Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Departure

Am writing this post somewhere over South America, finally winding my way back after an unplanned for extra night in Uruguay. Listening to Judee Sill’s first album, an appropriate soundtrack for looking out the window at the soft, cotton-like carpet of clouds extending into the distance. Kind of sight makes it hard to avoid lapsing into those quiet, pensive ruminations that tend to sneak up on us in such spots.

You know what I mean. The what’s-it-all-about applesauce we never have time for except in these moments when we’re neither here nor there, but somewhere in between. And free to think. Or damned to.

I say finally coming home because after a week’s worth of run good for your humble scribbler, our group encountered a hiccup on Monday that suddenly halted our progress homeward, thereby lengthening our stay.

Our colleague F-Train escaped on an earlier midday flight without incident. Meanwhile our group of five -- myself, Mickey, Will, Josh, and Lynn -- all had tickets aboard a later one departing early evening. From Montevideo to Miami we’d go, at which point we’d split into our individual paths onward, eventually to reunite in Las Vegas at the WSOP.

Those four will all be back on the floor of the Amazon Room in the Rio by week’s end. For me, I’ll have a bit of extra time until I’m due once again to climb into one of these magical metal tubes, ascend above the clouds, and eventually join back with my friends to watch and report on still more groups of people playing cards.

Monday started out quite relaxing, with a morning walk on the beach, not unlike I did the last time I was in Punta del Este and about to leave. By early afternoon Josh, Will, Mickey, and myself passed some time playing PokerStars home games for play money (natch), although we did wager a few bucks on the side.

Had one memorable hand versus Josh in which we got all of his chips in preflop with him holding pocket nines to my A-K. The A-2-2 flop appeared nearly to seal it for me, but the turn and river brought two more deuces to create an improbable chop and our little sit-n-go continued.

We would joke later that the hand was symbolic, unexpectedly prolonging our tourney much as would happen with our trip. Let me explain.

Our shuttle taking us from Punta del Este to Montevideo arrived on time, and about an hour-and-a-half later we were at the American Airlines desk checking in about three hours early. Passed the time having dinner in the terminal and playing more card games -- among them nine-card Omaha and Golf. Soon came the announcement that we’d be boarding in 15 minutes, and we all began to contemplate how we had just a couple of steps more left to go before returning stateside.

Or so we thought.

Alas, just a few minutes later came a different announcement that we’d be 20 minutes late departing. Soon that was followed by another that the delay would be two hours, the explanation accompanied by two words most air travelers don’t care much to hear -- mechanical problems.

Then, even before the announcements in both Spanish and English came, we noticed our flight listed as cancelled on the screens up above. We’d be spending another night in Uruguay, our flight having been rescheduled to noon Tuesday.

Adding an extra wrinkle of anxiety was the fact that while I’d taken a moment to chat via Skype with Vera a little while before, the man sitting next to me saw my headphone case (with my iPod inside) sitting under my chair, and for some reason decided he’d deliver it to the desk rather than see if it belonged to anyone nearby. That led to a bit of extra running around -- the case was ultimately handed off to airport security as an unattended item -- before I got it back.

Didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, although when the others chose to wait the few extra minutes with me to get my case and iPod back, we necessarily found ourselves in the back of the long line to go back through customs, get back our luggage, then get a taxi to the hotel where we’d be staying.

We’re probably talking a little after 10 p.m. when we first learned our flight was cancelled. Took until at least 11 or so to get through customs and secure our luggage. And it wasn’t until after midnight we were finally in taxis heading to the hotel where we were being sent, located nearly a half-hour from the airport and strangely named the After Hotel.

Got there about quarter ’til 1 a.m. and found ourselves in another, agonizing line as the single desk jockey needed around 10 minutes per person in order to get anyone checked in. We waited a full hour-and-a-half there, then, incredibly, at about 2:15 a.m. we were informed they were out of available rooms.

That’s right. American Airlines sent us to a hotel without ensuring there were rooms available first.

I studied that name -- “After” -- etched in the glass doors that kept automatically sliding open and closed whenever we edged too close to the electric eye. As in “After all this, you’re telling me what?”

We briefly considered just getting taxis back to the airport and waiting it out there, but before we could collectively muster the combination of surrender and resolve needed to make the move, we were told that rooms were available at the hotel across the street, less weirdly-named the Palladium.

More incidental madness ensued at that check-in before finally the night culminated with getting to sleep around 3:30, the alarm set for 7:30 a.m. so as to be able to get a shower and eat something before getting rides back to the airport. Did get to see some more of the picturesque coast on that trip back, of which I snapped a photo or three. So did Will with my phone, who I think took this one.

