Plotting a Getaway

Was sincerely contemplating making a run over to Cherokee early next month to play in one of the World Series of Poker Circuit preliminary events, but I’m not sure it’s going to work out schedule-wise. Even if it doesn’t, the WSOP-C now comes to Harrah’s Cherokee multiple times a year, and so I’m sure there will be another chance before long to go.

The World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship is running there from August 4-16. Here is the schedule.

The idea of making the trip got me thinking about how infrequently I’ve played live poker of late, never mind tournaments. That would necessarily put me into a certain category of player, say, in a WSOP-C event or one of the lower buy-in events in other tournament series (including the WSOP) -- the player for whom the tournament is a relatively unique occurrence, not part of a longer “grind” or more involved commitment to the game.

In fact, that category is a fairly big one -- probably the biggest by a decent margin, as far as the lowest buy-in tournaments go. In other words, at any given table in (say) a $365 event at Cherokee next week, there will be several seats occupied by folks for whom the buy-in level and status (for want of a better word) of the event is about as high as they’ll ever play.

Such players necessarily approach such tournaments much differently than do those occupying the other seats for whom it’s small change, or just one of dozens (or even hundreds) of events they’ll play over the course of a year. From a strategic standpoint, then, dividing everyone into one of the two major camps -- regs and recs (you could call them) -- would be an important first step to make when it comes to player profiling and reads.

We’ll see -- I may be able to get off the farm for a day or two yet. Would be fun to try to shovel some chips instead of stalls, even if only for a short while.

Photo: Visit Cherokee, NC.

Checking in on Cherokee

The latest World Series of Poker Circuit stop over at Harrah’s Cherokee in the western corner of the state just completed its 12-event run yesterday. Found it interesting to see that Daniel Weinman, the Atlanta-based player who took second in the very first WSOP-C at Cherokee (which I helped cover), managed to win the Main Event this time around.

Weinman topped a 1,010-entry field to win the ring and a $280,260 first prize. Back in April 2013 there were 856 entries in the event when Weinman finished runner-up. In April 2014 there were 665 entries in the Main, in December 2014 there were 797, then in April 2015 there were 786, meaning this latest field was the biggest Main Event field so far in the five instances the WSOP-C has come to North Carolina.

I remember Weinman well from two years ago thanks to a funny story involving him and Greg Raymer at that year’s Main Event. I shared that one here in a post titled “Giving Away Chips, Rocks.”

After the 2004 WSOP Main Event champion -- who incidentally lives in Raleigh -- was knocked out in 29th by Weinman, “Fossilman” followed his custom and gave his vanquisher the signed fossil he’d been using as a card protector. After Raymer departed, Weinman said to a friend on the rail “This dude just gave me a rock,” then gave the memento to my buddy Rich with whom I was reporting on the event.

I seem to remember later on Weinman asking Rich for it back over Twitter. In any case it was a funny moment amid what I recall a very entertaining tournament and final table, made so in part because of Weinman’s deep run.

I had actually been eyeing this WSOP-C stop earlier this year, thinking maybe this would be one for which I’d be making the drive up into the mountains myself to take a shot in a prelim. But the Brazil trip ran into the first part of the series and I knew I wouldn’t be up to it after getting back.

The good news is Cherokee has proven popular enough for the WSOP-C to keep putting it on the schedule twice per year, and indeed there’s a return engagement scheduled next April. Something to file away.

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event, Day 3 -- Expectations

With about 20 players left in the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Cherokee, my blogging partner Rich and I took a look at the remaining field. Quickly we decided upon three of the players as kind of standing out from the others, and agreed that the eventual winner would likely be one of the trio.

The three we chose were all younger (early-to-mid 20s) and had already shown enough competence and skill to distinguish themselves. And having covered so many tourneys between us over the years, we felt we had a decent feel for how this suckers usually go.

When writing about the WSOP-C Foxwoods trip a week ago, I’d mentioned how the eventual winner Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul had already stood out well before the final table as the player to beat, and as it happened he’d go on to win. Had kind of a similar feeling this time about the ones we had picked.

As it happened, we were wrong with our guesses. Expectations thwarted, you might say. Kind of like when Rich and I were at Paula Deen's Kitchen a couple of nights before, and Rich found out the vegetable of the day was brussel sprouts.

