Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Departure -- One Last Hand

I’ve noted here before how very often these tournament reporting trips don’t leave a heck of a lot of time and/or mental energy for much beyond actually reporting on the tournaments.

With each of the places I’ve gotten a chance to go to over the years, I’ve been successful in getting at least some time away to experience the locations a little and do some genuine sightseeing at least -- on some occasions more than others. The trip to Dublin earlier this year, for example, was one where thanks to a little help from my friends I got out multiple times and felt like I’d gained a lot of from the experience.

The players who travel to these things face the same challenge to get out of the poker room and/or casino and see these places they’re visiting. It’s hard to do for a variety of reasons, but definitely worthwhile.

During this trip to Punta del Este I was kept busy with the tournament as usual, but as it happened I had a lot else to take care of on the side, which meant I pretty much didn’t get outside for the duration. But we ended early Tuesday night, and with the shuttle back to Montevideo not leaving until late afternoon on Wednesday, that gave my partner Will and I a chance to put in a few miles walking about and enjoying a nice, cool, clear day filled with a lot of great views.

Punte del Este is way down on the southern tip of Uruguay, a small peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic. We stayed in the Conrad located on the west side of the peninsula, the one referred to as the “Mansa” side which means “tame” (as I was talking about a couple of days ago). A short walk across the peninsula to the other side takes you to the “Brava” side, meaning “fierce.”

Indeed, we had a great view of the ocean from the hotel, and as I was describing before it really was more like a bay than an ocean, the waters being mostly still. Meanwhile on the other side was a real beach with rough waves crashing on the sand and rocks.

We walked across the peninsula earlier today, stopping of course to take several pictures of the highlight of Brava Beach, the great sculpture called La Mano de Punta del Este created in the early 1980s by the Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal -- a.k.a., “The Hand.”

I’ve written about this sculpture here before on an earlier trip. Irarrázabal very deliberately chose the “Brava” side for it, as part of its symbolism has to do with warning swimmers with the image looking like a last wave before drowning. (Recalls a certain Stevie Smith poem, that.) Such a warning is apt given the rough waves on that side, and would be much less so over on the calm Mansa side.

My last trips to Uruguay were in 2011 and 2012, and it was during the first year I visited “The Hand” with Brad Willis, though at dusk when the picture-taking conditions weren’t ideal. This time Will and I got there just after noon and took turns snapping shots of each other standing around the unique work. (I say unique, but I believe Irarrázabal would later create similar versions of it in Spain and a couple of other places.) Click that pic above to see a bigger version of it.

From there Will and I walked down the Brava side to the marina and enjoyed a delicious outdoor lunch at the water-facing Restaurant Artico before circling back for our ride. All in all a nice, relaxing way to round out the trip.

It was great just to slow down and look around, even if only for a few hours before waving goodbye.

Long night of travel ahead. More from back on the farm.

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Day 4 -- A Final Final Table

A quick one here before readying for tomorrow’s travel day.

The tournament wound up in short order, with the final table lasting about seven hours -- about average for these Latin American Poker Tour Main Events, if not a little longer. Pedro Claus of Argentina ended up taking it down, leading for most of the way and only slipping out of first position briefly on a couple of occasions for a few hands.

Probably the most interesting moment came when they were down to three players -- Claus, another Argentinian Manuel Vuotto, and Fernando Araujo from Brazil -- and the trio stopped the tournament to make a deal.

Araujo had a decent-sized chip lead, although the blinds and antes were high enough to make it less meaningful, relatively speaking. In any event, the players instantly chose to chop up most of the remaining prize pool evenly ($70K apiece), leaving a little over $20K on the side for the winner. Had to have been about the smoothest and simplest deal discussion I’ve ever witnessed, aside perhaps from a few heads-up ones that went similarly.

As I try to think of interesting hands from the final table, I realize I skipped over mentioning one from Day 3 with 11 left when a Julio Alberto Grimau was all in on the flop with ace-high versus Araujo’s top pair of queens.

The turn then brought another queen, giving Araujo trips and meaning Grimau was drawing dead. But weirdly a small heart on the river -- the third on the board -- sent Grimau into a brief celebration. He was shouting and walking away from the table as though he’d won the hand, but everyone at the table was beckoning him back to show him that Araujo had in fact won.

Alas for Grimau, he looked at his cards again and to his dismay realized he didn’t have two hearts in his hand, but only one. In fact looking back through the action, he had shoved the flop thinking he had a flush draw when in fact he didn’t, so it was sort of half-humorous, half-painful to see him go out that way.