This time we didn’t breeze through to the terminal, but were forced to wait in line a solid two hours as AA only had a single person checking all of us non-priority people with connecting flights. Spent part of the time chatting with a neighbor in line, a friendly fellow from San Francisco who plays a little poker and was thus intrigued to hear about the tournament we’d just covered.

Among the things I told him about the event, I shared the story of that wild hand involving Angel Guillen, Vladimir Dobrovolskiy, and Leandro Rubinsztain -- the one I mentioned here a couple of days ago in which Rubinsztain flopped a straight versus Guillen’s pocket kings and Dobrovolskiy’s pocket aces, but running cards on the turn and river gave the hand to Guillen. I brought it up in the context of his having correctly noted that even though poker requires skill, players -- good and bad -- still get lucky.

As I was nodding in agreement, I thought about our situation, one in which we’d both run into some pretty bad luck. And somewhat improbably, too. I certainly hadn’t had a poker-related trip go as badly as this in terms of travel woes were concerned. Lynn said she hadn’t either, despite having flown over 200 times all over the globe. (She and the others are looking at perhaps spending yet another extra night in Miami, while I may be able to catch a late one to my final destination.)

Meanwhile, this was Josh’s very first international trip -- poker or otherwise -- and he’d been dealt a bad hand right away. That’s him on the left in line this morning,

But Josh is a good player. Despite his relative newness at the traveling reporter game, Josh sent out a wise tweet sometime around 3 a.m. noting how the ordeal was a lot easier to handle given that we were experiencing it together.

Josh hit upon it, I think, just as squarely as that fourth deuce hit on the river in our sit-n-go, surprising us as we realized we were both playing the board.

’Cos well, that is what it’s all about. I’m talking about these trips and all the rest of it, too. It’s the companionship, the joining up with fellow travelers, the bonding and camaraderie and sharing what it means to hurtle ourselves around through this life as we do. And helping each other out along the way, too, when needed.

Have reached the end of that Judee Sill album, the last track of which (“Abracadabra”) begins with the line “Here’s to the man who forgot his way home, who silently narrates the confusion of his fight.” One of many by Sill that feature characters, all based on herself no doubt, seeking some sort of clarity about existence.

Think I’ll start the album over. And look out the window a little more. And maybe try to work out some things.

Postscript: Looks like I’m getting one more night to indulge in such pondering, as my American Airlines flight from Miami home was cancelled as well. More tomorrow.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 4

Another longish day yesterday at the Mantra Resort, Spa & Casino here in Punta del Este, Uruguay as we followed the playing out of the Season 5 LAPT Punta del Este Main Event. Marcelo Fonseca and Angel Guillen began the day eighth and ninth in chips, respectively, out of the final nine, but ended up being the last two at the table, with Fonseca ultimately winning out.

There were a couple of deals -- one three-handed, then another at heads-up -- to flatten the payouts a bit at the end. Fonseca ended up taking away $144,420 for the win, with Guillen grabbing $126,240. Afterwards we all grabbed a late dinner at the buffet (forgoing the massive, meaty addendum of parilla this time around), then made it back to the home-away-from-home sometime after 1 a.m.

Got up this morning reasonably rested and looking ahead to the long day-slash-night-slash-day of travel I’m facing. I saw my partner in crime F-Train off this morning as he has an earlier flight than the rest of us. Was great fun as always trading off posts with him as we reported from the event all week over on the PokerStars blog.

As often seems to happen among groups like us who find ourselves away covering events such as those on the LAPT, we talked a lot about the nature of tournament reporting, including sharing ideas about what makes for a worthwhile record of an event that is entertaining and useful to those following as well as satisfying for those producing it.

Couldn’t help but think ahead to the summer and all the reporting that’s going to be happening from the Rio as the WSOP unfolds over the next seven-plus weeks. I mentioned before I’ll be back with PokerNews starting a little after mid-June and will be there until they reach the final nine in the Main Event four weeks after that.

Kind of incredible, really, to think about how the reporting side of things at the WSOP (and tourneys in general) has gotten more and more involved over the years, even since I first got into it all. For fans there’s no end of information about these 61 WSOP events, it seems.

Was hearing something over the past few days about how apparently dealers at this year’s WSOP will be helping track chip counts via Blackberry Playbook tablet devices at every table. Sounds like they’ll be keeping track of players, checking them in when they sit down, recording them as busted out when that occurs, and updating stacks during breaks. Here’s more about the system, about which I guess I’m kind of in believe-it-when-I-see-it mode

Speaking of counting chips, to the left is a picture of legendary chip counter Mickey Doft, taken yesterday by the great Carlos Monti. Both Mickey and Carlos are tops when it comes to paying attention to details.