The field at Cherokee this week likely included a number of first-time tourney players, or at least folks for whom the $1,675 buy-in event represented something special to them after years of home games and (much) lower buy-in tourneys. Such is one of the fun elements of the WSOP-C, namely, the way even the Main Event can bring in players who don’t necessarily participate in the other, higher profile tours or go to the WSOP in Las Vegas.

And I suppose, such is also the cause for the occasional surprise, too, when it comes to the way WSOP-C events sometimes play out.

As it would happen, none of the three we’d pegged would win, although one -- Daniel Weinman -- did finish runner-up. Speaking of Weinman and that Fossilman story from yesterday, Rich told me Weinman tweeted to him today “I forgot to get my rock back,” and it sounds like Rich will be returning it to him at another WSOP-C event stop.

Rather it was John Bowman, a 30-year-old amateur from nearby Hickory, North Carolina who won. Apparently (so we heard afterwards) he’d only played in his first tournament a few days before.

I liked Weinman, but I was still glad for Bowman and his excited buddies afterwards, despite the fact that Bowman sported a Duke shirt. Rich took some winner’s photos, and had me laughing pretty hard when he got everyone to deliver a boisterous “HELL YEAH!” for the camera.

But it was 69-year-old Raymond Weaver that had us raising our eyebrows time after time yesterday. Neither of us had thought he’d have much of a shot on Day 3. But he not only made the final table, he had an especially active first couple of levels that saw him chip up to more than 6 million at a time when no one else had even half that.

Weaver still had a big lead when three-handed began, but soon lost a hand to Bowman in which the latter doubled through Weaver, then quickly slid down before losing the last of his chips to Bowman to land in third.

Weaver definitely exhibited a lot of the familiar signs of older, amateur players, limping and calling a lot and occasionally going into super-tight mode at times when he might’ve been better off remaining aggressive.

But unlike Rick Hensley on Day 2 -- the player who managed to go from first with 201 left to elimination before they’d even gotten down to 150 or so -- Weaver had some good instincts and played relatively well. And his making the final table wasn’t such a fluke, we’d discover, as he already made one other WSOP Circuit Main Event final table last year (at Tunica).

So Bowman and Weaver surprised us, and all in all it was an interesting and entertaining final table to follow and report on, even if we were more than a little distracted by the news from the Boston Marathon from early in the afternoon. Talk about upsetting expectations. Reminded me of covering the Sands Bethlehem tourney back in December on the day of the Newtown shootings. Indeed, much of what I wrote on that day applies again here. Again it felt odd to be locked in that poker tourney cocoon while such terrible things were happening outside of it.

The tourney ended just in time for Rich and I to make it to the Ruth Chris in the casino before they shut their doors, and after rewarding ourselves with late night filets we finally got a decent night’s sleep before I carried him to the Asheville airport this morning. Had a fun visit with PokerGrump and Cardgrrl afterwards, both of whom now live in Asheville, then motored back home.

Am pretty spent after the last spell of traveling and working, but it looks like I’ll get to stay put for a while, perhaps even until June when I’ll head back out to Las Vegas for the WSOP. Was glad to have been there at Cherokee for this event, and from the looks of things the WSOP-C will most certainly be returning after what turned out to be a successful series that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event, Day 2 -- Giving Away Chips, Rocks

Just one day remains in the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Cherokee. After a couple of relatively reasonable noon-to-midnight days for the first two Day 1 flights, we had our marathon session yesterday in order to ensure a reasonable final day today.

There were a total of 856 entrants, from which 201 players made it to Sunday’s Day 2. They managed to play all of the way down to just 11 players yesterday, pushing through 10 one-hour levels then two more 75-minute levels to get there.

Was a long grind, with play starting at noon and not concluding until a quarter to three. Rich and I got there an hour early and left about an hour after play concluded, and there was only a half-hour dinner break in there, too. So we basically stuck close there in the Event Center, eating hot dogs, sandwiches and other snacks at our desk to sustain ourselves throughout the day.