No such egregious mistakes today, as far as I was able to see. And Claus was a deserving winner, doing well to use his big stack to pressure the others and increase his chances of winning start-to-finish. Check the PokerStars blog for all the final table updates and more.

I guess that was my “last” LAPT final table, as I won’t be going to Brazil later this year. I expect to be back to some of these same stops in the future though, even if they won’t be called LAPTs starting next year.

We were able to enjoy one last good meal at the Conrad -- yet another steak for your humble meat-eater -- before hitting the sack. As I mentioned before, gonna do a little wandering around the peninsula mañana before the evening flight. Will tell you about it all afterwards.

Photo: courtesy Carlos Monti / PokerStars blog.

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Day 3 -- Mansa & Brava

I’m writing from Uruguay, which is located way, way down on the southeastern coast of South America, on the Atlantic side.

We’re in Punta del Este, the small resort city with a population of somewhere around 20,000 where the Latin American Poker Tour Uruguay festival is playing out at the Conrad Punte del Este Resort & Casino. The city is itself located on the southern coast of the country, comprising some of the inland area and a little peninsula that juts out into the water.

The Conrad (where we’re staying) is located on the west side of the peninsula, on what is called Playa Mansa (or Mansa Beach). Not far from the coast is a small, oblong-shaped land mass called Gorriti island covered over with greenery. Between the coast and the island is what is essentially a still, calm bay with little or no waves, and the sand on the beach is thick and yellowish.

Meanwhile the east side of the peninsula is Playa Brava (or Brava Beach), which is directly exposed to the Atlantic (i.e., without an island out there blocking the water). Thus the waves are a lot more evident crashing along the shoreline made up of finer, whitish sand and lots of rocks and shells.

Mansa means “tame” while Brava means “fierce,” words that describe the character of the water on either side. In between them is the Puerto de Punta del Este where lots of boats of varying sizes dock with a few restaurants, a yacht club, and other things to see. It’s one of the bigger ports around on this part of the continent.

Hoping on the day we leave to go explore all of this a little, including the great sculpture on the Brava side of the giant hand sticking up out of the sand, La Mano de Punta del Este, which anyone who comes to Punta del Este typically remembers as a distincitive feature of the place.

Sitting in between the “Mansa” and the “Brava” reminds me a little of what it’s often like at the poker table when caught between an aggressive and a passive player. You’d like for the more brava one to be on your right, meaning you have position on that player most of the time. Then again, it’s sometimes frustrating having a mansa or passive player on your left who seems to stick around with calls every time you try to bet or raise.

You have to adjust, whatever the seating assignments happen to be. Kind of like here in Punta you can just walk over from one beach to the other, should you prefer either the tame waters or the fierce waves.

Today it was the Argentinian Pedro Claus proving most successful at negotiating his way through Day 3, and he’ll carry the chip lead to the eight-handed final table tomorrow. Six of the eight are from Argentina, not too surprising given how 25 of the final 32 were from the neighboring country. The other two are from Brazil, the other country bordering Uruguay.

Neither Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez (who finished 29th) nor two-time LAPT winner Mario Lopez (who finished 14th) were able to make it to the final table island without crashing first.

Play gets going at 12 noon. Sail over to the PokerStars blog to find out which man wins the last mano.

Image: Google maps.

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Day 2 -- Summit of the Americas

Was reading a little today and happened across a reference to Lyndon B. Johnson having come right here to Punta del Este, Uruguay back in 1967 for a summit meeting with around 20 different Latin American heads of state.

Other U.S. presidents have come to Uruguay, although the others all primarily stayed in Montevideo for their visits. Franklin D. Roosevelt came to meet with the Uruguayan president in 1936; Dwight D. Eisenhower did the same in 1960 near the end of his tenure. Both of the Bushes came to Montevideo, too, although after a little searching around it looks like George H.W. did stop by Punta del Este briefly as well (in late 1990). In fact, Reinaldo is telling me George H.W. Bush either once had a home in Punta del Este or maybe still does.

LBJ’s visit here in April 1967 was by far the most significant one by a U.S. president. It lasted for three days and was called the “Summit of the Americas,” and from it resulted a detailed declaration signed by all of the presidents who attended detailing intentions regarding economic integration, industrial development, multinational action for infrastructure projects, measures to improve international trade, improvements to education and “modernization” of all nations, and reduction of military expenditures.