Will be interesting to see how all of this stack-tracking stuff goes at the WSOP. Still think there remains a place for well presented narrative accounts of poker tournaments, whether in the form of hand reports or longer form essays summarizing highlights and/or delving deeper into interesting details or side stories along the way. But the stats geek side of me also likes the idea of discovering ways to gather still more “surface-level” or technical data about how tournaments play out, too.

Gonna save thinking on all that until later, though. Will try to rest as much as I can on the flights home, then enjoy the respite I’ll have for almost three weeks before returning to the airport again for another poker-related journey.

Talk to you again on the other side.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 3

The third day of the 2012 LAPT Punta del Este Main Event was a lengthy one -- as expected -- although not as long as we thought it could be earlier in the week. Took about nine-and-a-half levels or so to play from 76 players down to nine, which is where Tournament Director Mike Ward decided to stop things.

That means we’re technically one more elimination away from the official eight-handed final table, although all nine of the remaining players will be gathering around a single table when we begin a little while from now.

In ninth is Angel Guillen of Mexico, looking to make his second LAPT final table, the first in fact coming here in Uruguay back in 2009, right at the start of his career. In fact, I think that final table (where he finished third) came before he’d actually become a full-time pro.

Guillen was involved in what was easily the most remarkable hand yesterday by far, really the wildest of the first three days.

I mean, we’ve seen bigger hands. And no, I’m not talking about the Monumento al Ahogado. There was the one last night in which Francisco Baruffi used pocket queens to crack Juan Garcia’s pocket aces. They were 1-2 in chips at the time, got it all in before the flop, and a queen arrived on the turn. That was something close to a 1.6 million-chip pot, good enough to catapult Baruffi into the chip lead to start today.

The Guillen hand, though, was much more jawdropping.

The hand started with a min-raise from Guillen in early position, a flat-call by the Russian Vladimir Dobrovolskiy in the cutoff, and Leandro Rubinsztain of Argentina accepting the invitation to call from the big blind, too, and see a relatively cheap flop which came . The trio were all interested enough in continuing at that point to get all of Guillen and Rubinsztain's stacks in the middle, and most of Dobrovoskiy.

Guillen had . Dobrovolskiy had . And Rubinsztain ! Looked like the Argentinian was primed to crack both kings and aces in a single hand.

But the turn brought the , giving Guillen a set and hopes to fill up or make quads. Dobrovolskiy also was still alive, too, with a gutshot to Broadway.

Then came the river -- the ! Guillen had made the runner-runner full house to triple up (putting him in second at the time), Rubinsztain was out in 23rd, and Dobrovolskiy was knocked back down to about five big blinds or so. The Russian climbed back, though, and in fact has more chips than Guillen to start today's final day.

That hand happened to have been the very last one before our dinner at the buffet located across the lobby from the poker room. There we filled plates with lighter fare, then were surprisingly served a second plate of parilla, an dish of assorted cuts of beef, different kinds of sausage, and chicken. After dinner, I ended up writing a post about the big hand that also referred to our big meal titled "A lot to digest."

Would be neat if Guillen can improve his status in the early going today and perhaps stick around a while as we play down to a champion, although by now we're somewhat invested in all of the remaining players, with any of them emerging as the winner at the end likely to make for a nice story.

I know you're probably more distracted by the World Series of Poker kicking off today or WSOP fantasy drafts or the conclusion of the World Poker Tour $25K event, but if you're curious to see how things turn out down in Punta -- and how my blogging partner F-Train and I tell about it -- trip over to the PokerStars blog.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 2

Another short one yesterday here in Punta del Este, as we just played six levels again. Looks like things will pan out well enough, though, as just 76 players made it through to today.

We’ll definitely have a longer day today -- the plan sounds like 10 levels -- with an eye toward getting sorta kinda close to a final eight-handed table before night’s end so we can finish the sucker up on Sunday in decent shape.

The day went well, with a few interesting stories arising along the way, including one involving last year’s LAPT Punta del Este winner Alex Komaromi. We were tracking him, obviously, but soon became aware that his father, Pedro, was also in the event.

Drawing on the collective memory of the regular crew of international bloggers for various sites, we remembered Pedro had actually stone-cold bubbled this same event two years ago (in Season 3). That led to a kind of fun post about the pair of them titled “Padre e hijo (Father and Son).”

Alex eventually busted yesterday afternoon, but Pedro survived with a slightly below average stack of 85,600. With just 20 players to go until we reach the money, have to say I’m kind of hoping Pedro makes it that far this time.

Later in the day, well after writing up that post, we discovered that in fact Alex’ mother played in the event as well. In fact, she survived into Day 2 -- longer than Alex did -- before being eliminated. We missed that story, thanks mainly to the fact that she doesn’t have the same last name (Lina Gecelter). We met and talked to her afterwards, though, and included that part of the story with a reference in the end-of-day wrap.

