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.

Travel Report: LAPT6 Peru, Day 1b -- The White Veil

Hello again from Lima, where the skies are overcast again today, as is usually the case.

All of my visits here have come during the late spring or summer, which means mild temperatures here south of equator. Had breakfast out on the hotel patio this morning, and while clouds hid the sun there was a slight breeze to make for a pleasant and quiet time to enjoy the meal and rejuvenate for the coming day.

The contrast with Las Vegas -- where I spent a month from mid-June to mid-July this summer for the World Series of Poker -- couldn’t be greater. Instead of 115 degrees it’s around 65 here. The overall pace is decidedly less frantic as well, with the days being long but over just after midnight (as opposed to 2-3 a.m. each evening at the Rio).

Yesterday the second of two Day 1 flights played out, and when play completed 104 players survived from the 334 total entries. They’ll join the 55 who made it through Wednesday’s Day 1a (from 213 entries) to make a field of 159 left to start today.

As the tourney progresses the focus on actual poker increases, reporting-wise. They’ll be making the money today (at 88 players), and probably get down to just three tables or thereabouts before coming back on Saturday to play down to an eight-handed final table. Thus will increase the need to track where the chips are going, how the big hands are playing out, and all of the other crucial moments that help define the event.

Meanwhile, these first couple of Day 1 flights have provided a few opportunities to share some color from the tournament as well as reflect a bit on the scene at large. Along those lines, one of the more fun posts from yesterday to write was one in which I talked about Herman Melville’s reference to Lima in Moby Dick, one that highlights the fog that often covers the coastal city during these middle months.

The allusion comes amid a chapter-length dissertation by Ishmael on “The Whiteness of the Whale,” with “the white veil” of fog that envelopes Lima in an inscrutable cloak one of several dozen examples brought up by the narrator. If you’re curious to see how I managed to fit that discussion into reporting from a poker tournament, click through and read the post, the title of which is borrowed from the book’s famous opening line.

There wasn’t too much fog on the walk over to the Atlantic City Casino this morning, although we have frequently experienced a kind of constant mist that has been present most times we’ve been outdoors. Again kind of reminds me of that covered walkway into the back of the Rio with the manmade mist spraying underneath to help visitors transition from the hot, hot parking lot into the cold, cold casino.

But these are fleeting comparisons, really, as the differences between the sites and what is happening at each seem much greater.

If you’re curious to read how the poker is playing out for today’s Day 2, click on over to the PokerStars blog.

Travel Report: LAPT6 Peru, Day 1a -- Poker Made Passion

Was a fast-moving day yesterday at LAPT Peru with the first of two Day 1 flights coming and going in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

There were 213 total entries yesterday (including a number of players who busted in the first four levels and re-entered), with only 55 making it through the day to come back for Friday’s Day 2. Today comes Day 1b, the second and last Day 1 flight, and expectations are we’ll see many of those who didn’t it make it through yesterday coming back to try again today.

There were several highlights yesterday, many of which I was able to include in my posts for the PokerStars blog throughout the day. One was the meal we enjoyed downstairs from the poker room at the Eliazar, the restaurant in the Atlantic City Casino where I’ve had multiple good meals during my visits to Lima.

Had a tasty potato and tilapia dish for a starter, breaded chicken with rice for the main course, then a delicious pastry-based dessert with caramel and jelly.

The latter had us laughing with the menu description thanks to the inclusion of an English translation that went “I have left the dessert made passion” which Ray and I subsequently tried our best to develop into a catch phrase for the rest of the evening.

Humberto Brenes is here, of course, and after re-entering once early on he made it through to Day 2. As often happens on the LAPT, the “Shark” was the source of few more highlights yesterday.

On these LAPT stops I’m always reminded of Brenes’s elevated status as a genuine poker celebrity in this part of the world. He sometimes gets referred to as the “Godfather of Costa Rican poker” or the like, and it’s easy to see how much others tend to enjoy and appreciate his presence at the tables.

