Travel Report: Season XII WPT National: Canadian Spring Championship, Day 2 -- Hurtling Through the Snow

Had snow yesterday in Montreal, and somewhat sketchy conditions for the drive over to the Playground Poker Club, particularly in the morning. But our driver, Harry, expertly guided us both to and fro yet again.

They raced from 311 players all of the way down to just 39 during yesterday’s Day 2 of the partypoker.net World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship at the Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake near Montreal.

They’ve played 24 levels thus far, all just 45 minutes long, which by the latter part of the night yesterday introduced a definite “turbo” feel to things as chips flew back and forth and leaders and short stacks switched places frequently.

Levels become one hour long today which ought to slow things down a little, although the average stack is still short enough to suggest our day might be a quick one as the plan is to play down to a six-handed final table.

The WPT has different tiers for their tourney, with these “National” events (like the “Regional” ones) not necessarily featuring the same structures as the showcase WPT, tourneys. A little like the World Series of Poker and its WSOP Circuit events, I suppose, to make an analogue.

At dinner last night I ate at the Rail bar while watching the end of that exciting Kentucky-Michigan game, and overheard a couple of players who had busted from the event commiserate with one another over how they had gone out.

One had made the cash, winning about double the buy-in (if he hadn’t re-entered), while the other had come up short. Soon I knew all of the details of both players’ final hands, and a little while after that they’d gotten their phones out to calculate which of the two had suffered a worse beat, percentage-wise. Funny stuff, if typical.

Lots of Canadians are playing, of course, including many from this part of the country. I’ve been praising the Playground Poker Club all week for its many amenities and expert management of tourneys, and I can see how any poker player who lives anywhere close to here would want to make it a regular destination.

Gotta run, but watch the WPT site today to see how quickly those 39 get down to a final six to set up Tuesday’s final table.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT National: Canadian Spring Championship, Day 1c -- The Bridge, Baseball, and Bieber

The third and final Day 1 flight was much like the first two, natch, at the partypoker.net World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship. A big boost in the number of players coming out on Saturday meant they made the $1 million guarantee and then some, with 1,079 total entries for the $1,000+$100 buy-in event (Canadian dollars). (That above of the Stanley Cup card protector was snapped by B.J. Nemeth here during play on Day 1c.)

Our commute in from Montreal was a little circuitous this morning as the Mercier Bridge -- our normal route over to Kahnawake -- has been closed to southbound traffic for the weekend. Such will be the case again today, but going northbound the bridge is open and so getting back to the hotel is easier.

In other news from the largest city in Quebec, was noticing yesterday both on the large screen TVs all around the Playground Poker Room and in some of the headlines I’ve been reading that the Toronto Blue Jays actually played a couple of exhibition games against the New York Mets over in Olympic Stadium here in Montreal, the first time they’ve had any major league baseball here since September 2004 when the Expos left.

Kind of funny to think about teams coming here right now -- amid these temps and conditions -- to play spring training games, but the first one on Friday was attended by over 46,000 I am reading, with the fans chanting “Let’s Go Expos” for much of the day.

Yesterday was able to have dinner with Anthony Charter and Lane Anderson who are part of the team behind the PokerNews Canada site. The site only got up and running very recently, and they are here covering the event while also planning to do some more tourney reporting soon.

I enjoyed getting to know them a little better and comparing notes between the Canada site and Learn.PokerNews. (I also made clear to them my envy of their continuing to enjoy life with online poker unlike most of us poor Yanks.) Check out their site if you’re interested what’s happening poker-wise north of the border (and there’s a lot happening).

By the way, speaking of the Learn site, have been running some cool strategy items lately, as well as a multi-part history of Late Night Poker penned by one of the show’s creators, Nic Szeremeta. I’ve always been kind of fascinated by this pre-“boom” U.K. show that introduced a lot of ideas soon adopted by the WPT, WSOP, and others a couple of years later. If you are interested, click here for the first part and read on through. The series will conclude on Monday.

A party for the players (and media) punctuated the evening last night, although after two straight weeks’ worth of uninterrupted work and travel your humble scribbler wasn’t really up to it and so instead rode out the night watching the end of that Arizona-Wisconsin NCAA game in a quieter corner of the Playground. Those with whom I was watching the game instantly agreed with me the refs screwed up that last out-of-bounds call (after five minutes’ worth of leveling themselves looking at replays) The charge called before that was highly sketchy, too.

Finally returned to the hotel around midnight, discovering that Justin Bieber is apparently in Montreal and staying at the hotel just around the corner (where some of our colleagues are staying). I guess Miley Cyrus played at the Bell Centre here last night, too, which may or may not have had something to do with the Biebs turning up here.

When we came back there were a number of cars and a crowd outside Bieber’s hotel, presumably teenaged girls yearning for a glimpse. Thankfully -- unlike with the bridge closing -- our route wasn’t affected.