Just six levels meant another relatively early night -- ending around 8 p.m. -- which was nice enough, but then we were all treated to a free meal afterwards at Zafferano, one of just two restaurants (I believe) here at the Mantra Hotel Spa & Casino.

Our crew was joined by Team PokerStars Pros Angel Guillen and Jose “Nacho” Barbero (both of whom are coming back on Day 3 to above-average stacks). Entertained the brain with lots of good conversation. And filled the belly with a tasty bowl of butternut squash soup, an especially flavorful filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake.

Signing off now as play is about to get underway. Check that PokerStars blog today and tomorrow for more poker from Punta.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 1

There’s a shot out the back of my hotel suite, the Atlantic ocean lapping up onto the shore here during the early days of a mild Uruguayan winter.

It was a relatively calm Day 1 at the tournament yesterday. Short, too, as we only played six one-hour levels.

Apparently the reason for only playing six levels -- as opposed to the usual eight or ten -- had something to do with the availability of dealers and their union not permitting them to work more than seven-hour-long shifts.

With the large field here at the start of the tourney there’s a need to spread more tables, and thus a need for more dealers. Once the field shrinks, however, they’ll be able to split up the dealers they have into early and late shifts, and so we’ll be able to play more at that point.

I believe the plan today, then, will be another six-level day, which means tomorrow’s Day 3 will probably be extra long, and Sunday’s final day may be as well. A total of 375 ended up coming out for this one, down a little from the 422 they had back in August, but still a big group. They played down to about 274 or thereabouts yesterday.

Had a chance to write some fun “color”-type posts yesterday with my blogging partner F-Train, which made the short work day even more enjoyable. My favorite of the day was one about the wild sculpture in the sand just up the road called the “Monumento al Ahogado” or the “Monument of the Drowned.” That’s the one with the four fingers and thumb coming up out of the sand (see a picture in my Tuesday post).

I managed to pull together a post about the sculpture that told the story while relating it to poker, and was able to include a couple of neat pictures as well. Reinaldo had a cool one of himself standing amid the sculpture, and our awesome photographer Carlos got me a picture of stacks of poker chips that I incorporated into the post as well.

Then the title kind of wrote itself: “Have I Got a Hand for You.”

Thanks to the short day we were able to take a cab back down to the Isidora, the waterfront restaurant we’d enjoyed during the last visit and which a couple in our group (F-Train and Josh) hadn’t been to before. I made sure to get the delicious rabas (squid rings) again.

At the end of the meal, someone mentioned playing credit card roulette for the bill, and while we decided against doing so, Mickey thought he’d see what would have happened if we had. My card was picked first, continuing that run good I’ve been having on the trip thus far, and with what seemed like utter inevitability, Mickey’s own card was last.

“Unbelievable,” he said. Which all who know Mickey will find believable.

Got back to the room in good shape and am reasonably rested for today. Am vaguely aware of other big happenings in the poker world, including the WPT Championship winding down and the WSOP about to crank up. But enjoying a little respite from that frenzy for now amid the relative calm of Punta.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Pregame

Made the short trek last night down the beachside highway from where we’re staying here on the east coast of South America to a little gathering place for the LAPT Punta del Este welcome party.

We arrived early to find a sparsely-populated scene in which attendees were then outnumbered by staff. Soon, however, the place filled with poker players and others, meaning we left a loud and festive scene a couple of hours later.

Besides enjoying some food and drink and reuniting with a lot of friendly faces with whom we’ve worked before on the tour, the night included LAPT President David Carrion and others announcing various honors for the recently completed LAPT Season 4 such as player of the year (Pablo Gonzalez), shorthand player of the year (Daniel Ospina), online qualifier of the year (Engelberth Varela), among others.

Lynn Gilmartin and Will Thomas arrived to shoot some videos with players and others. Among the interviews Lynn conducted was one with our buddy and fellow PokerStars blogger Sergio Prado, and I snapped a quick photo of Sergio delivering predictions about how the Season 5 version of LAPT Punta del Este would go.

Last August this event attracted 422 entrants. Sergio thinks we’ll probably see a similar-sized field -- perhaps even larger -- this time around. That means players will be scattered all over the Mantra Resort Spa and Casino for today’s first day of play.

Once again we’ve descended on Punta del Este during what is essentially off-season for what is really a summertime destination. Sergio was telling me last night that he was told there are around 10,000 people in the city currently, whereas on New Year’s Day (the summer time) there were like 600,000 or 700,000 (!).

We noticed last year how the roads were mostly calm and quiet when we went out. Such was the case during our walk to and from the party last night as well.

That won’t be so a few hours from now, though, once the cards go in the air and hundreds of players start the process of trading chips back and forth until just one remains. If past LAPT events are any indication, things will get a little more animated at that point.

Check out the PokerStars blog today for reports on how it all goes.