There were a few hands late in the day, all-in situations that Brenes helped turn into celebrations with his involuntary expressions of excitement, that caused us to think of that new word we have all learned in the last month -- “Sharknado.” (One such scene is pictured, with Brenes on the left.)

I remember a few years ago when many were first exposed to the antics of Brenes on ESPN, and how there were a few less-than-enthused reactions from some quarters who thought he might be unduly playing to the cameras. But in truth his passion for the game is always genuine, and in the context of an LAPT event adds considerably as a reminder to all much fun card-playing can be.

Have to run as Day 1b is approaching fast. Sounds like we’ll see more today than yesterday in terms of entries, so there’ll be more tournament to cover. Check in over at the PokerStars blog for reports all day.

Travel Report: LAPT6 Peru, Arrival -- Returning to the Scene

A quick post to report I arrived safely in Lima, Peru and am this morning readying for the first of five days of writing about the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event happening at the Atlantic City Casino in the Miraflores district.

The trip down was about as smooth as one would hope for, with both my flight to Miami then the one into Lima being without any great drama. Had all sorts of intentions to “work on the plane” (scare quotes intended), in particular during the five-plus hour trip from Miami International Airport to the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima. But I found myself ground down by some leftover fatigue and ended up just zoning out on the plane listening to music and some rips of old comedy LPs I’d picked up before leaving.

We were about a half-hour late landing in Lima, and with a few other big flights also arriving that meant an especially long wait in line at immigration (probably close to an hour). Was a little anxious during that wait only because I had a ride waiting to meet me once I was able to work my way through that line, then also through the quicker customs gateway to reach ground transportation. There was outside chance my ride might not wait for me should I be overly late meeting him.

As I finally pushed through the doors to the spacious lobby with windows facing the Lima night sky, I searched a throng of drivers holding up signs until I happily spotted my own name printed on one of the white boards. I acknowledged my savior with a pumped fist which he returned in kind -- an international symbol for “our wait is over” -- and a little while later I was being driven south toward Miraflores.

I recalled earlier trips down the same road as we went, especially once we reached the coast with the tall cliffs on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

I remembered the last time I’d come to Peru and traveled down that same road back in April 2011, riding with Dr. Pauly. That trip was during the day, and traffic was halted for some time as we encountered a horde of police cars and some yellow tape to the side at the base of the cliffs marking some sort of crime scene. As we passed we realized someone had fallen the 300 feet or so to his or her death, and the cabbie explained that in fact there were two victims.

Felt more than a little ominous, that, then a couple of days later Black Friday arrived to cast another long shadow over the entire trip. I thought about mentioning the story to my driver this time, but decided against disturbing the relative quiet forced upon us by neither of us knowing that much of the other’s native tongue.

Arrived at the hotel after 11 p.m. and was settled in shortly thereafter. Then this morning I enjoyed the El Puruano Huancaino downstairs, an egg-and-potatoes dish, and am now about to pack up to make the short walk over to the Atlantic City.

I’ll be posting regularly throughout the day over at the PokerStars blog, so check over there for today’s reports on the first of two day 1 flights, which I trust will go as smoothly as my two flights down.

Leaving for Lima

Still feels like the WSOP has only just concluded, but today I’m heading back out for another long distance trip to go watch people play cards. This time out I’m making a return visit to Lima, Peru for the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event that starts tomorrow.

This makes a third trip to Lima for your humble scribbler. The first was back in June 2010 during Season 3 of the LAPT when Jose “Nacho” Barbero won his second straight title on the tour, for which Brad “Otis” Willis was my blogging partner on the PokerStars blog. Then the following spring I went back for the Season 4 stop, that time with Dr. Pauly.

That second trip coincided with Black Friday, which meant when we left we Americans were all still regular online poker players, but by the time we returned everything had changed. Still seems like such a short time ago, and yet so much has changed since then with regard both to online poker in particular and live tournament poker, too.