The tourney continues today at noon local time, giving us an extra hour this morning. Looks like 311 made it through to today’s Day 2, with three more days’ worth of play to go to find a winner. Check the WPT live updates to see how it goes.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT National: Canadian Spring Championship, Day 1b -- Bubble Hockey

Another busy, fun one at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal yesterday reporting on the second Day 1 flight of the partypoker.net World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship. There were a few more entries yesterday than for Day 1a, and more are expected today as they shoot for the 1,000-entry total to make the event’s $1 million guarantee.

I was mentioning yesterday how well run the event has been, with the support from the staff being especially helpful for those of us reporting. There have been other nice amenities here, too, including our set-up being right next to a “players lounge” that includes refreshments, a big screen TV playing Rounders on a loop, and bubble hockey (of which we’ve taken advantage during breaks).

There’s also no shortage of sports on TV here, too, and they even turned some of the screens away from hockey last night to show the exciting NCAA games. Got to see my bracket at last crumble to dust last night as all four games went the wrong way for me, so I won’t be making any late run to comeback to win the pool this year as happened for me a couple of years ago.

There are a few “names” in the field, including Antonio Esfandiari who has busted both Day 1 flights. Was kind of a highlight yesterday watching him play a hand versus an opponent who raised him all in to force Esfandiari to fold, with lots of entertaining table talk happening both during and after the hand. It was clear the other players got a big kick out of playing with Esfandiari, and he, too, clearly enjoyed all of the banter.

Meals here at the Rail (the poker room’s restauarant) have been good as well, with many good dishes from which to choose. Am thus following up some good eats down in Viña del Mar, Chile with another week’s worth of decent dining.

It has snowed some and temps are right around freezing, and thanks to the commute every morning and night we have been exposed a little to the frigid weather. But the hotel is very comfortable and as I was saying yesterday these are some fun folks with whom to work.

Back to it for one more Day 1 flight today. Check the WPT site for updates.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT National: Canadian Spring Championship, Day 1a -- Red, Yellow & Green

Another day of ninja-posting as these early starts (11 a.m.) here at Playground Poker Club in Montreal are closing the window of available time in the mornings for me to post over here.

It was a fun day yesterday for the first of three Day 1 flights at in the partypoker.net World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship. The tourney attracted 219 runners, 62 of which made it through the thirteen 45-minute levels. Players can re-enter once per Day 1 flight, so a number of those who busted will likely be back either today or tomorrow.

Fun again to be back with the WPT crew who are always enjoyable to work with and after so many years of doing this have their system down very well. And speaking of having a good system in place, the Playground Poker staff do a lot of things especially well here when it comes to the management of the tournament as well as making the jobs of those doing live reporting a lot easier.

For one, they track everyone all day long here, letting us know throughout the day not only who has busted from the event but also all of the seat changes along the way. It’s the kind of thing a live reporting team might dedicate one person to handling -- if they can spare him or her -- but usually cannot be done, especially on a Day 1.

That practice obviously makes things a lot easier when it comes to identifying players throughout the day, especially in a large field, low buy-in event in which a lot of local players are participating whom we might not recognize otherwise.

There are other nifty ideas in play here, including a little “traffic light”-like arrangement on a pole attached to every dealer’s chair and sitting well above the tables. The red light calls the floor over, the yellow is a request for a cocktail server, and the green announces that a seat is open and/or requests a floor person for a less urgent reason.

It’s simple, and it’s brilliant. There’s no yelling back and forth to get a floor person to a table, nor is there a lot of extraneous fuss or delays over getting servers, filling empty seats, or keeping tables balanced.

Anyhow, if I had been more efficient with my time perhaps I could write more, but that wasn’t the case. Check the WPT blog for updates from snowy Montreal today.

Talking Generational Differences in the Great White North

Rapid-fire posting this morning as we are readying for an early start (11 a.m.) for this first of three Day 1 flights at the World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship in Kahnawake near Montreal. There is snow on the ground here and cold temps here for my return visit to the Great White North (after having come to Niagara Falls just a month ago).

Got in around dinner time last night and had a fun meal at a local steakhouse with Tony Dunst, WPT Event Coordinator Bennsey Johnson, and my blogging colleages for the week, B.J. Nemeth and Ryan Luchessi.

Among the many topics of conversation was an interesting discussion of the “internet generation” -- i.e., those who are young enough to have grown up in a world in which the internet was already the omnipresent cultural force it is today -- and how they differ from those who came before.

B.J. made an interesting analogy, I thought, when he pointed out how those of us who grew up pre-internet (like he and I did) often have to “translate” online phenomena into offline approximations in order to understand them, whereas the younger generation is already “fluent” and doesn’t have to make that extra step.

