Travel Report, NAPT Venetian: Day 3

Long, long day yesterday, it turned out. Didn’t get out of there ’til 2:30 a.m. or thereabouts, as we tracked the field going from 147 down to 24 in the Main Event. For a general recap of the day, you can read my wrap-up and/or peruse the Day 3 live blog.

They made it down to the money somewhat quickly. About an hour to get down to 129, then another half-hour as hand-for-hand took about a half-dozen hands or so. A rapid exodus followed, but things slowed down big time once we reached 60-odd players left. Was noticing the average stacks creeping up toward the 60 big blinds level then, which helped explain the slowdown, I think.

Players also took a lot of time with decisions, something Benjo -- who follows tours regularly -- told me has become a trend of sorts over the last year or so. “First level of tournament, the button raises for 3x and the big blind thinks and thinks and thinks,” said Benjo, indicating how the brooding seems to happen with every decision, no matter how (relatively) routine or standard.

As we waited for more eliminations, I asked Benjo about his progress translating into French Dr. Pauly’s forthcoming Lost Vegas, which sounds like has been a fun but challenging task for him thus far. Lots of vocabulary for which the French equivalent is a bit elusive, it sounds like. I’m sure Benjo will figure out how to say “pharmies” in a way that successfully captures intended connotations.

A couple of other extracurricular items from yesterday to share. Brad and I had a long discussion about the future with the entrepreneurial (and friendly) Teddy “the Ice Man” Monroe. I say “conversation,” although I’ll admit I didn’t contribute much. I’m a listener, see. A learner. I also focus far too much on the near term, whereas the Ice Man is thinking big, with multiple projects currently, and plans for several more.

Joe Sebok happened by and we gabbed a bit as well. He’s in for the High Rollers $25,000 Bounty event that happens today. I’ll be covering that one with Macon Marc. Seven sit-n-gos, all with seven players each. Winners move on to a final table on Thursday. Plus, everyone gets a $5,000 bounty for eliminating another player. And PokerStars.net is kicking in an extra $100,000 to the player who collects the most bounties overall.

The line-up for the event is nuts. Gonna be like seven episodes of “Poker After Dark” going on all around me today. In addition to Sebok we will be seeing Justin Bonomo, Joe Cada, Annie Duke, Peter Eastgate, Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G, Phil Galfond, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Isaac Haxton, Phil Hellmuth, John Hennigan, Phil Laak, Dario Minieri, Sorel Mizzi, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Andrew Robl, Vanessa Rousso, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, J.C. Tran, and David Williams. And that’s just half the field... many more big names among the rest, too.

Not sure at the moment of the exact schedule today just yet, but I do know there will be two “flights” -- one at 11 a.m. and the other 7 p.m. (PT). Check Brad’s post from yesterday for the table draws, and check out the NAPT site for live streaming television coverage today, too. The event will be filmed for ESPN2 as well, so that’ll come at some point down the road.

As I say, Marc and I will be on this sucker today, and so I better sign off and get prepared. ’Cos you know, the future... there’s a lot going on there. Better be ready. See you later over on the PokerStars blog.