Poker-wise, the quick exit of start-of-day 2 chip leader Rick Hensley was easily the most out-of-the-ordinary aspect of the day. Hensley began Day 2 with more than 400,000 at a time when the average stack was around 85,000. He’d knock out an opponent on the second hand of the day to push up even further to about 460,000, then he somehow managed to lose all of those chips before we even made it to the first break of the day (after two hours).

Hensley’s rise the night before had come almost as quickly, as he’d gone from about 120,000 to 401,400 pretty much during the final hour of play. But he’d gotten those chips by gambling big and hitting several hands in rapid succession, and the same strategy -- which included lots of limp-calling and check-calling, no matter how big the bets -- would fail him to start Day 2.

I came upon one hand in which he’d lost close to half of his stack to an opponent who held pocket aces, eventually learning that he’d called an all-in shove on a 2-3-4 flop holding but 7-6. When he finally busted, he sort of jovially said “Hensley’s out!” before leaving, reporting his own exit before we could. Sort of seemed a little like someone sitting down at a blackjack table, determined to play until he ran out of money, no matter what.

Just one woman made the money -- Claudia Crawford (who finished 36th). Greg Raymer cashed as well, getting knocked out in 29th by Daniel Weinman, one of those who has made it to today and who looks capable of winning the event. As is his custom, Raymer signed and dated the fossil he had been using as a card protector, then gave it to Weinman before leaving. But Weinman didn’t seem overly fazed by the gesture.

“This dude just gave me a rock,” he told a friend on the rail after. He then gave it to Rich.

With 11 left, some of the shorter stacks aren’t too much ahead of what Hensley had at the beginning of play yesterday with 201 left. Unsurprisingly given the makeup of the field, there are a few older players who’ll be making the final table, although again the younger guys who are left -- especially the big chip leader, Hugh Henderson of South Carolina -- have to be the favorites to have the best shot of winning the $250K-plus first prize today.

The ESPN guys have arrived, including Bernard Lee, and so they’ll be live streaming the final table with commentary over on the WSOP site and perhaps ESPN3 (if you can access it). I know the poker world is mostly attuned to Melbourne this morning -- or this evening, in Australia -- as Daniel Negreanu leads the WSOP APAC Main Event final table and appears on the verge of winning. But when that wraps up in a few hours, click on over to PokerNews and/or check out that live stream if you’re curious to see how things play out at Cherokee.

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event, Day 1b -- Vegetable of the Day

“You writin’ a story about me?”

Said the elderly gentleman sitting in Seat 7 to me as he noticed me standing just a few feet away from his table. It was the first level of Day 1b, and while there was another player at his table I’d recognized and was checking in on, I didn’t know him as yet.

“I’m writing a story about everyone,” I replied, and he nodded with a grin.

The second Day 1 flight at the WSOP Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Cherokee drew a bigger field than Day 1a, with 502 players including a number re-entering after busting on Friday. That made the overall total 856 entries for the event, making for a prize pool more than $1.28 million and a first place prize of just over $250K.

I think some had hoped to have gotten 1,000 for the ME, but most seemed very pleased at that turnout, which actually makes Harrah’s Cherokee the fourth largest WSOP-C ME this year out of the 17 that have been played thus far.

We’ve been looking in occasionally on the reports from the WSOP Asia Pacific that is reaching its climax this weekend with the Main Event and that non-bracelet High Roller event finishing out. Kind of marveled a little at how the first prize here at the WSOP-C Main Event ($250,380) is greater than the first prizes at each of the first four bracelet events at WSOP APAC. And, of course, dwarfs the $51,840 (AUD; i.e., not quite $55K USD) Phil Ivey earned for winning Event No. 3 down under (the $2,200 mixed event).

Yesterday went reasonably well from the reporting side of things. Less crazy for us when the two Day 1 flights are actually played on separate days rather than all on one day (as was the case in Foxwoods), although that’s dictated by the expected turnouts. In terms of hours, it’s still a long haul, but a tad less chaotic in terms of following everything and presenting it in the blog. Thus even if the hours are about the same, we feel less like vegetables at day’s end.

Speaking of not feeling like vegetables, we made it to dinner break in decent shape and decided to walk over to the other side of the complex and eat at Paula Deen’s Kitchen. You pass through a large gift shop in order to reach the entrance, filled with endless cookbooks, bakeware, cookware, kitchware, keychains, pastel-colored t-shirts with “Hey Y’all” written in glittery cursive, and more. Most items featured conspicuous Paula Deen branding, including pictures of her smiling face.

