If Pokerstars had any decency (yeah right) or concerns for their players then they would be moving the PCA event to a different venue for numerous reasons in time for 2017. Their numbers are dwindling year on year and the stories being relayed on here as well as many being told at other events are going to see them continue to drop.

I`d bet you can make more money with your sick writing skills than with poker. Everything about the story is so catchy it`s like i`ve been there + it`s so full of emotions and interesting points that i want to read it again. Concider that IMO.

holy **** dude. **** my heart was racing reading that ****. i always wanted to go to the pca but honestly reading this has made me not want to. that is so sick. i'd much rather go to the world series or aussie millions. i think you handled the situation way better than i would have

"I asked about declaring it, and they said actually because I’m travelling with a friend and I have under $20k I can just give them a few thousand so that I’m under $10k and don’t have to declare. "

I stopped reading after this....another clown trying to evade the 10k threshold and gets caught.

Well, for some people its a 3 hour vs 23 hour flight.

Also, if you don't make a mistake like this, you won't ever have to deal with this. They're not arresting random people for nothing. The experience must have sucked, but at the end of the day OP put himself in that position by trying to bring all that cash with him. Pokerstars has a bank at PCA, he could have deposited the excess and only carried under 10k with him. Or traded it with one of the hundreds of poker players there who played on stars, and could have sent him 8k on stars for 8k of the cash... Etc. So many ways that resulted in them having NOTHING to hold him on at customs and therefore never going thru this.

The crazy part is when one is being transported from the airport to Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island, you have to be brought right thru downtown Nassau. I don't care if one is taking a taxi, limo, whatever. One goes right thru the slums, basically, really poor areas. It's at that point one should deduce that this is serious and one is in a 3rd world country now, and one should be careful when dealing with authority figures. Not 2 weeks later, when one is actually dealing with them. It should never get to that, is my point.

Once one takes that taxi drive through those slums, one's entire mind should be focused on, "Ok, how am I gonna get out of this country without coming to the attention of those in power."

Because they can't **** with every single tourist. So they're gonna single out people for a reason. Then, when, one is discussing with others "What should I do with this 20k I have to bring back to my home country," one will be remaining focused on "not coming to attention of those in power" which will result in one realizing that bringing a large amount of cash thru customs would be suspicious. It is suspicious simply because it is not ordinary. 99.99% of people going thru customs in Nassau are tourists who probably will be leaving the country with $300 on them, on average.

It is not a bad place. It is very poor and therefore very corrupt. That is why one sees stories like this. That's all. I would travel there again and walk the streets of Nassau confidently and feel safe because they're still people. They're human beings. I truly believe my chances of being randomly killed walking those streets are probably lower than in Beverly Hills with some rich housewife speeding, texting, and not paying attention to me crossing the road.

Not sure why you still believe you did nothing wrong. You were asked (via official government form) if you were bringing $10,000 or more into the U.S. and you were. Having someone else carry some of the cash for you doesn't change the fact that it is still your money that "you" are bringing into the U. S. So, in effect, your declaration was false.

Well, you're not wrong. I conceded that I didn't know what to do with the money, because I had 0 experience winning money in live poker abroad, so I did what I think most people would do in the scene, and asked friends who were there who played the live circuit and had experience travelling across borders with a lot of money. I asked a group of them at the same time, and they all concluded that the play was to do what I did and it would be fine. So I made the best decision I could make with the information I had at the time.

I'm sure for anyone who has had a lot of experience travelling it might be super obvious not to do this stuff, but that was my 2nd time leaving my home country in my life and when I was arrested at the Bahamas/USA border on the way to my connecting flight, that would have been my first time in the USA. So yea, I should have done a lot of things, but sometimes in life... you just don't know, ya know?

Nah I don't still believe I did nothing wrong, I'm VERY aware now.

I was speaking about *at the time* I thought it was fine. Like I just posted... 2nd time leaving country, first time at USA border was that time... I just didn't know, and the people that I asked with more experience than me didn't know either. A lot of people don't know it turns out haha...

My point is, you had more information than just that. You had all the visual and audio information of driving through the slums on your way INTO Atlantis. So, when you were getting ready to LEAVE Atlantis, that should make you thinking more along the lines of "This is serious, I should research more what to do when going through customs than just talking to a few people"

Not trying to criticize, you made a mistake, everyone makes mistakes. I'm just trying to say what ideally you should have been thinking that could have avoided that mistake. Because you certainly must have seen the poverty in the streets of Nassau on your way to the resort

Thanks for sharing the story, crazy stuff. Unfortunately you now get to lose any faith in humanity you gained in the camp by having to read the drivel from the mandatory idiots here who read that story and feel the need to try to sound smart by pointing out what you did wrong. As if you haven't realised already what you did wrong.

Bahaha oh god

This is one of the craziest things I've ever read. Holy ****, glad you're OK now at least.

I was going to post something similar. The only difference is that I was going to say that the OP shows the capacity to learn from his youthful mistake and experiences while many here prefer to stubbornly cling to their ignorance. Such is life. Another lesson for the OP.

Thank you very much for sharing. This is a story that needs to be told to a wider audience.

And everyone of us who lives in 1st world countries should take a moment to reflect on how fortunate we really are.

Kanu - 2+2s voice of reason

Just out of curiosity wat exactly happens IF YOU DECLARE lets say 15k. What is teh common procedure here?

Well written. Thanks for sharing. It's hard not to be ashamed to be part of the human race at times when you hear of stories like this.

The experience does bring to light some disgusting human behavior. Your sharing will start a dialog that eventually the people who organize PCA will take notice. There are some good people there.

A possible solution.

The Bahamas has a number of AAA rated banks from around the world. Pokerstars could team with a banking institution so that all transactions are electronic and no hard currency ever changes hands during the tournament.

Any time I've declared anything since they just take you to secondary customs and count your money, sometimes search all your luggage. It's not that big of a deal. WORST case scenario is that it's super busy and it takes up to an hour for them to get to you, but then other times there's no one and you go straight to check.

There's no reason to avoid declaring if you're not a criminal, I don't think.

Nothing. That's why it's so ******ed not to declare.

Never going to PCA again. I hated that stop anyway

I agree. If this post helps a few other people stay out of a situation like this... then I'm happy. I probably should have posted this earlier, around when it happened, but it was a pretty crazy time and I had to let it go for my own sanity. Better late than never I suppose. Hopefully some good comes of it.

Comparing some rando dude to actual governemnt officials.

That's if the border guard is honest. What's to stop him from putting 4.5k in his pocket and then saying that you didn't declare the 10.5k? Sure he's lying... but how is that going to help you?

This Country is filled with corrupt judges/police/border guards and as a tourist there's nothing you can do if you run into the wrong one.

The PCA should have moved years ago for a lot of reasons. Shakedowns is just another one. OP I'm glad you made it out in one piece and hopefully it's made you a stronger person because of it. Obviously you shouldn't have had to go through any of this.

Having to declare 10k is BS. Hasn't it been 10k in most countries since forever? Point being, 10k was once a lot of money, these days not so much. The declaration limit should be higher.

Holy **** what a crazy read, thanks for taking the time to write this. I was glad to read about the stuff in "the light" and that you reached out to your fellow campmates afterwards. Not to understate how terrible an experience this must have been, but it's these experiences that shape up who you are and make for great stories to tell your grandkids one day. All the best in the future!