some people hate money.

It ended up being a non-issue because the battery did last until 5:00 and I was able to go inside and finish the tournament. The employees and other people inside had to think we were crazy but it was worth it. After the last hand I really didn’t even celebrate, I closed the laptop and walked out. I will certainly be purchasing an aircard after this and I would recommend that anyone who plays seriously to do the same. One disconnect in a big tournament, and it will pay for itself for life. Unless of course, there is a McDonald’s nearby.

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