Like other tours around the world, the LAPT has been thriving and by now has built up its own tradition with this Lima stop coming midway through Season 6. I’ll be performing solo on the Stars blog this time around, although I look forward to working with my buddies and Reinaldo and Sergio who handle the Spanish and Portuguese blogs for PokerStars, respectively, as well as many others who run the LAPT and whom I’ve gotten to know while reporting from various stops over the years.

Gotta full day of travel ahead and need to ensure I’ve remembered to pack my passport, so I’ll sign off here. I expect to be back, though, to file a few travel reports this week, and to point you to the PokerStars blog for more. See you all on the other side.

Where I’m @

Last week I finally decided to get rid of an old email address -- one I’d had for about seven years -- in favor of moving over to a new Gmail addy.

The primary reason for the move is the added memory Gmail gives for free (15 GB, I believe), whereas on my old account I was actually limited to a measly 100 MB and couldn’t get more without paying for it. Thus for several years now I’ve been constantly backing up messages offline and deleting so as not to go over that absurdly small limit.

When I decided to make the switch, I sent a mass email to everyone in my address book announcing the change. I knew there were a lot of dead emails in there, and indeed I’ve received a lot of bounce-backs since sending out the note. I’ve also enjoyed hearing from lots of folks emailing me back, including some whom I haven’t corresponded with in years.

In a weird way, between the responses and failed messages it’s been a little like reviewing a sorta-skewed history of poker and poker media from the past seven years, with my inbox flooded with reminders of various now-defunct sites and outlets, of how certain individuals have moved on from one place to another, and of how fast everything has evolved over that period.

Making the switch also caused me to remember how I had first created the email address shortly after starting the blog (in April 2006), using the “shortstackedshamus” name for it. It was probably only a couple of years later that it became the primary email for me; that is to say, for a long time it had been the email I checked first and most often, rather than the couple of email addresses I had which were associated with my actual name.

But despite the frequent inconvenience of the email provider, I stayed with the address mostly out of stubbornness. I’d compare it to how I often used to play online poker, sticking with the same game and stakes for months or even years even after I’d grown tired of doing so, if only because of a non-specific resistance to change borne from several causes, among them risk aversion and simple indolence.

Anyhow, I finally got up from that lousy table and have taken a seat at this new one, email-wise, so for those looking to get in touch, that’s where I’ll be.

Fled Is That Tourney:----Do I Wake or Sleep?

Utterly swamped at the moment with various assignments, and thus without a lot of time for posting here today, I’m afraid. Indeed, after enjoying a day or two of rest upon my return home from the WSOP, I have been just about as busy during the days since as I was while there.

In fact, it looks like I am going to have a few different trips coming up over the next several weeks, including a return voyage to LAPT Lima a few days from now.

I’ll surely be sharing details about all of those trips here as they come up. All of the many different tours are ramping back up now that the WSOP has finished for the summer, and so suddenly after weeks of focusing on Las Vegas the game goes global once again as events play out all over.

I am still occasionally dreaming about watching and reporting hands. Usually we’re talking mundane stuff -- like most hands in poker tournaments, or like most dreams often go -- although occasionally weird, panicky moments will arise in which something strange happens in the hand or with the reporting, and I’ll wake up glad none of it was real.

As a sports fan, I’m realizing I’m kind of glad still to have poker first and foremost on the agenda here during this relative down time for sports. Am waiting on the NFL to start, still my favorite sport to watch and follow. Basketball will also occupy my attention once it comes back around later in the year, too, but baseball simply doesn’t work for me anymore, with the multitude of scandals having seriously damaged the game beyond a point where this fan cares to go.

The whole A-Rod saga has become a kind of emblem for the sport, bringing together all of the problems related to high salaries, PED use and abuse, and absurd attempts to self-legislate into a single pathetic package.

That’s not to say poker doesn’t have its share of problems, too. But for the most part the game tends to provide plenty of entertainment for those who play and watch. Can’t say I was overly moved by ESPN’s presentation of the WSOP Asia Pacific final table earlier in the week, but that’s probably more a consequence of my being a little overfed with poker of late than the presentation of Daniel Negreanu’s victory not being compelling.