Travel Report: 2012 LAPT Punta del Este, Arrival

After a 24-hour plus journey consisting of three flights and another 70-mile trek via shuttle van from Montevideo to Punta del Este, I’ve successfully traversed the necessary 5,000 miles or so to help cover the next stop on the Latin American Poker Tour here in Uruguay.

A little bit bumpy at times along the way, but such is to be expected. Never mind traveling from one hemisphere to another, we came all the way from summer to winter, too. But I’m not complaining, as I enjoyed some especially fortunate “run good” to make each of my flights and make it here pretty much on schedule.

Met up with tourney reporter extraordinaire Mickey Doft in Miami last night, where storms all day and night had backed up everything for everybody by an hour or so. Our late departure there made it appear highly doubtful we’d make our connection in Santiago, Chile, and in fact we landed just a few minutes after our next flight was supposed to leave.

Could tell even before getting off the plan that Chile was, well, chilly. As we disembarked, we had resigned ourselves to an extra wait in Chile, and likely another long one in Montevideo, Uruguay, since we’d be late catching that scheduled van. We were told by an airline official how we’d already been rebooked for a later flight, and so in no hurry Mickey and I decided we’d try to find that Starbucks with wi-fi we’d visited during a previous visit to the Santiago airport.

As we walked and talked, we heard an announcement in Spanish in which we recognized our original flight’s number and “Montevideo” being uttered. We also heard what sounded like a gate number, one that just so happened to be coming up on the left. Intrigued, we picked up the pace a little and were amazed to see our original flight still on the screen up above, punctuated by the words “LAST CALL.”

We walked over and could see the plane below. Sure enough it was our original flight, somehow delayed more than a half and hour. Within minutes we were aboard, and not long after that were airborne once again. Uruguayward.

All of which, as I say, ended well for your humble scribbler. In fact, later on we learned that next flight -- the later one we had thought we’d be taking -- was in fact cancelled, with the next one not leaving until something six hours later. So we were even luckier than we realized to have heard that announcement and gotten on board our original flight.

Not much to share since the last post, then, beyond pictures out plane windows. Up top is on the way to Miami, in the middle approaching Chile, and this one to the left on the way to Uruguay. Temps here are actually milder than the snow-capped mountains suggest, with highs in the 60s all week.

Pre-tourney party happening in a little while, and Day 1 tomorrow. More to come.

Packing for Punta

A quick post today to relate I’m heading back to the southern hemisphere to Punta del Este, Uruguay to help report on this week’s Latin American Poker Tour event. It’s a return trip for me, as I was there last summer as well for the LAPT. The tourney runs from Thursday through Sunday, so if you head over to the PokerStars blog later this week, you’ll see F-Train and I doing our best to share what’s happening from the event.

By the time I return, the 2012 World Series of Poker will have already gotten underway. The first event, the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event (Event No. 1), kicks off on Sunday, May 27. On Monday comes the first open event, a three-day $1,500 no-limit hold’em tourney (Event No. 2). Then on Tuesday two more events get going, and the sucker gets rolling for real all of the way through to early July and the Main Event (Event No. 61).

I will be heading back to Vegas once again this summer to help PokerNews with their coverage of the WSOP. Gonna do similar to last year and go out a few weeks in, arriving a little after mid-June. Will be the fifth year for me at the Series, which seems hard to fathom.

Am looking forward to this short trip, which ought to serve as a fun warm-up for the more intense scene I’ll be reporting from in Vegas come June. Will be good to experience a little live poker, too -- if only as an observer -- after having spent so many hours of late watching the online guys pushing chips back and forth.

Anyhow, there are bags to pack and other matters to which to attend, so I’m signing off. Expect I’ll try again to submit a few travel reports, if I can, from the coastal city of Punta del Este, where I know for sure I’ll be seeing at least one big hand.

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Departure

That’s one of the last pictures I took while in Uruguay. From the back of the shuttle, somewhere between Punte del Este and Montevideo. Not bad, considering we were hurtling forward at more than 100 km per on a bumpy highway.

We had an early check-out yesterday, but weren’t leaving until later in the afternoon. Meaning we were pretty much stranded in the hotel lobby for several hours waiting for our shuttle to Montevideo. That gave us the time to hang out some more with our friend Luke (of Australia) whom we envied as we watched him grind a bit on PartyPoker.

This was my first trip out of the U.S. for a tourney since going to LAPT Lima back in April, the one I took with Dr. Pauly during which Black Friday surprisingly smacked us all. I’m realizing now how for every subsequent trip abroad a hard-to-ignore theme is necessarily going to be America’s (essential) non-involvement in the online poker scene. At least in the near term.

