Tournament Poker: Real Practical Packing (apart from $$)

I am a list person. I've gotten better since I got sick years ago but it's hard to take the OCD and the A type out of a gal. I have lists for everything, including my template 'packing lists', which includes my live tournament poker packing list.

It closely resembles a packing list for your favorite beach vacation.

I'm just kidding, (it's not even close).

This may be helpful to some of you at some point in the event that you head out to a casino in a beautiful part of our country such as Orange Park, FL, Elizabeth IN, or in this case Hammond, IN. Never been there? Don't bother putting it on your bucket list.

So here's some things on my list:

• Perfume: not for the reason you think. Not to attract, but to give myself a protective bubble in the unfortunate event I get sat next to someone who smells very bad. It has happened to me before and you are trapped there for 12 hours, and it is torture.
• Fruits & Veggies in raw format and Super Concentrate Powder fruit & veggies: to put in your water. There are few food choices in a casino. Maybe a little Sbarro pizza or some fried food buffet, but not a lot of color in the food choices. Five or more days without proper nutrition can make you feel a little crappy. Also think thousands of players handling and exchanging the same poker chips and cards for hours and days on end. Ew. Need your immune system strong.
• Power Bars: Same reason as above. Not to mention an average tourney runs 12 hours a day with 15 min breaks every 3 hours...best to pack a few power bars and nuts.
• Jackets and long sleeve shirts but not your good ones: Why? Even though the poker rooms are non-smoking, two levels of slots machine and table game players in the HUGE smoking section below has its way of the smoke wafting upwards and attaching itself to you. (I also keep large plastic bags for my luggage). The second reason I bring layers and layers of clothes is because the poker room is kept at a sub 0 degree temperature like a meat locker. It's so cold sitting in a cold seat for 12 hours. I'm cold thinking about it.
• Orange Stick/ Cuticle Stick: Again not for the primping reason you would think but because at the end of a long poker day, you end up scraping out the gunk from the felt of the poker tables and off the chips from under your nails. I use this manicure tool to remove it at the end of the day. Disgusting isn't it. I need to make up a name for that gunk.
• Dry Shampoo: Because after 3 days of exhausting long days of poker and reeking of smoke I give up and spray on a little dry shampoo for my 'get ready process'. Nice
• Ipod: shut out chatter, noise, talkers at the table. Now loaded with 'The Black Album' too. 
• Guided Meditation: also loaded onto my ipod/iphone, so I can get to sleep at night or decompress in the morning. It is HARD to get to sleep at 3am after playing 12 hours and then you make a STUPID mistake that haunts you and gets you knocked out of the tournament right before the money. I still have nightmares from hands from a year ago.
• Phone Charger: do no forget. I swear I could make a ga-billion dollars if I could design a portable solar charger or something that players could use at the table. If I had a dollar for every player who needed a charger at the poker table....

Those are a few of my must have's in my packing list. Sounds appealing huh? Why do I play tournament poker? Well that is for another day and I have a wide range of feelings about it. Those opinions might be influenced depending on how I do at this WSOP circuit event series.

Good luck to all no matter what you do. Play good, run better. xo Pdub