When a State Is Not Open to Gambling, It Is difficult to Find a Good Place to Gamble

I feel like Willie Nelson. I'm on the road again.

Charlestown, S.C. is a land of beaches, boats and military installations. The weather isn't as warm as Phoenix. And I am still trying to find a good poker game.

South Carolina is not a state that is really open to gambling.

Voters recently passed legislation to allow a gambling cruise ship to operate out of Charlestown. That hasn't happened yet. When it does, it will make a lot of people happy, including the lawmakers who want the state to profit from the tax revenues.

I have been told by some of the locals that there is plenty of poker in Charlestown, but that it is played in private home games. I'll let you know more about that later.

Right now, if I want to play poker in regulated games, I will either have to drive to Cherokee, N.C. or Jacksonville, FL. That is about a five-hour drive in either direction

Oh, well, maybe I needed a rest.

Doyle Brunson tells me that poker can be an addiction. Any addiction has withdrawal symptoms when you aren't involved with that which addicts you. I haven't felt the pain of withdrawal yet, but I'm sure it will happen down the line.

In the meantime, I am surrounded by the history of the old South. I am also in the heart of pirate country. Blackbeard the Pirate, whose real name was Edward Teach, grew up in these parts. Before becoming a wild pirate of the Caribbean, Teach led a quiet sedate life. He was in love with a local girl and his life was changed for the worse when she threw him over for another young man who apparently looked more promising in her discerning eyes.

After the rejection, Teach began hanging out in waterfront dives. He began drinking heavily, fell in with a group of ruffians and formed a pirate alliance. They commandeered a ship, called it Queen Anne's Revenge and began pillaging the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean.

Teach was an intriguing character and I have been working on a book idea based on his life. I don't know if he was a gambler but he definitely had an eye for beautiful women, rum, gold and silver.

He would ply his men with rum before they went on a raid. While he enjoyed a glass of rum, his preferences reportedly involved smoking the local ganja. He had grown a thick black beard and would wrap the marijuana up in his beard, light it and smoke it like a cigar. When he boarded an enemy ship, he was ready for anything.

Gamblers are supposed to be able to adapt to anything. I will hang around the port of Charlestown for a while, explore the beaches and then either head south to Florida or northeast to West Virginia where my friend Jim Gussius runs the Mardi Gras Casino in Charleston. That's what a gadabout journalist and poker player is all about. Wish me luck.