Watching Luke play, I was inspired to dial up Hero Poker where I have my small roll and I goofed around with some nickel-dime PLO while we waited. Hardly the stakes for which Luke plays, of course. But that wasn’t the only thing different about our games.

I’ve mentioned here before how even for a recreational player like myself the whole concept of online poker has suddenly become something entirely different from what it was prior to April 15. More theory than practice, now, if that makes sense. Something we Americans are aware of as an idea, but don’t do anymore. Not really.

Our shuttle finally arrived and a couple of hours later we were checking in at the Carrasco International Airport, shaped like a huge clam shell suddenly opening up there amid the Montevideo countryside. A couple more hours’ wait there and we were off to Miami.

Drew an especially good seat for this one, having the next-to-last row all to myself. There was a group of eight- or nine-year old boys in the row ahead of me, which looked for a moment early on like it could spell trouble. But they didn’t make too much noise, especially after the first half-hour or so. In fact, one of them helped provide an especially funny moment early on, just before dinner was served.

A flight attendant was standing by my aisle when the boy jumped from his seat and stood before the uniformed man. He had a question for him.

“Where’s the bathroom?” he asked.

The attendant responded without expression. “There are no bathrooms on this airplane,” he said. The kid’s jaw dropped. “Really?!” The attendant raised his hand. “Hang on,” he said, and turned around, reached back behind him, then faced the youngster once more.

I couldn’t help but grin as I saw the attendant hand the boy a plastic cup.

“Wha...?” the boy began, and finally the attendant gave him the straight dope. “Just kidding... it’s right here,” he said, pointing to the restroom located just behind us.

Having the extra seats meant I was able to stretch out and sleep pretty much without interruption from dinner to breakfast, about five-and-a-half hours. Felt kind of luxurious after a week of not-always-so-comfy accommodations. We all went our separate ways in Miami, and I made it back home to Vera in decent time and relatively decent shape.

As happened with that Lima trip, it feels like I’ve returned to an America that’s changed more than a little since I’d left, what with the stock market’s dramatic nosedive yesterday dominating the headlines today. Lots of poker news happening, too, of course, including another cheating drama (that “Girah” story), more Full Tilt Poker machinations, and the Epic Poker League kicking off their first Main Event about an hour from now. Oh, and there’s decent some poker on the teevee tonight, too, with that $50K Poker Player’s Championship finale airing.

So much going on, it seems, even when not playing online. Stuff just flies by. Hardly time to stop and take a photo.

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Pregame
Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Arrival
Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 1
Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 2
Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 3
Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 4

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 4

We’re done in Punta. The last hand has been dealt, and now we wait to begin the long return trip home. Mine begins later this afternoon with a shuttle back to Montevideo to catch a redeye back to Miami. One more flight after that, and I’ll be home mid-morning tomorrow.

The poker went quickly yesterday, with the final table done in less than five hours. There was a decent crowd on hand to watch. Not as big as what I’d seen in Lima, but every player had a cheering section, and there were some chants and shouts that made the scene somewhat festive.

The most memorable moment of the entire day came early on when the Brazilian Nelson Neto doubled up, then amid his celebrating put on a ski mask (!) and ran down into the crowd. He shared a hug with his supporters, ran back up on the stage to his seat, then sat with the mask on for another moment or two before taking it off. (For pictures by our great photographer, Carlos, scroll to the bottom of our post from yesterday on the PokerStars blog.) He ended up going out in sixth, playing only another hour or so, and so we didn’t see the mask again.

The Uruguayan, Alex Komaromi, won. He entered the final table with a big chip lead, stayed in front until heads-up when he lost the lead briefly, then scored a big double-up and knockout to take the trophy and nearly quarter million U.S. dollars for first.

Soon after we’d wrapped up our work we rode up the coastal highway a few miles to have a nice dinner at a restaurant called Isidora. Was good to break out of the small circle we’d been running in from our hotel to the Mantra and back and at least see a little bit of Uruguay. Along the way we stopped at Garry’s hotel, the Yoo, and rode up to his room on the 19th floor and looked off the balcony into the Punta del Este night.

Dinner was great. Lots of laughs, and good eats as well, including some especially good squid rings for an appetizer and a seafood dish including fish, prawns, and scallops for my main dish.

We drove back around 11 p.m., having the main highway that runs along the beach largely to ourselves. Indeed, all of Punta del Este -- at least what we saw of it -- was like a ghost town this week, it being the winter and thus largely bereft of tourists and others enjoying the beaches.

On the way back we passed part of the beach called “La playa de los Dedos,” a.k.a. “Finger Beach.” There one finds these big sculptured fingers and a thumb sticking up out of the sand. We swung the car over, scampered up the sandy hill, and snapped a few photos. I took this one of Brad, which he tweeted later. “Sorry, I can’t talk,” he said. “I’m in a hand.”