Anyhow, back next week with more and like I say I’ll be talking further about the LAPT Lima trip and subsequent adventures soon.

Meanwhile, for those with an interest in hearing people talk about reporting on poker tournaments, check out the latest episode of the Thinking Poker podcast on which Gareth Chantler comes on to talk about his upcoming trip to cover UKIPT Galway for the Full Tilt Poker blog. There is also some interesting talk about that unique situation from the WSOP Main Event involving David “Doc” Sands you might have heard about, namely a strange hand Sands played that has evoked the issue of “the ethics of accepting an unsolicited chip dump” (to employ the Thinking Poker guys’ phrasing).

While you do, I’ll see if I can’t get a little more rest before these trips come up. And if I can keep these poker-related dreams from returning me to consciousness.

Post-WSOP Number Crunching (Re: Canada, Women)

As the World Series of Poker Main Event drew to a close, the WSOP published some statistics regarding the 62 events of this year’s series, including various information regarding the demographics of those who participated. The report informs us that there were 79,471 total entries for the 62 events this year, then goes on to share further data regarding the age, nationality, and sex of the players.

The information about entries by country pretty much follows what has been the case for the last several years at the WSOP with the U.S. providing most of the entries (57,040 this time), Canada a distant second (4,118), and the U.K., Russia, and France rounding out the top five.

This year there was extra attention given to the performance of Canadian players thanks to the fact that 10 of the bracelet winners (out of the 61 preliminary events) were identified as being from Canada. That was a huge jump from the three bracelets Canada won in 2012. Indeed, since players from Canada managed to claim four bracelets during the first week of the Series, people were paying extra attention the results of Canadians throughout the Series. Some even made some seriously bad puns about the phenomenon.

Looking strictly at percentages, 71.8% of the entrants were from the U.S. while 5.2% were from Canada. Players from the U.S. won about 65.5% of the bracelets this summer, which comes close to matching the participation percentage. Meanwhile Canadians won 16.4% of the prelims, which is more than three times the participation percentage.

As Canadians kept collecting bracelets this summer, I remember hearing a few people speculate about whether or these winners were actually Canadian or if they just happened to be American players in Canada who had moved north of the border in order to be able to play online. Such has absolutely been the case with regard to recent WCOOP and SCOOP results at PokerStars, something I mentioned last fall when noticing how Canada was performing especially well in last year’s WCOOP.

Leafing through the 10 winners’ bios, though, shows that with these particular players none appears to fall into the category of the exiled American online player.

Event No. 3 winner Charles Sylvestre was born in Montreal and still lives there. Event No. 6 champ Benny Chen is from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island where he manages a restaurant. Michael Malm, winner of Event No. 8, is a marketing specialist from Coquilam, Ontario.

Levi Berger, who won Event No. 11, is originally from Ottawa although is a citizen of both the U.S. and Canada. It sounds like he definitely played a lot online (in the U.S.) prior to Black Friday, though I don’t believe the 22-year-old moved back to Canada afterwards in order to continue to play.

Mark Radoja, winner of Event No. 16, is from Guelph, Ontario, the site of a thriving poker scene and also where Gavin Smith grew up. Calen McNeil, who won Event No. 20, like Chen is a restaurant owner in Victoria (in fact he owns three there). Event No. 28 winner Jason Duval is a 23-year-old student who was born in Quebec where he currently goes to school at Laval University.

Justin Oliver won Event No. 38. He’s a 37-year-old jeweler who was born in Toronto and still lives there. Dan Idema, Event No. 39 winner and brother of Two Plus Two Pokercast co-host Adam Schwartz, is from Vancouver. And Kristen Bicknell, who won the Ladies event (Event No. 51), was born in St. Catharines, Ontario and still resides there.

