Tournament Poker for Advanced Anglers

Over the weekend I had two different instances of people alerting me to references online to poker-related pieces I’d written, both of which had popped up in non-poker contexts.

That in and of itself was interesting -- both for vanity’s sake (who doesn’t find references to themselves noteworthy?) and because I’m always intrigued by talk of poker outside of our relatively cloistered community. But there was one other reason why the references intrigued me even further.

On Saturday Eric Ramsey let me know over Twitter that I’d been referenced on a fishing site, of all places, something called Advanced Angler. A short post discussing the rise of competitive fishing over recent years brings up poker as a parallel example, and the unnamed author makes reference to a Betfair poker post I’d written sharing what for us is common knowledge regarding the invention of the hole card camera.

Then yesterday Vera and I went out to dinner with another couple and the fellow told me he’d run across a reference to me appearing on what I believe is a somewhat popular physics blog called Preposterous Universe written by Sean Carroll, a physicist at Caltech.

The post -- “Poker is a Game of Skill” -- was written last fall and swiftly makes the case for the game’s skill component while referencing a sketchy academic study appearing in the Journal of Gambling Studies the year before. I’d written about the study here (pointing out its poor methodology), and Carroll had linked me up as he discussed it.

Like I say, who among us isn’t intrigued by others talking about us? And as I mention above, there’s always something to learn about poker when people who aren’t immersed in our subculture discuss it.

Sure, the non-poker people will make mistakes sometimes when discussing our favorite game, but in some cases they see things more clearly than we do, I think. For example, the Advanced Angler piece reiterates the importance of hole card cameras to those casually acquainted with poker (something we take for granted sometimes), and Carroll’s utter rejection of the idea that poker does not involve skill is refreshing in its clear-headedness.

But there’s another reason why I found these two references in particular interesting. I’ve mentioned before how my Dad is a physics professor, now retired. He also happens to be a lifelong fisherman, something else I remember writing about here once when discussing my friend Carlos Monti, the photographer on the LAPT.

I had to share both of these references with him, of course, suggesting that perhaps they proved some latent influence he’d had over me, as evidenced by fishermen and physicists being readers.

Or perhaps poker, fishing, and physics have some natural affinities I hadn’t previously appreciated? I guess all three groups do include people interested in angling.

Travel Report: LAPT6 Peru, Day 2 -- The Fisherman

Another day down here in Lima as the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event in Peru winds its way along. From 557 total entries just 27 are left to start today’s Day 3, and when they finish tonight just eight will remain for tomorrow’s final table.

Time-wise yesterday lasted about as long as the first two days of the tourney, with players once again working through 10 one-hour levels. Felt longer, though, perhaps in part because I was working alone. Even Sergio -- who handles the Portuguese blog for PokerStars -- was gone by the final levels as all of the Brazilian players had busted.

Of course, even while scribbling away on my own I’m not really alone at all as I work alongside a host of other media covering the event for a variety of outlets. Indeed, there’s pretty much the same full court press-type coverage happening here as one finds at WSOP events or elsewhere in the world, and it’s kind of interesting to watch live reporting teams such as the group from Codigo Poker doing their updates in much the same fashion I’m used to doing at other events.

And of course the great Carlos Monti was there with me as well to the end yesterday, the regular photographer for PokerStars’ coverage of LAPT events.

That’s Carlos pictured to the left from yesterday helping out the Codigo guys at the end of the night with a quick interview of Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez who survived to today’s Day 3.

Carlos is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and besides being an excellent photographer he is also a serious fisherman. “That is my life,” he explained to me, speaking in English as his English is much, much better than my Spanish.

“When you are a fisherman -- a real fisherman -- it is for life... it is a philosophy,” he continued. The pic up top is of Carlos showing off a catch while at the PCA in the Bahamas.

I told him how my father is also a lifelong fisherman, and how knowing his dedication to it I thought I might understand what he meant. We chatted further and he explained how his background originally is in engineering and that in fact he taught for seven years. “Old people,” he said, referring to his students. “It was very nice.”

I have no doubt but that Carlos was an excellent teacher, as his ability to connect with others, and his care for others’ welfare, too, is obvious regardless of the language he employs -- English, Spanish, or the pictures he takes.

Looking forward to another day working alongside Carlos, casting for my own stories as Day 3 plays out. Check over at the PokerStars blog to see what the two of us manage to catch.