Might’ve made a long night of it with card playing and further carousing, but I ended up hitting the sack around midnight, resting up as well as I could for today’s long day of waiting-slash-traveling. Woke this morning and as I’ve done each morning while here had breakfast with a new friend, a player named Luke from Australia who’d qualified for the tourney online.

Luke actually won his seat to the event over three years ago, but only now was able to fit it in his schedule to come play. He didn’t cash in the main or the one side event he also played, but I think he did quite well playing blackjack in the casino. Not a lot going on there at the Mantra, really, though again it is the middle of winter here. I understand things pick up big time from December through March.

Has been a good week, made especially so once again by the company and colleagues with whom I get to work on these things. Is fun to travel sometimes and I do feel lucky to have had the chance to see places I never would’ve otherwise if not for these poker writing gigs. Wouldn’t be worth it, though, if it weren’t for folks like Brad, Reinaldo, Sergio, Carlos, Donnie, Mickey, Will, Lynn, the LAPT staff, and other people who help make the trips not just manageable but a lot of fun, too.

Still, as always, I’m now especially looking forward to getting back home. After breakfast this morning I went for a short windy walk on the beach, touching the water just to say I had. Not a soul in sight, which kind of added to the lonely vibe.

I watched the waves crash for a few minutes more, then walked back to the hotel. Soon the journey from winter back to summer will begin.

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 3

“They play differently here.”

That’s what Mickey Doft said to me after we watched yet another preflop all-in confrontation occur yesterday, this one involving a player with an average stack four-bet shoving with pocket sixes and getting called by one of the big stacks who held A-5-offsuit. The sixes held, and the big stack lost half of his chips.

Mickey was alluding to a willingness to gamble that those who spend a lot of time around the Latin American Poker Tour have grown accustomed to seeing.

Perhaps in part because of that readiness to take risks, yesterday went quite quickly, with the 27 players who returned getting whittled down to eight in about seven hours’ time. Alex Komaromi -- the lone remaining player from Uruguay -- will start today’s final table way out in front with something like a third of the chips in play.

Probably the most interesting story from yesterday involved Dr. Max Stern, the septuagenarian from Costa Rica with three WSOP bracelets who ended up finishing 21st. As it happened, Stern and his wife, Maria, were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary yesterday, so his busting by the late afternoon meant they would be able to enjoy a nice dinner together to mark the occasion.

I don’t think Maria minded her husband playing on their special day, though. In fact, she herself is an accomplished poker player, one of the few women to win a WSOP bracelet in an open WSOP event (1997, $1,500 seven-card stud).

All done and ready for dinner, our group headed back over to one of the two restaurants there in the Mantra Resort and Casino, necessarily a return visit as we’d already exhausted both options during the first two days of play. We arrived at 7:30-ish, but were told they didn’t begin serving the dinner menu until 8:30.

They eat differently here, too. So we left, loitered around a bit, then returned at the assigned time.

Our group consisted of Mickey and Donnie Peters (from PokerNews), Sergio Prado (from PokerStarsblog.la/br), Garry (Acting LAPT Media Coordinator), and Brad and myself (here writing for the PokerStars blog). We had fun reliving Garry’s deep run in the WSOP Main Event this summer. He made it all of the way to the end of Day 5, finishing 173rd for a nifty $47,107.

Garry also had a full day at Phil Hellmuth’s table (on Day 3), much of which was captured by the ESPN cameras. The pair had a number of memorable exchanges, and there’s little doubt their battling -- both verbal and poker-wise -- will be part of the story ESPN tells when they repackage things and air it a few weeks from now.

Garry told of one hand in particular versus Hellmuth. The pair had made it to the turn at which point Garry -- knowing of Hellmuth’s unwillingness to call off his chips in a tournament, no matter how small his stack -- put him to the test with an all-in shove despite only having a drawing hand himself.

Hellmuth reacted with extreme displeasure at the bet, eventually folding and then spending the next couple of minutes crazily berating Garry. That led us to recall other entertaining tirades from the Poker Brat we’d witnessed over the years, with Mickey eventually calling up some old PokerNews posts Change100 and I had written from 2008 reporting examples of classic Hellmuthian bluster. (Here’s one, chronicled here in a HBP post called “Laughs and Lightning Bolts.”)

Wonder how Hellmuth would do at a tournament like this one, where everyone -- it seems -- is so much more willing to gamble than he.

Just a theoretical exercise, of course. In fact, looking back at the list of 422 entrants for this tournament, there was exactly one U.S. player in the entire field, a fellow named Sean Nolan. I realize there would probably have been only a handful of Americans here prior to Black Friday, but still... just one!

That’s the way it is in the U.S. right now. Will be a long time before online poker provides American players the chance to win their way to seeing other parts of the world.

