OK, here I am, Las Vegas bound and settled in seat 7D. Across the aisle is a OnePass Poker player named Ken who is completing his final prep for the tourney. Just like a highly tuned athlete (OK, I had to ask this question, is poker a sport?), Ken spent the entire flight from Denver to Las Vegas with his hand-held Texas Hold’em game player winding down his training for the big event. Geeez, the least he could have done was listen to the safety announcement on the plane before his last practice.

As I mentioned, I’m sitting in 7D – coach class for the rest of us. And who do you think is sitting right behind me? Now, this is a flight destined for Las Vegas right? I’ve got this Ken guy practicing his lap-top poker across the aisle and behind me is … The Prince of Poker? OK, doesn’t ring a bell yet? How about The Train? Gee, I thought as a poker aficianado that you’d have guessed who I’m getting my poker strategy in-flight from when reading the title of this blog entry.

Yes, none other than the winner of five World Series of Poker bracelets: Scotty Nguyen, winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event. He gave me all sorts of tips and of course gave me the “good luck”. Here’s Scotty and I (hey, we’re buds now) at the Las Vegas Airport:

And speaking of “good luck,” here’s proof:

Front desk knows about the OnePass Poker Tourney, or maybe they learned about it from the many OnePass members who already checked in. But into the room, dialed on, and to the registration desk we go.

While the players came here to win the big miles, they weren’t disappointed by the add-ins that Continental provided them. There’s the handy dandy President’s Club pass (which I will be giving away later on – stay tuned) good at the newly reopened P-Club here in Las Vegas or wherever your travels may take you. Then there is the custom deck of OnePass playing cards, a very cool special anniversary luggage tag, and other small perks to make your first days winning pretty nice, especially since we haven’t even had to ante up yet.

Later, the first party (of many we are sure) held at the Fremont Street Experience. I’ve got the menu and it looks like you can join me feasting on Assorted Bruschettas, London Broil BBQ Sandwiches, Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Tart and of course a refreshment since it’s still 100 degrees out: Summertime Sangria.

More later from the home of the 21 million mile poker tourney. Actually it’s much more than that. The total payout from poker alone is 26,250,000 miles and then there’s the mini-slot tourney on Saturday that’s even more miles (265,000 to be exact).

In no particular order, here’s how the party went: flash the wrist band, grab a drink, chat with a few other OnePass members, grab a drink, grab some food, take picture with show girls, become tempted by the “deep-fried Twinkies” sign, grab a drink, listen to some music, grab more food and grab a drink and repeat as needed.

Seriously, a nice turn out for the opening party and several familiar faces, I just can’t remember if it was the Cleveland flight, the last connection through Houston or the President’s Club there at Newark, but these members just look familiar.

The main party location right in the middle of the famous Fremont Street Experience.

So I get out the Polaroid camera and shoot away. How do you like these pictures:

No wristband, no entry. It’s the rules.

And the Band Played On.

The Man Behind the (OnePass) Miles, Mark Sullivan, Vice President Marketing Programs and Distribution,Continental Airlines, with friend.

The Special OnePass Poker Chip Fills in The Fremont Street Experience.

In a rambling order, here’s what I’ve heard and seen so far:

Sleeplessness: “I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept seeing cards in my head and wondering what I should do if I have a pair of aces. Should I bet big?”

Dealers: In chatting with a few of the dealers before the tourney starts they noted that this will really be a unique final table because unlike other tourneys with larger chip value, the person winning the final hand will likely have almost a table full of chips. To put that in perspective … because of the number of players and the starting chips for each player ($50,000 worth representing 50,000 miles) there’s more than $12,000,000 of poker chips just sitting here right now – all in lower values. But the funniest thing I heard from the dealers is that they will know who the players are from the very first hand. Not by their bets and who wins, but how they handle their chips!

A couple of surprises for the tournament: There will be “bounties” the the players/members who with their hand knock another player out. Each winner who knocks a player out of the tournament will get to pick one of five different envelopes, each containing a prize ranging from a free premium drink on CO to 25,021 bonus miles.

And for the those who are knocked out of the tourney early, they will be put into a pool to be sponsored ($500) into the hotel’s Crazy 8s Blackjack tournament the next day. Losers become winners.

OnePass members showed up for this tournament from all over, though it seems from the talk that 9 of 10 came from the Houston area and here’s some of the details:

• Hats are popular for players with baseball-style caps being most popular. There are however, two cowboy hats, two fedoras, five sun visors and one Panama hat.
• There are 29 players wearing sunglasses (and yes, we are indoors) with five of them wearing both the ball cap and the sunglasses (World Series of Poker finals anyone?).
• There are iPods, headphones and all sorts of other wardrobe accessories including what I think is the coolest – member’s lucky charms to hold their cards. I’ve seen miniature airplanes, silver dollars, domino pieces, rocks (I’m sure precious mineral pieces), buttons, small photos of family members and even a small snow globe. But I’ve got to tell you just how shocked I am that no one had a lucky rabbit’s foot. What’s become of good luck these days?
• Think that poker is a guy thing? Well, not here. There is at least one lady playing at 20 of the 24 playing tables. Lady luck anyone?
• Other factoids: bottled water and Starbucks rule supreme. And of the Starbucks, 80% of the cups were the big ones! Of those drinking soda, 93% are drinking “diet” soda – a very fit crowd.

At 27 minutes and 25 seconds into the first hour of play we lost the first player – and the news was met by a thunderous round of applause. Now, I’m just not sure the applause was for the member who is now out of the tournament or the idea that there’s one less player to compete against. Nonetheless, it was a very loud round of applause.

Chatting with that member, he blamed “the cards,” for the early exit.

The second player to exit the game was one of our cowboy hat players and he exited at 47:37 into the tournament. When asked about the exit, he blamed himself for betting too high, and the hand that got him was his three Queens that got beat by a full house. Really, would you not have stayed in hard with the three ladies?