IF THERE’S A BETTER TIME TO BE HAD than spending a week or two at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas, I can’t imagine it. Whether you’re looking to play poker, rub elbows with celebrities, party, eat amazing meals, spend time on the beach—or do all of the above—the PCA is the ultimate. PokerStars and the Atlantis pull out all the stops, the people are just incredible, and whether you’re winning or losing at the tables, it seems like nobody ever stops smiling.

I usually write in “Kasey’s Korner” about classic prop-bet stories, but this month I’m going to write an informal diary of my trip to this year’s PCA because it was just such amazing fun—even if it got off to a scary start with an air-travel adventure I won’t soon forget.

I was flying out of Phoenix with a stopover in Atlanta, and Robert Williamson III and his wife Cate were on my flight. As usual, Robert got to the airport early because he needs to check about 12 bags. He’s one of those guys who travels with his own pillows, his own sheets—plus, of course, he needs one suitcase just for his supply of Tabasco sauce.

Anyway, we got seats right next to each other in the first-class cabin, with Robert and Cate on the left side of the plane, me across the aisle from Robert, and Li’l Wayne’s cousin, Marcus, who I believe is an arena football player, to my right. And there was one other passenger of interest on the plane: A criminal of some kind, a guy who boarded the plane with towels wrapped around his wrists and ankles to cover up the cuffs, accompanied by several marshals. They were seated in the back of the plane, and we were all joking around—or at least half-joking—about what we were going to do if the guy tried to cause any trouble or make a move toward the cockpit. Marcus was like, “I’ll get him in a chokehold, then you guys give him the business.”

As it turned out, there was a major disturbance on the flight, but it had nothing to do with the guy in the cuffs. About halfway to Atlanta, a guy in front of us started freaking out. He was punching his seat, punching the TV screen on the seat in front of him, screaming, “Where’s the music? Where’s the music?” His wife was sitting next to him, saying, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, the doctors changed his medicine today.” She was obviously embarrassed. But the guy was going absolutely crazy. Cate offered him her headphones, and he threw them. It was like he was having a seizure, but a coherent seizure. We were all wondering what the hell was going on.

When Robert got up to go to the bathroom, the flight attendant pulled him aside and said, “Hey, we have two flight attendants up here, both women, and a very unruly passenger here. If this person makes a move toward the cockpit, would you be able to help subdue this passenger?” Robert said, “Of course,” and he came back and told me in my ear, and I whispered it to Marcus, so he was on high alert as well.

Well, the guy calmed down, but about 10 minutes later, he started up again. He was going nuts for a good 30 seconds. And the flight attendant came over to him and said, “Sir, I spoke to the captain. We’re going to have to land this plane. You’re out of control. You’re going to be arrested.”

From our perspective, one thing we could not afford was to let this plane land somewhere unscheduled. We had a connecting flight to catch in Atlanta, and if we missed it, we feared that we wouldn’t be able to get another flight to the Bahamas that day, which would mean missing our chance to play in the PCA. So I was about ready to come unglued myself. A few seconds later, I did. The guy stood up and said, “I’ll go talk to the captain myself.” His wife tried to restrain him, and he gave her a forearm shiver! That’s when I lost it.

My seat belt was off, and I flew over the seat and put my finger one inch from his nose and started screaming at the top of my lungs. I can’t repeat what I said here, because every other word started with “F,” but I basically told him to sit down and shut up or the three of us were going to have to get physical with him. I went on for a solid 45 seconds. And this guy was looking at me, basically thinking, I might be crazy, but this SOB is really crazy!

He sat back down in his seat, and I sat back down in mine, and we enjoyed the rest of the flight without incident. Robert couldn’t believe it. He looked at me and said, “Kasey, I’ve never seen you get mad before in my life! But you sure picked the right time to do it!”

Anyway, we arrived in Atlanta, then at the Atlantis, and we all checked into our rooms at the Cove. My room was absolutely stunning. It was an ocean-front suite, just spectacular. Robert, Cate, and I met up with Jayde Nicole, and we all had drinks at a bar on the property called Seagrass, and then we relaxed and prepared ourselves for the tournament the next day.

I’ll just go ahead say this off the bat: I don’t like to tell bad-beat stories. Everybody has them and everybody has heard them, and nobody wants to hear mine. I had a great Day One, finished well above the chip average, and then I was doing well on Day Two when I ran into three bad beats that ended my tournament. But I’ll spare you the details. Instead, I’ll mix it up by telling a good-beat story:

It was Day One, and I’d just been moved to a new table. I had a lot of chips, and I got dealt pocket sevens. I raised, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Vitaly Lunkin put in a small re-raise, and I made the call. The flop was beautiful: 10-10-7. I bet, he moved all in, and I immediately called. Vitaly flipped over pocket eights, and I showed him my full house. And wouldn’t you know, the turn came a ten, counterfeiting me and giving him a bigger full house. So what did the river bring? The case seven, making quads for me and eliminating Vitaly.