Speaking of women who played at the WSOP, the report also notes stats regarding their participation this summer, sharing how of the total entries 75,447 (94.94%) were men and 4,024 (5.06%) were women. Of course it should be noted that 954 of those entries by women came in the Ladies event, so after doing a little additional subtracting and dividing, the participation of women in open events this summer was right at 3.9% (3,070 out of 78,517 entries).

There were 298 women in the Main Event this year, which represented 4.69% of the total field of 6,352. That’s a big jump from last year, when 211 of the 6,598 entries were women (almost 3.2%). Women notably won two open events this year, both large-field no-limit hold’em events with Dana Castaneda winning Event No. 54 ($1,000 NLHE) and Loni Harwood winning Event No. 60 ($1,500 NLHE).

The WSOP also reports how men earned 7,462 of the cashes at the 2013 WSOP while women earned 343 of them. I’m not completely sure about these figures since the “total cashers” being listed is 8,454, which is more than the total of men and women cashers. In any case, when comparing those two totals, women have almost 4.4% of the cashes, which would roughly jibe with the overall participation total, although again we should probably consider how women earned all 117 of the cashes in the Ladies event (which I assume is being included here).

All of which is to say, I think the percentage of women cashing in events when compared to the percentage of women who participated isn’t really all that out of whack. Even the percentage of women bracelet winners in all of the preliminary events except the Ladies event (two of 60, or 3.33%) is pretty much in line with the overall participation of women in those events.

On the other hand, the Canadians’ percentage of wins this summer is remarkable when compared to their participation. Dunno what the overall percentage of cashes by Canadians turned out to be, although that would be an interesting stat to see.

The Place of Patches

Was reading through a few WSOP-related pieces yesterday including some concerning the Main Event and final table, and I found myself thinking briefly about how online poker sponsorships have receded considerably from being part of the story of the WSOP.

I suppose it was looking at pics of the November Nine and how inconspicuous, really, the patching of the last nine players seemed to be that got me thinking about how little we’ve been paying attention to the subject, especially when compared to the pre-Black Friday era.

Of the final nine, Mark Newhouse had an Ivey Poker patch (recently acquired, I believe), Sylvain Loosli had the Winamax logo on the front of his hoody, J.C. Tran had one for PokerAce.tv, and Jay Farber was wearing a couple of 888 patches on that last day. Meanwhile I don’t believe the other five players were sporting any logos, although I imagine by November all nine will probably have some sort of sponsorship.

I remember doing a quick circuit of the tables during Day 2 of Event No. 59, the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw event that concluded just before the Main Event got started. There were about 75 players left at the time and during my tour of the tables I consciously looked for patches just to get an estimation of how many I saw. I even jotted down the sponsors, although I didn’t keep track of the list.

I saw about a dozen patches overall, although not all of them were poker-related. In other words, there was an average of about one patch per six-handed table in the 2-7 tournament, although as I think about it the average was probably skewed a bit high thanks to fact that that particular event had attracted a number of well-known players.

For example, Tom Schneider had his LoudMouth Poker patch and matching crazy cap and shorts; he’d go out shy of the cash in this event after winning two bracelets earlier in the Series. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (who’d finish 16th) had three or four of them, I recall, including one for the Mizrachi Dealer Academy and another for the Turlock Poker Room in Turlock, California. Team PokerStars Pros Naoya Kihara and Daniel Negreanu were still in, too, and of course they were both patched up. Kihara would squeak into the money to finish 28th while Negreanu went on to finish runner-up.

Eventual winner Eli Elezra had a patch advertising a site called Attack Poker, one with which I’m not too familiar but which sponsored a few players here and there during the 2013 WSOP, including Black Friday indictee Chad Elie, the payment processor who only recently was released from prison and who Attack Poker signed and put into the Main Event. (By the way, for more news regarding Elie and his ongoing legal battles, see Haley Hintze’s latest articles for Flushdraw.)