As we waited in a short line to be seated, Rich commented on the scene.

“There’s too much Paula Deen going on here.”

Upon being seated, we ordered our meals. Rich had a moment with the waitress that reminded us both of Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey’s character asks what the soup du jour, is told “it’s the soup of the day,” and responds “mmmm... that sounds good, I’ll have that.”

“Would you like the vegetable of the day?” the waitress asked Rich. “Yes, I would!” said Rich eagerly, adding “What is it?” “It’s brussel sprouts,” she responded. “No, I would not!” he said with equal enthusiasm.

After tweeting that exchange, our buddy Eric Ramsey tweeted back the funniest response: “Too bad you weren’t there on Wednesday when the vegetable of the day is butter.”

I ended up ordering a “low country” combo plate that featured fried shrimp, fried flounder, fried chicken, a baked potato with butter and sour cream, and hush puppies to follow the “cheesy biscuits” they’d brought us. Probably ate about a fifth of what was on the plate, and even after that was still moving slowly as we walked back.

Then Nolan Dalla supplied us with huge enormous chunks of locally-produced chocolate fudge on our return, which seemed a fitting postscript to our meal.

Post-dinner poker was dominated by Rufus “Rick” Hensley of Morganton, NC who went on a wild heater to go from about 120,000 up to just over 400,000 chips to end the day. Only a couple of other players have more than 300,000 at the moment, and only those in the top 10 have 200,000-plus.

But 201 are left, and so there’s still a lot more poker to be played. And walking around for Rich and I. Click over to PokerNews today to see how the story continues.

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event, Day 1a -- Southern Hospitality

Hello from the Carolina mountains, where I write on a brisk Saturday morning from Cherokee, NC. My home-away-from-home for the next few days isn’t that far away, in fact, as I only had to travel a few hours west in order to help cover the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Cherokee for PokerNews.

Hopped in the car and drove over to Asheville first in order to pick up my blogging partner, Rich, who has ties to the region as well as a graduate of Elon University. Teeny airport that I can’t remember ever having visited before, and we joked about trying to find the car in the parking lot which is only slightly bigger than the Food Lion one where Kung Fu Grandpa sometimes practices his nunchucks.

Rich and I took the winding path to Cherokee, found our hotel just up the road from Harrah’s, then went to explore a bit and have what turned out to be a nice dinner at the Brio Tuscan Grille. Also enjoyed a kind of hilarious conversation with our waitress there who spontaneously engaged us with her thoughts about poker players and gambling culture, generally speaking.

“Don’t they know their chances are SLIM to NONE?” she explained, and we nodded amiably. “It’s a game of chance,” she continued, then shared further thoughts about the folly of wearing sunglasses indoors and being overly preoccupied by smartphones and iPads.

We stopped by the handsome-looking poker room briefly to see 20-plus tables, many occupied by players, then hoofed it up to the Event Center where the tournaments are being played. It’s a great space for it, with the surrounding balcony up above -- from which people looked down on the action throughout the day -- adding positively to the atmosphere and making it all seem like more of an “event” than might be the case in nondescript ballrooms.

Seemed like Rich and I kept encountering lots of characters on Thursday, folks opening up and joking around with us constantly as the waitress had, and we found ourselves laughing a lot after some of the exchanges. We’re both used to the whole “southern hospitality” thing having spent time in NC, but we still found ourselves enjoying all of the friendly banter at seemingly every turn.

We got back to the hotel and settled into our adjacent rooms, then a little later the lights tantalizingly flickered on and off before shutting off altogether. We sat in silent darkness for a short while, then ventured out into the hall, realizing we were in fact the only inhabitants of our entire floor.

Was starting to feel a little like a horror movie. Weren’t those original Evil Dead movies filmed in North Carolina? We found our way down to the lobby.

Soon we discovered it wasn’t just our hotel, but all of Cherokee that had suffered a power outage thanks to a passing storm. We gazed out the front windows up Paint Town Road to discover the large Harrah’s complex had gone dark, too. The lady at the front desk gave us candles, and we hung around for a while before heading back up in the darkness.

