Travel Report: LAPT7 Chile, Day 1b -- Chile Dogs

Once a tournament gets underway and the successive days begin to play out, a routine develops for those reporting on it whereby all is generally divided into work or not-work. And for me the not-work also gets taken up with some work, too, sometimes, which kind of closes the window of opportunity for sightseeing or other extracurriculars even more.

Yesterday’s second and final Day 1 flight at the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event in Viña del Mar, Chile followed the pattern of the first with 10 one-hour levels making for a noon-to-midnight workday. There was a bigger field as expected, and in the end 609 total entries which is actually a nice-sized turnout with the upped buy-in from last year.

On the reporting side of things, a highlight was chatting with David Williams about his decision to make his first LAPT trip among other topics. We talked a little about the 10-year anniversary of his runner-up finish in the WSOP Main Event in 2004, too, and he expressed some amazement that a decade has already past.

Kind of amazed at that myself, thinking how it didn’t seem that long ago that I watched along with everyone else that year’s episodes on ESPN along with the comprehensive coverage of all the preliminary events, too, that ESPN tried that year.

Williams made it through the day with an above-average stack, as did a few other notables here on the LAPT. 195 return to start play on Day 2 which will no doubt be another long one as the plan is to play all of the way down to 32. The final table comes Sunday.

Walking back late last night with Sergio, I couldn’t help but chuckle at all of the dogs hanging out on the street sidewalks. They are everywhere, with most seeming to be without owners. I snapped that photo up above on the way in one day, a group of them hanging out as though chatting about the weather.

Gotta cut it short again as it’s been hard day’s night and I’ve been working like a dog. Go sniff around at the PokerStars blog if you’re curious to read more about what’s happening in Chile, and follow the links to watch the live stream, too.