Here’s an interesting article from 1994 from the Los Angeles Times looking back on that ’67 summit and contrasting it with an upcoming one in Miami involving President Bill Clinton and other Latin American heads of state. The point is made how back in the late 1960s some of those at the Punta del Este summit were dictators (unlike in ’94). And, of course, the Cold War was still raging, with Castro and communist Cuba representing a constant threat to the rest of Latin America (from the perspective of the U.S.).

At the summit Johnson was very insistent that absolutely everything said by anyone be taken down and transcripts made available to all -- an indicator of the historic nature of meeting. Sounds like LBJ got along with pretty much everyone, save the president of Ecuador who was a little too conspicuous with his criticism of the U.S. for the Texan’s tastes.

I might be tempted to draw some sort of an analogy between an international summit and a Latin American Poker Tour Main Event such as the one here in Punta del Este I’m helping cover. After all, players from 16 different countries are making up the 438-entry field, and they’re also doing a lot of “negotiating” you could say, as they try to get what they want from each other.

Of course, no one here can win unless everyone else loses, so it’s not like these negotiations are aimed at producing some sort of harmony going forward. And there’s not a single U.S. player in the field, so that also might make the comparison seem less persuasive.

All but a handful of the players are from the “Americas,” though. More than half of entries (237) were made by Argentinians, and in fact there are still 25 players from Argentina left among the 32 who made it to tomorrow’s Day 3, with one of them -- two-time champion Mario Lopez -- enjoying the overnight chip lead.

We’ll see how things go for him and everyone else tomorrow as Day 3 of this poker summit continues. Go to the PokerStars blog where we’re not necessarily taking down everything said and done by everyone, but enough of it to create an adequate historical record for future researchers.

Photo: “Meeting of American Chiefs of State,” LBJ Library photo archive (public domain).

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Day 1b -- Going for Three

The second and last Day 1 flight for the $1,500 buy-in Latin American Poker Tour Uruguay Main Event was bigger -- no surprise there -- with the ultimate number being 438 entries, making a prize pool of $571,590 with $110,870 up top (barring a final table deal).

I mentioned how the event is a re-entry, and today it was Oscar Alache busting just prior to the dinner break (after which late registration concluded and the re-entry option ended), then he bought in again and in just four levels spun up a tournament leading stack heading into Sunday’s Day 2. Both he and Nacho Barbero made it through today on what was each player’s third entry in this sucker (both entered once on Day 1a, then twice on Day 1b).

Alache, of course, has won two LAPT titles before, as has Mario Lopez who’ll return to a top five stack and Barbero (who is sitting just outside the top 20 with 155 players left. Only Fabian Ortiz is missing from the two-time champs club, as he didn’t make the trip this time. No player has ever won three.

I suppose these references to all-time records during the nine seasons’ worth of LAPTs will be set aside starting next year, although we’ll probably find a way to keep bringing back what has become a fairly invovled history of events in the various LAPT stops.

And from what I’m gathering, they’ll probably be going to back to all of the current ones next year, mostly as “PokerStars Festivals” with the one in Panama being a “PokerStars Championship.” In other words, while the LAPT may technically be ending this year, the “tour” of Central and South American stops will continue as usual, only as part of the larger global tours.

It strikes me that the players who typically populate the fields in these events in places like Chile, Uruguay, Panama, and Brazil (and Peru, Argentina, and a few other places in the past) are all still likely going to come to the newly-branded series when they come around. (Truly, if you step back and take a look, when the LAPTs come around they fit into ongoing, year-round tournaments being offered at all of these stops, anyway.) And if the new “Championships” and “Festivals” work to draw a few more players from North America, Europe, and elsewhere, so much the better.

More mañana. Check that PokerStars blog to see if any of these two-timers really get close to making it tres.

Photo: courtesy Carlos Monti / PokerStars blog.

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Day 1a -- Getting to the Meat of It

The first of two Day 1 flights is in the books here in Punta del Este at the LAPT9 Uruguay Main Event.

It was a standard noon-to-midnight day of reporting, with the prep and loose-end-tying adding up to a typical 13-hour day of work. We were able to work in meals along the way, including a dinner where along with Sergio, Reinaldo, and Will we made quads with our orders of steaks.

I tweeted out the picture above, captioning it “Meat and Greet” thanks to the four of us having all ordered the same entrees.