I guess we play differently in America, too.

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 2

“Una mano mas!”

So came the call -- again and again and again -- as hand-for-hand play continued on the money bubble of the LAPT Punta del Este main event last night.

We heard the line so many times it was becoming a punch line to various, nonsensical jokes and exchanges. Someone even fed the line into Songify on his iPhone, literally turning it into a funky refrain.

There were 57 players left, meaning the next to go would be the last not to cash. After a wild, fast-paced afternoon and early evening that saw about 130 players go out during the six hours played before the dinner break, the tourney had essentially ground to a halt.

I was talking yesterday about running around in circles. As tourneys progress and fields shrink, the circles around which we perambulate become smaller and smaller. By the time of last night’s bubble, just eight tables remained. (At some point during Day 2s of these LAPT events they switch to eight-handed.) Around and around we would go, eventually pausing before the last table to complete its hand. And with no elimination, we’d spiral back out and then back in. Again.

Dizzying, it was. And as the bubble period wore on, we had more time to think about the incredible hand in which it began, the one that saw Roman Suarez go out in 58th.

In that one, Suarez and Erik von Buxhoeveden had bet back and forth to the river at which point the board read . There was about 140,000 in the middle, and Suarez pushed his last 70,000 forward in a last-ditched attempt to claim the pot. Von Buxhoeveden had only thought a short while before calling the bet, turning over... ! And he was right! Suarez had , his pair of eights having been counterfeited on the end.

The next hour-and-a-half was punctuated by a handful of short-stacked survivals and gradually increasing amazement at how long the bubble was enduring. “Can I press fast-forward?” said one member of the media. “To, like, an hour from now?” he added.

And the call came again... one more hand.

Finally a player who was down to a single yellow (1,000) chip couldn’t win with his pocket deuces and the bubble burst. From there they played down to 27 players before they stopped some time after midnight.

They’ll start up again today at noon and play down to the final eight-handed table before concluding. We’re hopeful for a shorter day, and perhaps a chance to relax a bit afterwards before coming back on Sunday.

The trip has been pretty much wholly occupied by the tourney thus far, but I think we have some time on Monday before flying home perhaps to see a little more of Punta del Este. Whatever happens, I do plan to break out of these little circles and take a walk on that beach we’re facing.

The days are long, for sure. And more than a little repetitive at times. But again I’m working with a bunch of cool cats who are helping make the days not just endurable but fun, too.

They’re creative, too. I mean they can make a song of anything, these guys.

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Punta del Este, Day 1

Was a relatively smooth day, reporting-wise, at LAPT Punta del Este yesterday. A day of running around.

The event attracted 422 players. Or “runners,” as they say. Well above what many were predicting based on the 307 who came the last time the tour stopped at this east coast city.

That big field meant we were racing all over the Mantra casino, covering the main poker room and an additional room downstairs, plus two more rooms full of players on an upper level. So up the stairs we went. And back down. And back up again. And back down again.

As it happened, all of the PokerStars team pros busted out by the end of the day, meaning that over on the PokerStars blog we’ll be refocusing our attention on everyone else going forward. Which is just fine, as a few personalities have already started to emerge among the 188 who made it to today’s Day 2, and other stories will surely come up as play continues today.

I say the reporting went well yesterday, although I will add that as the day wore on our attentions began to be affected somewhat by a simple, basic human need -- hunger.

I mentioned yesterday how we find ourselves without many options nearby, our hotel located on a mostly desolate highway running alongside the beach. Our hotel did provide a nominal breakfast (bread and coffee), but we’d had no lunch when play began. We then pushed through all eight levels without a dinner break, and without any drinks or snacks to sustain us we were friggin’ famished by the time all the day’s loose ends were tied.

The Mantra casino has but two restaurants, and so sometime after 10 p.m. a group of us landed at one of them for what turned out to be a very good, leisurely-paced meal. Salad, steak, and cheesecake for your humble scribbler, all delish. On the expensive side -- as most everything is here -- but actually fairly priced given the quality of the eats.

The meal took something like two-and-a-half hours, which pushed us past midnight. A shuttle back to our hotel was supposed to run until 1 a.m., so we weren’t too concerned. However, after we got to the lobby and waited a half-hour, it was obvious no shuttle was coming for us, so we ended up cabbing it back.

At one point while we were waiting for the non-existant shuttle, Mickey got a laugh from me by ducking into the revolving door to exit, taking a tiny lap, then walking back inside.

“How metaphorical,” I said to Mickey upon his reentry.

It was a lot of running around yesterday. And most of it in circles. And we find ourselves this morning back where we started. The dealers have arrived and are preparing for the day’s play.

Soon we’ll be watching hands again, following the action go around the tables. And around and around.

Fun circles in which to be traveling, though.