Thoughts from Silver Striker tournament, CCA 2024 Convention, and Floating Poker

[Barry Sherwood R-9037 (admin)]

Hello everyone.  I've had a busy few weeks.  Started out by attending my first Silver Strikers Club tournament, which was a lot of fun.  I didn't make the money bubble, but I did get a beautiful 1/4 pount (3 troy oz) silver coin for coming in 116th.  I noticed quite a few CCA members were there as well.  Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, so I'll be back for their fall (Halloween?) tournament later this year.  While there were no silver strikes at the Four Queens, I managed to get 41 of them at the Plaza's 4 machines.  I also purchased a 2024 Silver Strikers Club commemorative silver round ($40 - I think they're all gone at this point).  I especially want to thank Jamie, Carleton, and Mary Lou for holding my hand a bit during this first venture into Silver Striking.

Between that show and the CCA Convention, I played a few rounds of golf (yes, in 105+ heat) and visited the Mob Museum (yes, in pleasant 72 degree air conditioning).  My thanks to Jim Follis for arranging and sharing a 16% discount code for those attending the convention (1% for each year they've been working together). They said to allow up to 3 hours to see and do everything.  I WAS THERE SIX HOURS, PEOPLE!  It was great.  I read every word and looked at every dang thing.  I also drank their moonshine.  Not my thing, but the information and presentation was awesome.

Due to an overlap with a family cruise vacation, I could only attend the first 2 days of the convention and left early Saturday morning, but I did help with setup on Tuesday.

I played in the CCA Gene Trimble Memorial Poker tournament Friday night, hoping to continue my winning streak (1st place in 2022, 2nd place in 2023 losing heads-up to Tom McAvoy) but all I managed to do was be the bubble boy (10th place) because I wasn't paying attention to the number of remaining players, so no money or accolades this year but I got a bit more sleep for the flight the following morning.  Had fun playing beside poker pro Susie Isaacs (2-time bracelet winner in 1996/1997 and 10th place in WSOP main event in 1998).  She and I are planning to buy solar cars together next year, so stay tuned!

For my "haul", I managed to check one major chip off my list, the $5 Navajo Saloon from North Lake Tahoe (bottom row of first pic).  That was the last chip I needed for that town, and I'm now down to 69 remaining (closed) Nevada casinos in 22 cities/towns to get chips from.  For 15 of those 22 cities, there's literally only one casino remaining.  I have placeholders for about 35 of the 69, but not the coveted $5 denomination.

At the club auction, I purchased a $0.25 Golden Slipper chip (lot #50) for $200.  I already have this chip, but I always want to support the club and that was the most interesting chip in the bunch for me to contribute to.

I think I got a personal chip from everyone who entered this year's contest (thanks, gang).

I traded Bill Judge for a $10,000 "Million Dollar Museum" chip which is now my 2nd highest denomination behind my Fontainebleau $25,000 prototype (1of2).  I gotta find me an actual $million chip one of these days.  Bonus points if it's live and redeemable.

On the Bahama cruise (Royal Caribbean "Allure of the Seas"), I played a LOT of live poker and did quite well.  Cashed big the first 2 nights and had tiny losses on 2 others.  But topping it all off, I won the live poker tournament! ($200+$100 entry for 1000+1000 chips, no rebuys, turbo sit-n-go, 10min blinds).  It was one of 2 sit-n-gos happening simultaneously, so I only had to beat 9 other entrants and won $1,680.  You'd think Royal Caribbean could afford to give me a little medal or trophy or ribbon or at least a free cocktail coupon, but noooooo.  Being the dumb*ss that I am, I didn't take pictures of (nor "borrow") any tournament chips and didn't get clear front/back pics of the regular chips (they're in the last picture below). Scott Norris from Las Vegas was the gentleman I got heads-up with, so it was a Northern Nevada vs. Southern Nevada grudge match with Reno coming out on top.  For those who care, I shoved with 89d and he called with A6 offsuit.  I paired my 9 to win.  For those of you who do NOT care, I'm positive you haven't even read this far.

I also won the cruise's slot tournament (~70 entries, $500 prize) with my amazing button pressing skills, haha, so overall a very good and profitable 2 weeks away.

I'm happy to be back home but I just want to give a huge shout out to Jim Steffner for the hard work of putting the whole convention together.  And all of my other fellow volunteers who set up, tore down, manned tables, ran auctions, provided exhibits, gave seminars, sold gear, ran raffles, wrangled celebrities, and did dozens of other jobs all for our benefit.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU and see you all next year.  Well, probably in the Fall at the SNCCC show.