Power did return a couple of hours later, and by morning the bright sun filled the little valley in which Harrah’s Cherokee sits as we rode in for the first day of play. Have to confess I was feeling a little added anticipation heading in. As I’ve mentioned before, having been born here and lived most of my life in the state, I have added curiosity about this event and harbor hope that it goes well and will encourage more events here in the future.

Ken “Teach” Aldridge delivered the “shuffle up and deal” yesterday, and he prefaced the call with a few remarks about poker’s popularity in the state and region. Aldridge won a WSOP bracelet in 2009 in a $1,500 six-handed NLH event and has cashed every year since, including making a H.O.R.S.E. final table in 2010 where he finished fourth in an event won by Phil Ivey.

Aldridge actually owns a car dealership in Burlington (Ken’s Cars), and I grew up in nearby Elon. I’ve had a conversation with my Pop about him and I believe they either know each other or have mutual acquaintances. He busted in the afternoon yesterday, but I imagine we’ll be seeing his signature bright yellow jacket and cap sometime today as players who have been eliminated can re-enter for Day 1b.

Ended up running into and talking to other players from Elon, Burlington, and the surrounding area yesterday as well, which made the day more interesting. Just glancing at an early, incomplete list of yesterday’s entrants, it looked like around a third of those who came out were from North Carolina, a little less than a third were from Georgia, and around 10% each were from Tennessee and South Carolina.

The field probably skews a little older than the typical WSOP-C crowd, although I haven’t sorted through the DOBs. I say that both because of my general impression walking through the tables yesterday and because of how things played out in other events prior to our arrival, including a largest ever field for a seniors event here. A total of 648 played in the non-ring $250 buy-in event, won by 62-year-old Tennessean David Moersdorf who then went on to win one of the ring events, too (a $365 NLH one).

The day went well and we were out by midnight, with 83 players making it through to Sunday’s Day 2. Again we encountered several characters at the tables, many engaging us throughout the day as we passed to and for with our notepads. Probably the most interesting hand of the day came relatively late when I happened on a table where all nine players limped in to see a flop. Couldn’t resist calling the post describing the hand “Southern Hospitality.”

A few names standing out among those making it through thus far. The leader at the moment, David Nicholson, is a three-time Circuit ring winner. Claudia Crawford (“Roll Tide!”), Kyle Cartwright, and Greg Raymer all bagged up big stacks, too.

There were a total of 354 who played yesterday, which I think undershot some expectations a bit as folks had been thinking the tourney would draw as many as 1,000 entries. That seems a little out of reach after Friday’s number, although the current buzz is suggesting we’ll see a bigger field today. At least that is what Stewie thinks.

Click over to PokerNews today if you are curious to follow how things are playing out in Cherokee.

Cherokee Bound

Am readying this morning to drive over to the western part of the state to Harrah’s Cherokee where I’ll be helping cover the WSOP Circuit Main Event there from Friday through Monday for PokerNews.

Have to say I’m kind of excited about being there for this first ever WSOP Circuit stop in my home state. Am also excited to be driving to one of these suckers rather than flying. Not that I mind flying so much, but there’s obviously an added convenience to being able to throw my stuff in the car and go. I mean I can take full tubes of toothpaste, big bottles of water, my guitar... practically anything!

Okay, so I probably won’t take my guitar. Have a feeling it’s going to be a busy time up there, anyway, with few spots for interludes.

Amid the packing, I found myself searching through results from other WSOP Circuit events during the 2012-13 season, looking at the numbers of entries for each event. I had been hearing that the turnouts at Cherokee for the preliminary events were especially big, and so was curious to compare how they look alongside what has happened elsewhere on the WSOP-C this season.

As I was mentioning yesterday, there are 20 stops total on the 2012-13 WSOP-C schedule, each featuring 12 different events. The Main Event is always a $1,675 buy-in NLHE tourney with a couple of Day 1 flights that allow for re-entries. Sometimes both Day 1 flights are scheduled for the same day, and sometimes they are on separate days. (The Cherokee one will have Day 1a on Friday and Day 1b on Saturday.)