As far as the tournament is going, that word “entrees” always seems to threaten to rise up and make for a humorous typo whenever I’m aiming for the word “entries.” As in, there were a total of 176 entrees on Day 1a, which would make sense if catering some sort of huge get-together, but would be strangly surreal at a poker tournament.

Make that 176 entries, counting some folks buying in twice, a few three-timers, and at least one who fired four times. The tournament has a $1,500 buy-in -- half what it was last year -- which encourages the re-entering for many. Of that starting group, 59 made it through to Sunday's Day 2, with Fabian De La Fuente leading and his fellow Argentinian and two-time LAPT winner Mario Lopez with a big stack as well.

Should be a bit more than that tomorrow, when we’ll see how big this last LAPT Uruguay Main Event turns out to be. And after that get to the money (on Day 2) and the “meat of it” heading towards Tuesday’s final table. Head over to the PokerStars blog to see how it goes.

Travel Report: LAPT9 Uruguay, Arrival -- Hemispheres

Hello from Uruguay!

My flights down to Montevideo were fine. No movies for the super long one from Miami, I’m afraid. Just the words “Fasten Seat Belt While Seated” stitched on the back of the seat in front of me to look at the whole nine-plus hours we were on there.

My neighbor removing his shoes (and -- horror -- not wearing socks) before we even backed out of the gate didn’t necessarily help improve the situation much. But all in all, it could have been worse.

Actually shared that flight down with my blogging partner for the week, Will, so the two of us had fun catching up during the long shuttle to Punta del Este. Had to wait a little while before rooms opened up, but it wasn’t too bad. By the time of unpacking I was around 20 hours or so removed from having loaded up my suitcase back on the farm.

Always marvel a little at how it is possible to traverse the globe this way, traveling from the middle of the northern hemisphere down deep into the southern hemisphere -- like 5,200 miles, as I was calculating yesterday -- in less than a day. Probably challenges these two cerebral hemispheres knockin’ around in my noggin more than it should.

Then later we met up with Sergio for what turned out to be a delicious dinner at Las Brisas, one of the restaurants in the Conrad Hotel & Casino (shown above) which will be our home away from home for the next several days.

Capped the day off with some NFL football at the large, comfortable hotel lobby bar, and with the Patriots’ win over Houston I managed to nudge into an early lead in the Pigskin Pick’em pool, making for a nice conclusion to the long day.

On the drive in and during the short bit of walking around I did today, I found it hard even to remember having been here before. It has been three years and I’m staying in a different part of the city, so that’s part of the reason. Also the Conrad is a big contrast (a good one) from the earlier digs, and so the whole feel has changed in part because of that, too.

Gonna hit the hay now and try to recuperate a few of those lost hours of sleep from the flight before the tournament gets going tomorrow.

Photo: courtesy Carlos Monti / PokerStars blog.

Long Yardage Down to Punta

Hastily sharing a message here from the Miami airport, having flown down this evening on my way to Punta del Este where I’ll be helping cover the Latin American Poker Tour Uruguay stop that runs from Friday through next Tuesday.

This’ll be my third trip to Punta del Este, if I’m counting correctly, although it’s been a while since I’ve made the lengthy voyage all of the way down to the southeast coast of South America. I’ll fly to Montevideo, then it’ll be another couple of hours or so via shuttle to get to my ultimate destination.

Ultimately I’ll be traveling something like 5,200 miles from the farm to get where I’m going. That’s more than nine million yards.

I’m looking forward to this one, thinking a little about how it will technically mark the last LAPT festival, at least in terms of the full-fledged, dozen or so tournaments they usually run at each stop. There will still be one more event with the LAPT name attached to it -- the Grand Final in São Paulo -- which won’t be an entire series but just one cross-listed event (the BSOP Millions High Roller, I believe).

That said, this really isn’t the “last” anything as far as these PokerStars tournaments in Central and South America are concerned, as they’ll continue going to just about all the stops they are currently, making each of them into a “PokerStars Festival” and at least one -- Panama -- a larger “PokerStars Championship,” starting next year.

Won’t have a lot of time during the upcoming tournament to run around that much (or write here, I’m guessing, although I’ll try nonetheless to keep checking in). I do have a day at the end where I don’t fly back until the evening, though, and so anticipate getting to sightsee a bit on that day for sure. It’s a pretty place with especially good eats, as I recall, and fun to explore even during the offseason (which is where we are at present).

More soon. Talk again from the other hemisphere.

Image: “Port of Punta del Este,” Daniel Stonek. CC BY 3.0.