Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 8 -- Penultimate-Day Poker

We’re almost there. One day to go here at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with both the Main Event and High Roller tournaments scheduled to complete today.

Poker-wise there was much of interest yesterday. In the Main Event, Chance Kornuth stormed to a lead which he kept through the end of the day as they played down to six players.

I’m curious to see how the two remaining South Americans -- Diego Ventura (of Peru) and Juan Martin Pastor (of Argentina) -- do today, both of whom are more online than live players, although Pastor I’ve come to recognize from the LAPTs where he’s notched some cashes. (Meet Pastor in this great video from late last year when he clinched Supernova Elite before a crowd of partying friends.)

The High Roller, meanwhile, played down to 11 players with a kind of wild knockout of Daniel Negreanu in 14th by Dan Heimiller highlighting the late night action. Here’s the hand report of that one from PokerNews, with Negreanu’s post-bust series of tweets lamenting how the hand went also interesting to read.

Jean-Pascal Savard carries the chip lead into the final day in that one, with Heimiller third in chips. (On a side note, I'm lamenting the fact that apparently Heimiller's excellent website is no longer online. From where will I order my sea monkeys now?)

Had a fun High Roller post yesterday titled “Finding little edges” in which I managed to discuss the carpets, talk to Jake Cody, and mention my five-and-a-half-year-old nephew.

There was the famed PCA party last night (from which came the above pic), moved indoors because of inclement weather. Was quite a spectacle, with dancers, marching bands, people walking around on stilts, and a nonstop beat with food and drink a-plenty.

Heading in for one more day of fun-slash-work today, after which I’m eager to get back to the farm tomorrow. Follow the reports today on both the Main Event and High Roller on the PokerStars blog, and watch PokerNews for hands, counts, and everything else.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 7 -- Ronaldo's Run

There was a lot happening at the PCA yesterday, but in truth the day was mostly about Ronaldo Nazário -- a.k.a. “the phenomenon” or, simply, Ronaldo.

A legend of Brazilian soccer and regarded by most as one of the greatest strikers ever to play the game, Ronaldo’s celebrity well transcends that generated by poker or the PCA. He’s been working with PokerStars recently, having become one of their “Sport Stars,” and thus has turned up at some special events such as a match against tennis star Rafa Nadal (also a PS Sport Star) late last year.

He’s played some tournaments, too, but I think primarily in Brazil. He entered the LAPT Bahamas Main Event but ended up actually abandoning his stack once he became short on the first day. I don’t think he did so voluntarily, though I’m not sure what came up. In any case, that appearance was a little anticlimactic.

Meanwhile his run in the Main Event lasted almost all of the way down to the end of yesterday’s Day 4 at which point he finally busted in 26th place, notching his first career tournament cash. The longer he lasted, the higher the electricity in the place seemed to increase, and while there are a ton of top-level players left in the tournament to make for an exciting finish over today and tomorrow, his presence obviously added an extra layer of interest all around.

I haven’t really gotten a chance to meet or talk to Ronaldo, although my buddy Sergio who covers Brazilian poker for the PS blog (pictured above with the football star after his bust) has gotten to know him and like everyone who has reports he’s a very amiable guy. He also obviously loves the competition and has learned a thing or two working with Andre Akkari and others.

We obviously wrote a few items about Ronaldo over the past few days on the PokerStars blog. A few days back Howard Swains wrote a profile of him titled “The second life of Ronaldo: ‘I am completely in love with poker.’” Near the end of Day 3 I had to note how even then we were all still amazed to see him still hanging on well after the money bubble had burst in a post titled “Ronaldo... fenomeno.”

Then early yesterday another Brazilian player nicknamed Baggio -- in fact, who got that name from the Italian player who memorably battled against Brazil in the World Cup -- emerged as one of the final 50 players, and so I wrote something about him before he busted on the feature table with Ronaldo sitting across from him. That post is called “As Ronaldo advances, another Baggio appears.”

Howard wrote another piece on him, “Can Ronaldo really make it to another final? Maybe, just maybe,” which provides a lot of insight including comments from Akkari regarding Ronaldo’s cultural status and his run in the tourney. Stephen Bartley’s end-of-day recap yesterday also includes more about Ronaldo including details of his late bustout at the hand of fellow countryman (and very rich owner of a major car rental company) Eugenio Mattar.