The other 11 events are usually mostly NLHE events with buy-ins ranging from $365 to $1,125, with most stops throwing in a single PLO event along the way. A couple have other variations in there, too; for instance, at Horseshoe Hammond last October they actually had a H.O.R.S.E. event, a Limit O/8 event, and a PLO with rebuys event mixed in with the usual fare.

But for the most part the schedules are fairly uniform. So even though I was talking about yesterday how hard -- or even foolhardy -- it is to compare tournaments, it’s possible to look at, say, each of the Main Events on the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit and at least compare the number of entries. The buy-ins are the same, the Main Events tend to come later in the schedule (often appearing as Event Nos. 10 or 11), and the number who play in the ME generally reflects how the other 11 events on the schedule did in terms of turnouts, too.

Here’s a quick look at the number of entries for each of the 16 previous WSOP-C Main Events this year:

So there’s been a range this year from as low as 300 at IP Biloxi up to the biggest turnout of 1,523 at Horseshoe Hammond, with most stops having Main Events with entries numbering around 500-600 (or just above or below).

At Cherokee this week there have been events with especially large fields compared to other prelims on the WSOP-C, including 872 for the initial $365 NLH tourney (Event No. 1), 949 for the next one (Event No. 2), and 1,350 for the $365 NLH tourney with re-entries (Event No. 4).

Hard to say what the Main Event will bring in terms of numbers, although I’m guessing it’s probably going to be higher than the 615 entries we saw at the Main Event at Foxwoods last week. We’ll see soon enough.

(By the way, when writing about these WSOP Circuit Main Events I see people constantly refer to fields of, say, “615 players,” when that is never the case because of re-entries. This week I was reading a few of the summaries of the Foxwoods Main Event around the web -- all necessarily written following the reports on PokerNews and the WSOP site -- and was surprised at how many inaccuracies there were with various details. Summarizing a skill game, too, I guess.)

Okay, gotta take care of some more business here and then fill up the car and go. Talk to you next from Cherokee.

Tar Heel Poker

I began this blog by identifying myself as an online poker player, something I continue to do in that header up top even though my online play has been reduced dramatically over the last 15 months since Black Friday.

One reason why I identified as an online player was because, well, live poker was not really an option here in North Carolina. Not legally, anyhow.

The only casino in the state is Harrah’s Cherokee, located way the hell over in the mountains near the Tennessee border. It opened in 1997, although the only poker offered for many years was of the video poker variety.

A few years back PokerTek, makers of electronic poker tables, struck a deal with Harrah’s Cherokee to place a few of its tables on the casino floor. PokerTek just happens to be located here in North Carolina as well, in Matthews (close to Charlotte).

Just last month five more PokerTek tables were added at Cherokee, bringing the overall number to 15. While I have never played them, my understanding is most of the tables are of the NLHE variety ($1/$2 and $2/$5). There’s also an LHE one ($3/$6, I think), and they sometimes have Omaha, too.

In other Cherokee news, the governor, Bev Purdue, signed a compact with the tribe back in November 2011 to allow for live table games. At the time I was a bit cynical about it all, knowing that legislators would still have to agree to allow for live poker to be spread. But in May such legislation was passed, and on June 13 the governor signed into law permission for live table games.

Immediately came reports of a plan to start offering games by the Fourth of July weekend, although that didn’t happen. I called over this morning and learned that as of right now they are targeting next month (August) as a start date for offering live poker.

Also of note, yesterday the new WSOP Circuit schedule was announced, with Cherokee included among the 20 stops -- the most ever for the tour. The WSOP-C Cherokee event will happen in April 2013.

Have to say this is all very interesting to follow, and I imagine if I don’t get there beforehand, I may have to get out to Cherokee next spring to get a look at what’s happening.

I’m also intrigued about PokerTek, mainly because it is located so close to me. There was an article in the paper just the other day about the company, which apparently has struggled since its founding in 2003 but currently is doing okay supplying tables to cruise ships and casinos, including in the U.S. and France. Last year they started making blackjack tables, and have plans for baccarat.

In other words, while for a long time I’ve mostly thought of poker as something that essentially happens elsewhere, I might just have to start paying more attention to Tar Heel poker.

Meanwhile, I wonder if I could swing a field trip to Cherokee for my Poker in American Film and Culture class...?