Hidden Jewel of the Atlantic
By Randy Glover

It's 11:40 am, the last Sunday of the month. 60 players sit around 6 tables, nervously shuffling their chips. Jim Sears spins the dealer button, saying he'll take odds that he can reverse spin the button all the way across the table and back. ESPN Game Day plays on television sets placed throughout the poker room. Talk turns to whether the Vikings are a lock at -3.5. The players and dealers wait for Chuck Delyea to announce Shuffle Up and Deal. $15,000 in prize money will be awarded today.

Cost? A nominal $20 entry fee.

The monthly freeroll tournament is tough. You must possess skills in the following three games: Limit Hold Em, Omaha 8, and 7-card stud 8 or better. And you have to play well for a long period of time. Today's tournament will run until 11:20 pm, with a break when the ship returns to port to pick up the evening cruise passengers.

How does a 7-table room perched atop a modest-sized ship do this every month? Do they skimp on Bad Beat jackpots? No. They have those. Well they must not do high hand giveaways then. Wait, they have those also.

However they do it, I do know this: It is one of the best promotions out there. Players qualify by playing live action, tournaments, and by hitting high hands; thus earning points that translate in starting tournament chips in the monthly Freeroll.

If you add up all the giveaways over the course of the year, you'll find close to $500,000 in giveaways, made up of:

• Over $180,000 in Freeroll prize pools
• Over $125,000 in High Hands giveaways
• Over $144,000 in Bad Beat Jackpots

The ship sails twice a day: at 11:00 am and again at 7:00 pm. The action runs nonstop for three and a half hours. A typical afternoon or night will find the following games:

• 7-card stud eight or better, $2 to $10

• $5/$10 Hold Em/Omaha 8. (One round of HE followed by one round of Omaha 8)

• $10/$20 Hold Em/Omaha 8. (Sometimes with a ½ Kill, Sometimes with a Full Kill)

Some nights they even spread a $5/$5 Pot Limit Omaha High game. I've seen the pots get well over $1,000 here.

And every Sunday you'll find a $100 buy in tournament, with $25 rebuys the first hour and a $50 addon at the end of that hour. The $100 gets you $3,000 in Tournament Chips, the rebuy $1,000 TCs, and the addon $5,000 TCs. All the rebuy and addon money goes straight to the prize pool and the poker room keeps only $10 of the initial buy in. The first Sunday of the month the tournament is Limit Hold Em. The second Sunday it's a LHE/Omaha 8 or better mixed tournament, and the last two Sundays of the month its No Limit Hold Em.

So what's the catch? Do they skimp on the food? Nope, every afternoon and evening, about mid-cruise, they bring out plates of coconut shrimp, kielbasa sandwiches, nachos, or shish-ka-bobs, and always an array of deserts.

Let's meet the Poker Room manager and director of tournaments:
Chuck Alyea.

How did you get started in the business?

I have never dealt poker, but started in the business about 22 years ago as a prop player. Then I did the circuit for about 10 years playing live action. It was a tough way of life.

How did you get started as a poker room manager?

When I moved to Florida I was playing on the Suncruz in Hollywood. I showed the owner some promotions and marketing ideas to get more players on and he hired me to promote and run the room. That was 7 years ago and now I have the Canaveral and Daytona rooms.

What games/tourneys do you like most?

I am still an avid 7-stud player so I would say that is my number one game and tourney, but I can still hold my own pretty well in flop games and tourneys.

I took a shot at the last year's WSOP. I played in 5 events, 7-stud finished 34, 2 limit holdem events finished 35 and 37, stud hi-low finished 43, 1 no-limit event and had my pocket Q's go up in smoke to a straight early in the tourney.

Oh, and who won tonight's Freeroll? At 11:00 pm we find three players still in it. David Eller is battling out with two formidable women players. He seems to have the edge in Hold Em and Omaha, but they match him bet for bet in 7-card stud 8 or better. David, who you've seen mentioned in some of my previous articles and on whom I am doing a player profile soon to appear in pokerpages.com, sees his chip count rise in the flop games but drop in the Stud 8 or better.

But in the end David winds up taking first place, netting the top prize of $4,500.

So if you live near Port Canaveral or Daytona Beach, Florida, or if you are just visiting the area -- Disney's only 45 minutes away -- check out one of poker games on the Sun Cruz Casino. And tell Chuck I said hello.

For a direct link to the Port Canaveral or Daytona Beach, Florida boats click here.

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