Online poker perhaps provides the most ready example, as Tony and his contemporaries all took to the game -- their introduction to poker -- without having to think of it as a “version” of live poker and thus needing to adapt strategies learned in that context when playing online.

I’d go on, but we are already here at the Playground Club and readying to go, and so I’ll stop here. Follow the updates over at the World Poker Tour site today to see how things go, eh?

Why Why Zed

Flew to Montreal today, transferring through Toronto Pearson International Airport to get here. I will be here for the next week helping to cover the World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship.

These flights of less than two hours seem trifling to me now after all of the trips to other continents. Heck, the flight from Santiago to Atlanta earlier this week was about nine-and-a-half hours -- longer than the entire trip up here took, including driving to the airport.

I’ve been both to Toronto and Montreal before. The trip to Toronto was more memorable for me as it was more recent, though both were quite some time ago.

One aspect of the Toronto trip I’ve always remembered was how when Vera and I came the city was in the midst of a huge strike related to education cuts. I don’t remember the details, but all of the teachers had walked out and I think others were striking, too, with then Premier of Ontario Mike Harris the target of everyone’s anger over the cuts.

We were hanging around the University of Toronto mostly for a conference, and whenever we’d walk about we’d see lots of protestors marching and chanting. They carried signs, too, including many mentioning Harris specifically.

“Harris Doesn’t Scare Us,” read one. “Harass Harris,” another. “Spare Us from Harris,” a third. And so on.

That my last name coincided with the Premier’s gave these signs a humorous meaning, especially when captured in photos of me with a “What kind of a welcome is this?!” look on my face.

I don’t know how that situation ultimately played out. I also somehow missed during my earlier visit that the Toronto Pearson International Airport has the International Airport Transport Code of “YYZ.” And that the Rush instrumental that carries that title -- a song I’ve listened to hundreds of times -- begins with the band banging out a rhythm built upon the Morse code transmission of the letters Y, Y, and Z.

Here’s a clip from the “VH1 Classic Albums” show about Moving Pictures, the 1981 LP on which the track appears, in which the band explains the song and title (with the song taking up the second half of the clip):

So now I know. Meanwhile I’m having trouble remembering anything about my visit to Montreal (which was during the early ’90s), so I’m curious to see a little of the city while once again reporting long days from a week-long tourney. Kind of interested to see the Playground Poker Club and actually visit Kahnawake, too, a place I wrote about so many times 5-6 years ago here I memorized how to spell it.

Gotta get some sleep first, though. And probably dream of dash-dot-dash-dash-dash-dot-dash-dash-dash-dash-dot-dot.

Homer, Then Home

Home safe and sound after a long trip from Monday to Tuesday and from continent to continent. Was a great trip and I have to thank all of the LAPT and PokerStars folks for helping making it so.

I actually have only a little time here on the farm before I’ll be heading back out for another tourney journey, this time northward to the World Poker Tour National: Canadian Spring Championship happening at the Playground Poker Club near Montreal.

I mentioned a few times on the Chile trip how I’d been intending to go for a run at some point, and indeed finally managed to yesterday morning. I ran only about a mile or so on the beach, traveling first north then south through the soft sand.

It was overcast again, as it was for most of the mornings this week, although the temps were mild which made for a pleasant time out. I looked up now and then at the hotels and other tall structures as I went, again thinking about earthquakes. There were a few other runners about. And dogs, of course. And also a sand Homer Simpson passed out along one of the boardwalks.

I left the iPod in the hotel room and so was left with my own thoughts as I ran. I found myself thinking a little more specifically about being in another part of the world so far away from home, more than 5,000 miles in fact, kind of imagining the map and the long, slinky Chilean coast against which the Pacific meets. And a tiny little speck of me moving slowing along it.

We’ll see if I manage to do any running at all this coming week. Am doubtful, in part because I’ll be staying some distance from the venue, which’ll add some extra time the the front and back of each of the long days.

Gonna sign off and enjoy these hours here with Vera and all the animals. It may or may not be true that I sent her a message during the week asking “how are Samalam, the Magster, Sweetums, Lilypoo, Big Moe, and Frecklepants?”

The traveling is great fun and I’m grateful for the chance to do it, but really I’m a homer.

Travel Report: LAPT7 Chile, Day 4 -- Crashing and Barking

The fourth day -- final table day -- was the shortest, as often happens on the Latin American Poker Tour (and elsewhere). The long, three-hour final table bubble the day before at Viña del Mar had created several short stacks, and indeed most would bust early as eight players quickly became five and then two.

The rapid pace slowed a bit at five-handed as the remaining players took a half-hour to discuss a deal that never materialized. Then after one more knockout a deal was swiftly reached, with two more busts happening immediately thereafter to set up heads-up play between Rodrigo Perez of Chile and Mario Lopez of Argentina with Perez enjoying a better than 3-to-1 chip lead to start their duel.

