Poker Side Event!

Finally all of the details have been put together for the poker tournament. Here they are:

When: Thursday, December 16th. 7pm

Where: Showboat Casino Poker Room

EF: $65

Format: Texas Holdem

No Add-ons, re-buys, or antes.

Q &A:

1. Q: How do I get to the Showboat Casino from the Sheraton? A: The easiest way is the little blue public bus called the Jitney. It will take you to any Casino for $2. I would recommend leaving extra time to make sure you get there on time.

2. Q: What is the prize fund? A: This is determined by the number of entries. $53 of every entry will go towards the prizes.

3. Q: I am not playing in the chess tournament, can I still play in the poker event? A: Absolutely. We recognize that friends, family members, spouses, etc, may want to enjoy playing in the tournament too. Additional players add to the fun, and to the prize fund.

4. Q: How do I register? A: All registration will be on site at the poker room.

If anyone has more questions about this or any of our other events, please feel free to contact me.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Atlantic City.

Glenn

The Excitement is Building

By now many of you may have heard that US Champion GM Gata Kamsky will be attending and playing in the ACI. We are so grateful that Gata has decided to join us there. In fact, Thursday night there will be a simul and lecture conducted by Gata. Sign up early, spots will likely go quickly!

Bughouse Side Event

Recently I have had a couple of avid Buggers ask me about the possibility of a Bughouse gathering or side event. If there is interest, we likely would have time to put one together for Friday night. So, please if there is additional interest, let us know.

G

Side Events

What we are hoping to build over time with this event is a chess festival. For this year, we have 2 side events planned, a blitz event and a poker event. Which brings me to a question, as a player, what types of side events would you like to see? Simuls? Lectures? Fischer Random Chess? We are pretty open to trying different events, so fire away with what you would like to see.

The poker event will be on Thursday evening at 7pm. The format is Texas Hold'em with a $55 EF, and prizes based on the amount of entries. There are so many chess players playing poker these days that we thought chess players may enjoy the opportunity to play poker against other chess players. It will be interesting to see if higher or lower rated players fare better.

Our blitz event will take place on Saturday evening. One of the nice things about the Game/12o time control is that the games will be over earlier leaving time for players to enjoy activities in addition to the main tournament.

Glenn

Getting there

One of the very nice things about Atlantic City as a site, is the multitude of ways to get to town. For the people in Philadelphia, the train goes into the station across the street from the hotel. In fact, you don't even have to go outside as there is a covered walkway from the station into the hotel. For people coming from NYC, there are buses as well as trains that will bring you right into that same station. In fact, the casinos subsidize the ACES line that goes from NY Penn station or Newark directly to Atlantic city for $29 each way! Other towns along the East Coast also have low cost conventient train options as well.

For our chess friends that would like to fly in, there are flights directly into Atlantic City from Atlanta and Toronto. Other locations are best suited to fly into Philadelphia which is about a 45 minute drive away, or easily accessible by train. If you prefer the low cost of bus travel, Megabus has some very low cost tickets available to Philadelphia, and by low cost, I mean under $10!

Once in Atlantic City, a car is not necessary. The boardwalk is 4 blocks away. Furthermore, you can get to any property in town by using the little blue buses called the Jitney. Cost for taking the Jitney is only $2 per trip.

We really hope that the ease of making the trip attracts a lot of chess players. If you have any questions on travel arrangements, please feel free to drop me a line, and I will be very glad to help if I can.

Glenn

Welcome to the ACI!

Welcome to my first organizer blog entry. I hope to be updating this blog with up to date information on our tournament, the area, travel, and anything else that I can think of on a fairly regular basis.

So, where do we begin? Let me tell everyone a little about the event and how it came to be. I am not new large events, having been on the staff of the National Open for the last 23 years, as well as having directed or organized in many national and state championship events. Last year, my friend Shelby Lohrman asked me, why aren't there any large tournaments in Atlantic City? I thought about it briefly, and knowing that several of the largest events in the country are in casino properties (National Open, North American Open, Foxwoods to name a few), I told him I had no idea why that was. After contacting several of the hotels in AC, I found out why very quickly. The hotel rates were astronomical. We came up with a solution to that roadblock with terrific $99 weekend rates at the newly remodeled Sheraton, and were on our way.

If you have any questions or comments about the tournament, please feel free to post! We would love to hear from you.

Glenn