Nine Travel Essentials for the Travelling Poker Player
It's 4 a.m on Monday morning and you are delighted to be awake. Why? Because you have secured a package to the St. Maarten leg of the Caribbean Poker Tour by winning a satellite at Betfair Poker.
You're elated, but at the same time a little apprehensive because you've never played in an international poker tournament before. You ask yourself questions such as what should I take with me? What will I need? Where is St. Maarten? Hopefully the article you are reading can help with one of those questions as it highlights nine travel essentials for the travelling poker player.
Your Laptop
Clothes aside, taking your laptop has to be right up there with the essentialist of essentials. If fact, if we had to choose between clothes and our laptop we would almost certainly choose the laptop every time.
From playing online poker to watching movies, from sending emails and posting on social media sites to talking to your loved ones on Skype. Your laptop can do it all and more. Take it with you, after all it was probably your laptop on which you won the satellite.
Tablet Computer
Why would I need a tablet when I have my laptop, we hear you ask. Take it from someone who travels frequently that tablet computers, coupled with the next essential, are the best gadget ever invented.
Your tablet is perfect for the flight to your destination, is ideal for saving screenshots of your hotel on (which you can show your taxi driver etc) and is easy to have with you at the tournament table where you only play 30 hands per hour if you are lucky.
Travel Adaptors
If you are taking anything electrical, you must take the appropriate travel adaptors with you. Buy them before you go because airports and hotels charge through the teeth for them because they know how essential laptops and tablet computers are to travelling poker players.
Noise Cancelling Headphones
Not only do these bad boys look cool, they are perfect for all situations. While you are on the plane to your destination, they will completely block out the roar of the engines and the noisy air circulations system, allowing you to hear your music without it being on 325dB. They also help to drown out the dreaded screaming baby, too.
With earphones you generally get what you pay for. I use the Bose Noise Cancelling 15 that set me back £280, but I would happily pay that again should anything go wrong with them; they have been worth every penny.
Travel Insurance
It amazes me how many tournament circuit regulars do not have adequate travel insurance. They'll spend £2,500 on a state-of-the-art MacBook Pro, £400 on a tablet and £300 on headphones, yet they won't fork out £20-30 for a year's worth of travel insurance. Buy some, make sure you stay within its terms and conditions and try to stay safe!
Ear Plugs
While you could use your noise cancelling headphones to drown out a large number of unwanted noises, wearing them to bed isn't recommended. There are few things worse than heading into the casino for a day of poker having had no sleep sue to noisy hotel neighbours. Remember that some of the places poker tour visit are in busy, holiday destinations so rather than be woken up at 3:30am by people doing the Macarena down the hallway, block them out with some decent wax ear plugs and sleep like the proverbial baby
Drugs
Not that kind of drugs, this isn't Breaking Bad, OK? Whenever I travel, especially for poker tournaments, I like to do so safe in the knowledge that I am prepared for most minor emergencies. Sleeping tablets, eye drops, heartburn remedies, athlete's foot products, cold & flu powders, painkillers, that weird stuff that helps settle your stomach after a night on the ale. You get where I am coming from.
Again, these are usually available in stores around the world, but if you have a case of Delhi Belly and are dreadfully hungover will you really want to go hunting for some tablets to make you stop feeling like you are about to keel over and die? No, didn't think so.
Vitamin Supplements
Casino food is usually two things; it is ridiculously expensive and not very healthy. Combine this with the fact your chances to eat are few and far between, your sleep patterns are probably shot to pieces and you are spending 10-12 hours per day surrounded by hundreds of men and women then your body needs some help from the outside.
An effervescent Vitamin C tablet a day should help keep the poker flu at bay and helps you to drink at least one large glass of non-alcoholic beverage! A good multi-vitamin tablet is also a great idea as it will help your body to be stocked up with nutrients as you devour your six McDonald's in three days.
Hand Sanitizer
You see these everywhere nowadays and for a couple of quid they are an absolute bargain. When you are next at a poker event, go to the toilet on your break and count how many people don't wash their hands after using the facilities. Actually, that's quite creepy so take it from me that it is a high percentage of people who go about their business without ever thinking of using soap and water to wash their germs off.
These people then touch the dirty, old poker chips which you then touch and a whole can of whoopass can be opened! Alcohol gels, vitamin supplements and your other drugs work in unison to help stave off the dreaded poker flu and other such nasties.
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
