New Orleans Day 1: Arrival in the durty.

So like I said earlier, I arrived in New Orleans around 1:15p CT. Once we got off the plane, the events just seemed to begin.

Upon getting down to the baggage claim, there was a jazz band just jamming out of about 6 or 7 guys. They went to whichever carousel was running and played for the crowd of people. You could definitely tell who the locals were, as they began dancing to the music right there in the airport. It was such an awesome site to see! The music was so good and I do love jazz music, especially when it's upbeat.

After grabbing our bags, we headed to grab a taxi. Now, I've been on many cab rides in my day, but this one was quite the trip. First off, I don't think the guy spoke one word of English. This isn't that bad, as I can usually understand some Spanish when they break it down, but even his Spanish didn't sound like anything. It's was some sort of crazy Cajun Spanglish that just baffled us. We ended up driving down the freeway while he yelled at us. All this while he was beeped at by 3 different people for crossing into their lanes. I looked over at my roommate as he was doing the sign of the cross for his own good. I just laughed and tried to enjoy the ride we were on. After we got down to the French Quarter, we drove up and down side streets looking for the hotel. We finally found it after the third or so street. As he began to slow down and park, I realized he didn't even have the meter running the entire time. Great! Not only had we had a crazy ride, but who knows what he is going to charge us for this escapade. As he came around to get our bags out of the back, he said it's be $35. It seemed a little high for what couldn't be more that a8 8 or 9 minute cab ride, but who knows. He just paid it, tipped the guy for the near death experiences and went on our way.

As we checked in, they informed us that our room wasn't even ready yet. No big deal, we dropped off our bags for them to hold for us and went off on into the city. We wandered around for a little while and then decided to head to Harrah's and check it out. After all, it was the place where we'd be spending the majority of the rest of our trip, so why not get acquainted.

We browsed the casino some before finding a spot in the bar for a few drinks and to watch the Celtics take on the Cavaliers. I am a huge Celtics fan and am hoping we can pull of some big things this year! We watched the game and had a few drinks before heading back to the hotel for a meeting with the entire crew from Poker News.

After the meeting was over with, we headed back to the casino to hit up the buffet. It was amazing, but pretty pricey at $30 or so. It's a good thing it was free! They had a ton of local food including all kinds of seafood and crawfish. I had to try out the crawfish and they were decent. They had a very salty taste to them. And after dinner we browsed the casino some more, mostly the tournament room and then I watched my roommate for a while as he played some $1/2 NL. While I was watching, I realized how bad these players were and how much I need to make sure to put in a few sessions while I'm here.

We start the tournament tomorrow and I'll be blogging and updating on Poker News, so be sure to check it out. They even have a new feature where you can give me a shout under my posts, so be sure to let me know how I'm doing!