JD's World: Trains, Planes and Automobiles but Mostly Planes
If you’re not friends with Jason Wheeler on Facebook then unlucky you. He’s been entertaining friends with tales of his adventures and travels for the last year or so, under the handle "JD’s World."
Poker players who travel the circuit, like Wheeler, spend an awful lot of time either in the air or at airports. A lot of them experience delays every now and again, but few suffer the way Wheeler did it trying to get here to Malta. His tales had a very different tone during this time but he still managed to make them humorous.
PokerNews caught up him during a break here on Day 1b, where he’s playing, and got him to explain the full story:
“The actual journey of the trip started back in December because I flew back from Prague and I almost always book one-way back home because I’m never sure of the exact date I’m coming back (to Europe) in the spring. But when I flew back the ticket was really expensive so I actually had bought a round trip, with the return date of Friday, March 13th. The problem is that I forgot and didn’t find out about it until March 13th, two hours after the flight had left. So that’s the first ticket!
“I had already bought another ticket as I didn’t know about the March 13th ticket, and that had me leaving on Monday the 16th. I woke up and I go to the (Mexico/US) border and I have this border-crossing card that lets you cross quickly.They have this sick thing where you can go to this website and look at the wait times for the border and look at cameras at the border. I look and the wait is not so long and it’s perfect timing so I go, but the border agents had decided to change shifts - like all of them – and it held everybody up in the line. I looked at the camera and there was no one there but when I get to the border 15 minutes later, there’s at least 100 people there and they kept us waiting over an hour.
“I’m in line and realize I’m probably going to miss my flight when I get a text from the airline saying that my flight’s delayed, which puts my connection in jeopardy. That all meant they’d probably rebook me, so I get out of line and go back home. Had I went to the airport I would’ve made it as they busted ass and got the flight out in time. I called them and the only rebooking they could get for me was for Thursday (19th).
“The really annoying thing was that my original ticket (13th) was booked for Amsterdam, my usual stop off in Europe. I would’ve gone for the weekend, got used to the acclimation and then hopped on a short flight to Malta. Now I was supposed to be on a Monday three-hop thing that’s turned into a Thursday three-hop. I got up in Mexico at 3:00 a.m. and fly out to JFK (airport) and have a few hours layover, but as we’re about to get on the plane they start offering people money to bounce to the next day’s flight, as it’s too full. It gets up to a $1,300 offer and I actually considered this as I have some friends in New York and there wasn’t much going on here (Malta) on Friday, but I had already been on this odyssey for four days so I said no; I want to get to Malta.
“We get to Rome and I get off the plane thinking I have an hour-and-twenty minute flight and I’m in Malta, but no, it turns out the Italians are unhappy and they – the air controllers – want to strike! Nobody told me anything; there’s nothing on the board and no one said anything on the plane. There are 200 of us standing at this desk trying to figure it all out. It took me three hours to get a new flight but it has to fly through Sicily that night where I have to pay for a hotel on my own before flying on to Malta the next day. I say no and after more arguing, they agree to put me on an Air Malta flight the next day. I say awesome, can I have my ticket? They say it’s not possible as they’re not a partner of ours and their desk doesn’t open again until 6:00 a.m., but you are booked.
“I go off and enjoy Rome, eat dinner etc. before giving Air Malta a call to make sure everything’s okay. They don’t have me in the system [laughs]! I call Delta back and they tell me I’m booked on it but, as they’re not a partner, they can only ask for a seat and then a seat is released for me, but they haven’t released it yet. I call Air Malta back and they have one seat left so I beg them to hold it and get back on to Delta who tell me they can’t call international numbers from their call center. Basically they have no way of figuring this out and I’m so over it now that I hang up, call Air Malta back and book another ticket. If I hadn’t taken that last seat there wasn’t another flight for two more days and you can’t play online in Rome.
“Three tickets, several layovers, bumps and everything that could have happened, happened! And, I could’ve taken that $1,300 and stayed overnight in New York and had a nice meal with friends.”
“I almost run perfect when travelling normally, but I have a routine. I always go through the same city, Amsterdam mostly as a hub, or London, where I’m familiar with the layouts, the policies etc. I’m smart, I almost always fly to London first and if I get stuck, there’s almost flights every two hours to Amsterdam or wherever - I almost never get stuck there a long time."
What a journey for Wheeler, it could almost take up a whole chapter in a book, if he ever decides to write memoirs of this period of his life. He had a lot of steam to blow off once he made it and hinted that he’s be taking it out on the tables.
“I’ve definitely been playing my 'not-folding' game and I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I’ve been playing aggressive live and online, but it’s starting to get out of my system now. But I’m definitely taking it to people today!”
As the Main Events nears dinner break on Day 1b, Wheeler’s stack has dropped to below the 5k-mark. If he busts, watch out for him in the side events as he’ll be coming for you!