Like apple pie and ice cream, steak and potatoes, Bordeaux and stinky cheese, Cigars and Poker go hand in hand.
In fact, I’m not sure one would exist without the other. Oh sure, there is always golf, but is there any other activity in the world that has you sitting around for hours and hours on end without getting bored? In the careful hands of a well seasoned poker player the cigar may even enhance ones play. A careful puff here or there, a thoughtful roll or the cigar between the lips, a chomp, a flick of the ash, these could all help a player who knew their opponent was looking for information.
Being from the True North Strong and Free, rather than the Home of the Brave, I get to enjoy the good stuff. Oh sure there are people that will tell you that you can get just as good a cigar from Nicaragua or Jamaica or some other place, but do you know who those people are? Americans. People that know and are not denied one of life’s great pleasures by the most unnecessary grudges the civilized world has seen know that the Cuban cigar is as good as it gets. It’s the the one all are measured against, and the one that they will forever be compared with. Like Wine from France, Whiskey from Scotland and Blondes from Sweden, some places just have the right growing conditions to make perfection seem easy.
I can’t really say I have a favourite because each cigar has it’s own personality of sorts, while I find the Romeo y Julieta Cedros Deluxe No. 1 to be a great all around cigar, one that is easily on par with the Coronas Especiales as my favourite day to day smoke, if my lungs could handle them all the time, and I had the income to afford them, then nothing would touch my lips other than Romeo y Julieta Churchill, and Cohiba Lanceros and Esplendidos. Sad to say that in this day of healthy living and quasi political correctness there is naught a single place that I can enjoy one of these bad boys indoors anymore. Seeing as I live in a ski resort, the winters are rough and long, the only cigars I seem to enjoy for everything but our two weeks of summer seem to be around the fire pit rather than sitting over a nice game of cards with a scotch taking all my friends money.
Which segues into my next train of thought, what is the perfect drink to go with a cigar and a poker game?
Scotch is my preferred drink to go with a cigar, a nice single malt, usually a highland, Speyside to be specific, but I like to be flexible and sitting around drinking scotch all night doesn’t usually do much for my card playing. A nice Guinness or two is always nice, and I can last a lot longer drinking Guinness than I can scotch. If we start early in the day, the drink of choice has to be an espresso, if you don’t drink a good coffee with your cigar this is a must try, I got onto it from watching all the cigar tasters and they all drink coffee when smoking, it enhances the flavour of the cigar to say the least.
Back in the day we could sit in the cigar room and play all night drinking Guinness with a side of single malt till the wee hours of the morning.
The good old days. *sigh*
Anyways, if anyone needs to pick up some sticks, this goes for you ‘mericans too, just drop my buddy Rob a line here, http://www.cigarsofcuba.com/ here is sure to get them to you, no problems shipping them down to the US of A even. Quality stuff. No, I don’t get anything for the plug.