Travel Report: LAPT7 Chile, Day 2 -- Teach and Learn

Just a couple of quick notes to share from Day 2 of the Latin American Poker Tour Chile Main Event, both tourney-related.

They played down from 195 players to just 32 yesterday, and it took from noon to midnight once again for the day’s play to complete. Along the way I had a chance to chat with Ken “Teach” Aldridge, here amid a first-time visit to South America.

Some may know of “Teach” from his World Series of Poker bracelet win back in 2009 or his runner-up finish in a World Poker Tour event in 2011. He’s collected a number of other cashes and deep runs over the last five years or so, and is an easily recognizable figure thanks to the bright yellow jacket and cap he’s always sporting.

I was kind of surprised to see him here, mostly because the number of U.S. players making the trek down for LAPT events has shrunk dramatically after Black Friday. Some events only get a couple of Americans total; I believe about six played this one.

Read my interview with Aldridge to get to know him better. I especially like his perspective on what he’s doing in his early 60s traveling about playing poker. As he explains, the game has become an avenue for him to meet others and experience the world, something I can identify with greatly.

In fact, I’ll admit I can identify with even more with “Teach,” and not just his background as an educator. As it happens, he and I were born in the same North Carolina town, and he still lives not far away so we have a number of other common touchstones.

As it happened, Aldridge and David Williams both made the cash and then busted on the same hand last night, finishing 43rd and 44th, respectively.

I also enjoyed dinner last night with LAPT President David Carrion, LAPT Tournament Director Mike Ward, LAPT Poker Manager Thomas Koo, and and LAPT Event Manager Maria Paula Montero. There was shop talk about building tours and the impressions afforded by tourney turnouts, prize pools, and other factors -- all kind of fascinating to learn about and consider.

Back to the grind. Check the PokerStars blog for updates as usual.

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.