Travel Report: LAPT6 Peru, Day 2 -- The Fisherman

Another day down here in Lima as the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event in Peru winds its way along. From 557 total entries just 27 are left to start today’s Day 3, and when they finish tonight just eight will remain for tomorrow’s final table.

Time-wise yesterday lasted about as long as the first two days of the tourney, with players once again working through 10 one-hour levels. Felt longer, though, perhaps in part because I was working alone. Even Sergio -- who handles the Portuguese blog for PokerStars -- was gone by the final levels as all of the Brazilian players had busted.

Of course, even while scribbling away on my own I’m not really alone at all as I work alongside a host of other media covering the event for a variety of outlets. Indeed, there’s pretty much the same full court press-type coverage happening here as one finds at WSOP events or elsewhere in the world, and it’s kind of interesting to watch live reporting teams such as the group from Codigo Poker doing their updates in much the same fashion I’m used to doing at other events.

And of course the great Carlos Monti was there with me as well to the end yesterday, the regular photographer for PokerStars’ coverage of LAPT events.

That’s Carlos pictured to the left from yesterday helping out the Codigo guys at the end of the night with a quick interview of Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez who survived to today’s Day 3.

Carlos is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and besides being an excellent photographer he is also a serious fisherman. “That is my life,” he explained to me, speaking in English as his English is much, much better than my Spanish.

“When you are a fisherman -- a real fisherman -- it is for life... it is a philosophy,” he continued. The pic up top is of Carlos showing off a catch while at the PCA in the Bahamas.

I told him how my father is also a lifelong fisherman, and how knowing his dedication to it I thought I might understand what he meant. We chatted further and he explained how his background originally is in engineering and that in fact he taught for seven years. “Old people,” he said, referring to his students. “It was very nice.”

I have no doubt but that Carlos was an excellent teacher, as his ability to connect with others, and his care for others’ welfare, too, is obvious regardless of the language he employs -- English, Spanish, or the pictures he takes.

Looking forward to another day working alongside Carlos, casting for my own stories as Day 3 plays out. Check over at the PokerStars blog to see what the two of us manage to catch.