Slow Response

The ending of the United States-Portugal match was remarkable, no question, with an improbable race up the field over the last half-minute of action culminating in that crossing pass from Cristiano Ronaldo to Silvestre Varela who headed in the tying goal on what was essentially the last play of the match.

It was almost disorienting, actually, as I think the delayed reaction of U.S. fans shown afterwards seemed to attest. So tightly wound up for a stress-releasing celebration, the initial reaction was disbelief, as though the their eyes deceived them.

Then came the weird, also slow-to-occur acceptance of the result, with a draw -- itself a foreign concept to fans of the “big three” North American sports -- only adding further to that confused, unsatisfied feeling.

The game well exemplified the rapid reversal of emotions that will happen in poker when an all-in player goes from winning to losing on fifth street. The now famous clip of Carter Gill’s bust from last summer’s WSOP Main Event provides a ready example:

I had actually been thinking of this clip just yesterday after watching Frank Op de Woerd at this year’s WSOP interviewing Gill -- and bringing it up.

I had a chance to talk to Gill as well back in the spring at the LAPT Chile -- friendly, engaging guy who was happy to talk about anything, including that unfortunate hand. “I still think about that a lot, actually,” he’d said to me almost wistfully, although some significant tourney success during the intervening months -- including a victory at the LAPT Grand Final last year -- had done a lot to soften the sting.

The ending of the match was similar in that there had to be at least a 93% chance of victory for the U.S. before that final mad dash by Portugal (if not greater). Also, that seemingly-imminent victory had been unexpected -- just like David Paredes’s call of Gill’s all-in on the turn seemed like a pleasant surprise to Gill. Gill’s slowness to react and leave his seat following the unlucky river was likewise mirrored by the stunned feeling following the Portugal equalizer.

But the ending was different in a couple of ways. The result was a tie, not a loss and elimination. And while the U.S. might have outplayed Portugal prior to those final frenzied seconds, there was nothing lucky about Ronaldo’s pass, Varela’s finish, and the Americans’ slow response to both.

Still didn’t make it any easier to believe at the time.

Travel Report: LAPT7 Chile, Day 1a -- Reporting from the Rail

Some quick hit blogging here once again during the dinner break at the Latin American Poker Tour Chile Main Event.

Yesterday went well, though by night’s end I was about as tired as I could be after the travel plus having to take care of a lot of extra duties surrounding the full day of tourney work.

The Grand Ballroom in which the tournament is being held is nicely laid out, comfortable both for players and media alike. The turnout for the first of the two Day 1 flights on Wednesday ended up settling at 237 entries altogether after the re-entries ended after the dinner break.

The buy-in was upped this year from the $1,100 of a year ago (when there were 1,024 entries), to $1,700 this time (putting it more in line with other LAPT events). So the overall number entries is expected to be down a bit, and in fact there are a number of concurrent events happening this week which will likely be having an effect as well.

Still, it’s a pretty exciting time on the LAPT after having completed a successful sixth season and finding itself as popular as ever in this part of the world. The tour is growing into something starting to resemble the template set by the bigger (and senior) European Poker Tour, from the various accommodations provided to the broadening of the coverage.

Just 74 made it through the 10 one-hour levels yesterday, with the Brazilian Jefferson Melo ending the night with a little under 200,000 chips. There are more entries today (registration is still techincally open as I write), and I’d suspect tonight’s leader will have passed Melo.

I’d mentioned how Lynn Gilmartin was playing her first LAPT this week, and yesterday she battled through the dinner break only to have the misfortune of running pocket kings into pocket aces to bust (reminding me of a similar tourney experience from a while back). A highlight of the day, though, was interviewing Lynn for the PokerStars blog, which I got a kick out of and I think she did, too.

Also enjoyed talking to Carter Gill yesterday, who I mentioned before has been a hugely successful tourney run on this continent of late, including winning the LAPT6 Grand Final in Uruguay and final tabling the LAPT6 Panama event before that. Gill was friendly and humble, and while he, too, busted before the day was out he was back at it again today.

Have to sign off, but check the PokerStars blog for more scribbling and also the great pics from Carlos Monti, a.ka., the Fisherman, who snapped the one above yesterday morning.