Guest Blogger

A favorite late-night activity at the Atlantis after drinks and dancing at either the Dragon night club or Senor Frogs in downtown Nassau quickly became the Water Park and ocean in the back of the resort. As mentioned before, the Bahamians are quite relaxed about everything, which was convenient for getting past security undetected. At first I would do one or two quick slides at a time, with a quick shot of adrenaline aiding my escape at the bottom if necessary. By the end of the week nothing was off-limits, including the Leap of Faith, which is a straight drop of 50 feet that includes a tube that travels straight through a tank of sharks. (I have later learned that last year a guy dove down 18 feet to the bottom of this shark tank for $5 grand and accomplished it without incident!) One night Alan Sass and I were at the top of the Mayan Temple and saw a security guard strolling up to the bottom of the slides with a Rottweiler in tow. We quickly jumped on to the racing slides to take flight only to learn through repeated run-ins with the guard that he was likely there to protect us from local criminals, rather than to chase us down.

Mark Newhouse and Sass and his Ship It Holla Balla Crew became allies in the madness during the week and things continued to escalate. One night the Holla Ballas were discussing the terms of a prop bet for jumping off a bridge that spanned the lagoon when Alan and I just went for it and jumped in while they were arguing.

I picked up the finer points of climbing up the tube slide from Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari as the week continued into madness. One night I got a bunch of tar all over my board shorts and my body during the journey. Another night, my life flashed before my eyes when Newhizzle came barreling down the tunnel and I had to pull off some spider-man style moves to avoid him.

We added more and more mischief-makers to our merry band throughout the week and by the last night security was ready for us. Two golf carts rolled up on us before I had even made it to the slides and I rallied my group to join the others who were now heading down to swim in the ocean. This is where the insurance responsibilities of the Atlantis ended and we could do as we pleased. After our late-night dip we headed to the shuffle board courts where more prop bets ensued to the tune of $700 a point. A little too rich for my blood, so I just played on the side court with whoever wanted to play for fun. After a few hours of countless games and the discovery that Newhizzle should never quit poker for a life as a shuffle board hustler, we returned to the slides for a few runs to cap off the week. I have a collection of cuts and bruises to show for my troubles but I had a great time and made some awesome new friends along the way.

Go Big or Go Home!

Ryan “Force” Lucchesi
force@wisehandpoker.com
The Leap of Faith cascading down the side of the Mayan Temple and into the Shark Tank

Sorry my entries have slowed over the past two weeks, but I’ll blame it on two things. 1: I was in paradise, as you have read about already and there were a lot of options to keep me away from my laptop, which you will read about in the coming week. 2: I was on Bahamian time, which is what this blog is all about.

After a week one thing became abundantly clear to me about the people of the Bahamas. They are laid back, verrrrryyyy laid back. Service must be Bahamian for slow because for all their good-natured friendliness and jovial spirit, they just don’t seem too concerned about work. Besides the fact that I began to dread every food or drink order and at times wanted to climb behind the counter and help them there are a number of instances where it became apparent to me that I was on Bahamian time.

1) The battery on my door lock died one night. I put a call into hotel maintenance and although they did fix it, it didn’t happen until the next day around 6pm after four requests for service. Every time I wanted to get into the room I had to wait for security to come unlock the door manually, which was a 45 minute wait in itself.

2) A package of World Poker Tour clothing arrived for Gary and I on the first day of the tournament at Nassau International Airport. We finally got the package, after the final table had ended five days later. My co-worker Tony, who manages the WPT coverage team had to go check with guest services nine times before the package made it to his room. I’m pretty sure it took longer for the package to travel the hundreds of miles from the United States to the Bahamas than the 21 miles from the airport to Paradise Island.

3) One night a collection of reporters from the WPT coverage team, Card Player and others went down to the Fish Fry in downtown Nassau for dinner. The Fish Fry is a collection of a dozen seafood restaurants that the locals will tell you is the best place to eat on the whole island. We ordered our food and 20 minutes later the waiter came out and asked us if we would like to order appetizers because the meals wouldn’t be ready for another 35 minutes. I’m not sure if this was a conspiracy to have us spend more money on food or drinks or not, but it did work as we ordered another round of Kaliks (the local beer) and two orders of conch fritters, a local favorite. The Seafood Haven, which is where we ate that night had a slogan that read, “If you want it any fresher, swim down and spear it yourself.”… Maybe we should have. Our food finally arrived and I must say the meal of grilled lobster, grouper (the local fresh fish) and shrimp I had was one of the top five meals of my life. Maybe some things are worth the wait.

Ryan "Force" Lucchesi
force@wisehandpoker.com