Like I say, though, all of these patches and sponsorships were well off most folks’ radar for much of the Series and the Main Event. The only time I remember sponsorship even becoming a topic of conversation was on the final day (Day 7). Jackie Glazier had gone out in 31st the day before as the highest-finishing woman in this year’s Main Event, and throughout her run had been wearing an Ivey Poker patch as one of that site’s many signed pros. The next day, however, 888 poker had signed Glazier and thus she had on their logo when doing an interview with Kara Scott for the later ESPN telecast.

If you pick up Dr. Pauly’s Lost Vegas (covering the WSOP from 2005 to 2008) or even watch the BET RAISE FOLD documentary which I was discussing some on Monday, you see how prominent the idea of a sponsorship once was in poker, something almost akin to getting called up to the big leagues in baseball in the way it provided concrete financial assurance as well as a kind of symbolic stamp of approval for one’s talents (deserved or otherwise).

In some cases and with a few sites it is still obviously a big deal to get sponsored, but it is hardly a goal for most tournament players at present. Still, it was kind of interesting to see a few players during that next-to-last-day of the Main Event (when they played down from 68 to 27) be handed patches as they’d picked up a small bonus for having gotten that far. And to remember how much more prevalent such a scene was not that long ago.

That’s What’s the Deal We’re Dealing In

Pretty much since returning home from Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker, I’ve been occupied for much of each day following these MicroMillions 5 tournaments on PokerStars. This is the online series that features teeny weeny buy-ins -- usually only a buck or three -- and huge fields, thus enabling players who make deep runs and/or win often to enjoy thousandfold returns on their investments (and then some).

Unlike the Sunday Millions, Super Tuesdays, or other higher buy-in, regular weekly events on the site, these MicroMillions events generally don’t feature too many recognizable usernames at the end. Not coincidentally, they don’t usually feature too much talk of final table deals, either, although occasionally some players making it to the final few will manage to talk about chopping and even cut some deals here and there.

Was watching one event yesterday -- a $1 no-limit hold’em event with rebuys and a turbo structure -- in which the final three players did succeed in pausing the tournament to discuss dividing up the remaining prize money.

The tourney had attracted more than 27,000 players, and the chip stacks at that point were humongous with all of the rebuys and add-ons. The leader had more than 622 million, second-place had about 245 million, and the guy in third had 86 million. The blinds were big too, though -- about to go to 6m/12m, and increasing every five minutes thereafter -- so we’re talking stacks at that point of about 52 big blinds, then about 20 BBs, then just over 7 BBs.

“Chip chop” figures were produced (leaving $2,000 for which to play) which would’ve guaranteed the guy in first about $13,600, the next one about $9,700, and third place a little more than $8,000. Meanwhile, the scheduled payouts at that point were $15,184.64, then $11,051.44, then $7,170.05. (“ICM” numbers -- also an option -- were not discussed.)

The players in the top two positions were amenable to the proposed payouts, but the guy in third said he figured the $800 or so difference between third-place money and what he’d be guaranteed with the deal wasn’t enough to justify going with the chop. “I might as well take my chances,” he typed, and as it happened he’d end up finishing in third shortly thereafter.

Watching this play out, my first thought was that he was right to refuse the deal, even though it ended up costing him the $800 or so. If he had taken it and then come back to win, he still would have earned less than second-place money. Was kind of an interesting spot, I thought, given that the tournament really had reached a stage where it had become an all-in-or-fold affair and thus the skill component had been minimized, yet for the third-place player a deal still seemed like a less than attractive option to take.

Not being that well-versed in deal-making -- and perhaps because I’m also somewhat risk-averse, relatively speaking -- I usually watch these deals play out and think it often better to take guaranteed money than chance losing out, although I know there are often various dynamics in play that can make it less favorable or even incorrect to take a deal. Thus did I find it interesting to watch this one and find myself siding with the guy holding out.

What do you think? Would you have held out, too, if you’d been in the third-place player’s position?

(Title, of course, from Frank Zappa’s “The Torture Never Stops.”)