Looked for a moment like heads-up play might only last a single hand as both players were dealt aces and got all of Lopez’s stack in straight away. But Lopez had the better kicker and his hand held up, and soon he drew even and then pulled ahead of the Chilean.

They’d go at it for about an hour-and-a-half before Lopez finally finished the deal to pick up the $22K or so that had been set aside for the winner after the four-way deal. In the end both he and Perez walked away with about $120K each from the $915K-ish prize pool. (Melo the muscle man, referenced yesterday, finished third.)

After all the loose-end-tying was done, Sergio and I again were able to enjoy a very nice dinner in which I again went for the seafood dish -- swordfish, this time -- followed by a super sweet ice cream-based dessert dish featuring several kinds of chocolate.

During dinner I checked the scrolling score updating the UNC-Iowa State NCAA tilt, thereby learning the Heels’ season has concluded. I had hastily filled out a bracket on Thursday morning and in fact had UNC losing their first game to Providence (which nearly happened), so for them to get as far as they did wasn’t too disappointing. And, of course, there was the added pleasure of seeing that Dook fell dramatically to Mercer in their first tourney game, which was delightful.

Got to bed at a decent hour although didn’t sleep all that well, mostly just from being restless about another long bit of travel coming up today, I think. While laying awake for part of the night I realized there had been two constants when it came to the soundtrack of my week in Chile, essentially playing at all times although I hadn’t always noticed thanks to other distractions filling my noggin’.

One was the waves, constantly crashing against the shore not too far from my hotel. Earlier in the week I managed to fashion a Pablo Neruda post along the way, noting the Chilean poet’s preoccupation with the ocean. It’s hard not to be so preoccupied with the soothing ambient noise filling all of the quiet spaces up and down the long Pacific coast.

The other was the sounds of dogs barking. As I have already mentioned this week, they’re on every corner, on the beach, everywhere. Often laying about and restful, sometimes they’re spurred to comment on goings-on around them.

One day this week I laughed when seeing a runner on the sidewalk with a leashed dog passing the same canine quartet I’d photographed the day before. All four suddenly sprang into action to chase the intruders to the next intersection, seemingly barking notice that the block was theirs.

The dogs’ night barking wasn’t so bothersome, really, and while it wasn’t so permanent as the sound of the waves it was still a frequent accompaniment.

Am heading to the airport later this afternoon for another overnight flight back, and so may do some more walking -- and perhaps even running, too -- before I leave. One last chance to commune a little with the waves and the dogs.

Travel Report: LAPT7 Chile, Day 3 -- Rumbling Along

There’s a shot to the left of my walk in each day from the hotel to the casino. I may try to go for a run along this sidewalk tomorrow morning as I don’t fly out until Monday night. Have seen plenty of others doing the same this week, along with all of the dogs about.

Kind of an oddly-shaped day in terms of the poker pacing for Day 3 of the Latin American Poker Tour Chile Main Event.

They started with 32 and raced down to nine in less than four hours. With the schedule calling for them to stop at the eight-handed final table, it appeared that the day wouldn’t be lasting much longer. Which after three straight 12-hour-plus days seemed like a good situation.

But nine-handed play managed to last three full hours of play with a 75-minute dinner break tossed in the middle, so that ended up keeping us into the evening, then after a dinner that began around 10 p.m. it still turned out to be kind of a late one.

At last I was able to enjoy an actual dinner, and took full advantage having a delicious salmon dish while talking about progressive rock and poker in Brazil with Sergio. We also talked a little about the earthquakes that regularly hit Chile, something I’ll admit I’ve been vaguely thinking about from time to time while in my fourth-floor hotel room or on the third floor of the Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino.

The LAPT stop in Chile was canceled back in 2010 after the huge earthquake hit about 175 miles south of Viña del Mar, an 8.8-magnitude monster that is one of the largest ever recorded, causing billions in damages and resulting in more than 500 deaths. That was late February that year with the tourney having been scheduled a couple of weeks later, I believe.

Others who’ve come for the stop have experienced earthquakes as well, including a minor one a couple of years ago happening during the week of the event. I can only say that I’ve experienced an earthquake one time before and in an almost trifling way.

Apparently one did hit northern Chile during the day on Saturday (we are far south), and indeed from reading around they are so frequent it seems like the chances are actually better to feel one than not to if visiting for more than just a few days. Will be just fine with missing that part of the Chile experience if I can.

Sergio’s countryman Jefferson Melo leads to enter the final table (pictured at left, as photographed by Carlos Monti). He’s led to end Day 1a and Day 2 as well, and has thereby been able to pose for some all-timer chip leader photos. With bodybuilding as his hobby, it’s hard not to avoid the puns describing Melo bulking up his stack as he muscles his way to the top of the counts.

Check the PokerStars blog for reports, and watch the new LAPT Live feed (in Spanish and Portuguese) over on PokerStars.tv.

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.