Goa’s answer to Bruce Lee… grabs my case and is up and running

To say the Asian Poker Classic in Goa, India, was an enlightening experience is an understatement. A chartered flight from Gatwick takes a ‘mere’ 10 hours and we’re welcomed by a near-perfect temperature (high 80s every day) but a not-so-perfect airport.

It seems that it’s local tradition for a guy with a rifle in military uniform to keep passengers on the tarmac for 20 minutes while a jet revs its engines. As entertaining as that is, a few brave souls decide that enough is enough and try to run the gauntlet past the guard only for him to lower his gun towards them. Needless to say, knees wobbling, they sheepishly return to their ranks for the race to the immigration checkpoint.

After changing some money, and getting what seems like the GNP of a small country for £40, I’m confronted by another military guy with a wad of cash asking for tax. ‘Tax for what,’ I enquire? ‘For me,’ he declares. At this point Kevin O’Connell [poker pro and one of the Dusk Till Dawn founders] butts in to tell him that he has paid for me, as being a well-travelled geezer he already has his slush fund to hand.

Straight onto the luggage carousel it’s a fight to see who can get your case. Goa’s answer to Bruce Lee chops his way through the hordes, grabs my case and is up and running. Uncertain as to whether it’s theft or an over-zealous porter, I give chase and end up at the steps of our hotel bus, last seen – and serviced – in the movie Casablanca. With a top cruising speed of 25mph we head off to the Intercontinental Hotel.

We slipstream the tanker in front of us on a blind bend and approximately 10 minutes later and half-a-mile down the road we’re back on the right side of the road and somehow all still alive. This manoeuvre, which makes checkraising with rags seem like child’s play, is repeated another hundred times to the point where we just accept that the end is nigh.

We arrive to an oasis of luxury set within 50 yards of golden sands and a warm sea. One word: paradise. But everyone’s mind is still set on one thing – poker. In the main event Willie Tann is eliminated in the very first level by a local Indian lad who makes a straight on the river to bust Willie’s top set. I last until 30th only to be crushed by India’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger. He busts my Q-Q on a flop of 9-4-2 with A-K...

But will we return? You bet! A meal for 10 with drinks (and tip) is no more than £30! What’s more, everyone loved the place. A great tournament with 146 players and $250,000 added in a fantastic country with a kind local population means I already have Goa pencilled in for next year.

Marc Goodwin is one of UK’s finest poker players and MANSION Poker Ambassador