I got my money in great, took a bad beat on the turn, and then got saved by a good beat on the river.

After my successful Day One, I had a fantastic dinner at the Cove’s Mesa Grill with Jayde, her friend model Sarah Maxwell, Robert and Cate, and my friends George and Carly. (When the people I’m talking about aren’t celebrities or poker pros, I’ll leave their last names out of it to respect their privacy.) Anyway, it was a great meal, with fabulous wine and just a perfect group of people.

Day Two ended early for me at the poker table, but that gave me an opportunity to spend a lot of time with Mike Kosowski, the New York firefighter who won the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge. I can’t say enough good things about Mike. You couldn’t have picked a better guy to win. We hung out for a while, and he told me some stories about 9/11, and a bunch of poker pros came by and joined us in conversation, including Phil Ivey, Barry Shulman, Roland de Wolfe, and Marcel Luske.

That night I had dinner with Joe Cada and his manager Dan Frank, both great people who are making a tremendous effort to bring poker into the mainstream. Later we partied at the Aura nightclub, enjoying bottles of champagne and vodka. Sure, I got eliminated from the PCA that day, but it turned out to be a great day anyway.

I woke the next day and went to this giant game room that they had set up, where you could sumo wrestle, play Jenga with these giant blocks, play pool—it was basically a players’ lounge. And a prop bettor’s paradise.

That night was the amfAR charity tournament, which drew such celebrities as Nelly, Slash, Kelly Rowland, Montel Williams, Joanna Krupa, Boris Becker, Mats Sundin, and Jayde. They raised $250,000 for AIDS research. I spent some time talking to Kenneth Cole, who was hosting the event, chatting about his views on charity and what we should all be doing. As in most charity events, the blind structure moves quickly, and I ended up going out against Humberto Brenes when my A-10 suited lost a coin flip against his pocket eights. But it didn’t matter to me, because all the money went to charity and everyone had a great time.

After I busted out and Jayde busted out, we went to Nobu for dinner with her friend Sarah and my friend Mark, and there we met Entourage star Adrian Grenier and his friend Diko. We all had a fabulous dinner and then we ended up at Aura, where we had a blast.
Then we met up with Joe Cada and we were all walking around for a while, and Joe, Jayde, and Adrian were constantly stopping to take pictures and sign autographs for fans. The funniest moment occurred when Adrian signed an autograph for some guy, and the guy couldn’t understand why he didn’t sign it “Vincent Chase.” He actually thought that Adrian was Vince and that Entourage is a reality show! It was hilarious listening to Adrian try to explain that he’s an actor portraying a character named Vince. I don’t know if the guy was drunk or what, but he just couldn’t comprehend it.

(By the way, there were rumors all over the internet about Jayde and Adrian hooking up, but I can assure you that they were only rumors.)
The next night was the red-carpet awards event, and from there we went to a massive party in the ballroom at the Atlantis, where Kelly Rowland performed. There was a VIP area in the back, and I hung out there with Joe Sebok as well as an assortment of non-poker celebrities.
On January 10, my friends Joe and Megan flew in, and we went to the Mesa Grill for dinner. After dinner, we met up with Robert and Cate for drinks at Seagrass. It was great seeing so many of my friends, bonding with all of these people.

On my final night in the Bahamas, I went with Robert, Cate, Megan, and Carlos Mortensen to Carmine’s restaurant, where we stuffed our faces with these amazing family portions. Then, as was the case on many nights, we ended up in my room or Robert’s room for cocktails, killing the mini bar. It was a great way to end a trip that was just a non-stop party. There was so much going on, and so many people I hung out with—not just the people I’ve already mentioned, but also Mike Matusow, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, “Miami” John Cernuto, Freddy Deeb, and on and on.

The whole event was just amazing. It was so well-run and so organized, and a lot of the credit for that has to go to Rich Corbin and everyone else from PokerStars. The thing that really strikes you about the PCA is how much fun everybody has the entire time. It’s not like the World Series of Poker, where everybody is so serious. At the PCA, even if you’ve just busted out on a bad beat, you do so with a smile on your face.

I can’t wait to go back next year, and I can’t imagine how any poker player could possibly want to be anywhere else next January.