Read those posts and relive Ronaldo’s run, then stick around all day as we report on the Main Event playing down from 24 players to eight (or so the plan will go), as well as on the High Roller on the PokerStars blog. You can look in on the live reporting at PokerNews as well for counts, hand updates, and more from both events.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 6 -- What May Had to Say About the PCA

Up against it again here in the Bahamas as the tournaments just keep coming, knocking all of us around from event to event as though we were still on those tubes riding the rapids constantly circling the Atlantis resort. Wanted just to mention quickly today how a highlight from yesterday involved talking at length with another favorite poker writer of mine, Jesse May.

The primary focus of our discussion was to assess the significant place of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on the tourney poker schedule, exploring an idea that in fact the PCA might even be the most direct measure of skill there is, as far as tournament series go.

May had some great ideas to share regarding that tentative thesis, plus other interesting observations about the current state of poker as well. You can click over to the PokerStars blog to read them in the post “Could the PCA be poker’s most important series? It just may, says Jesse May.”

We talked about a lot of other things, too, that didn’t go into that post, some of which I might try to share here next week once I’m back on the farm with a clearer head. As anyone who has read May’s 1998 novel Shut Up and Deal or any of his other writings about the poker world well knows, he has both perspective and insight to share on all things poker, including how the game gets covered and presented by those of us who spend our time scribbling about it.

While you’re over there reading what May had to say, click around and follow the other PCA Main Event coverage, the start of the $25K High Roller, and the Americas Cup of Poker on the PokerStars blog. Check the live reporting at PokerNews, too, for hands, counts, and more from both the Main and the High Roller.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 5 -- Poker's Past, Present, and Future

Thanks to those long days associated with covering the LAPT Bahamas Main Event during the week, I earned myself a little bit of a break yesterday by signing off a level or so early from Day 2 of the PCA Main Event.

The total turnout settled at 816 players for the $10,000 event, which means a $7,915,200 prize pool with $1,491,580 going to the winner. The top 119 get paid, so with 175 players returning today that money bubble will surely be bursting at some point in the afternoon, I’d expect.

Among my contributions over on the PokerStars blog during the day was an early compilation of observations about the differences (and similarities) between poker and the “real” world all filed under the heading “Is this the real life? A Bahamian rhapsody,” and a short item called “The hero call” in which I commented on a table featuring a player in a Batman t-shirt, another in a Superman tee sitting right next to him, and the Brazilian soccer hero Ronaldo.

Ronaldo, who plays as a PokerStars “Sport Star,” survived to Day 3 and has above average chips, and so he may well cash. He definitely plays like an amateur, but an active one seeing lots of flops and not just folding his way through the levels. And as a huge World Cup hero and one of the greats of that game, he gets a lot of attention which adds an extra layer of interest to the tournament as a whole.

Later in the evening I was able to watch almost all of the Panthers-Seahawks playoff game with the fellows, and that turned out to be much more engaging (and emotionally draining) than I’d anticipated it would be. I told everyone Carolina would lose 35-3, and so for them actually to be competitive up until that last pick-six with about six minutes to go was encouraging. And the Panthers adding the last TD at the end to make it a 31-17 final was somewhat satisfying, too.

In between the tournament and the game I was able to spend a very enjoyable, leisurely dinner with Jim McManus, the author of Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, the latter being a text I assign in my “Poker in American Film and Culture” course.

Jim participated in an interesting panel discussion here a couple of days ago along with Lee Jones, Jason Somerville, and Barry Greenstein in which the group discussed poker’s colorful history, its present, and the future (with Somerville handling a lot of the contributions regarding the latter). You can read all about that here in my colleague Adam Hampton’s write-up.

Jim had played the PCA Main Event and busted on Day 2 (to the left is a shot of him playing taken by Joe Giron), and so one of the subjects we discussed was the high caliber of play these days in tournaments, especially major ones like the one he’d just played. We also covered a lot of other ground, including how my students respond to his book, his current writing projects, and some of what I have in the works for the coming year.

I delighted in talking with Jim a lot about Richard Nixon -- both his poker “career” and his political one -- and from some of his stories about Dwight Eisenhower (the best poker-playing president, Jim opines), I came away realizing I need to learn more about Ike as I further pursue my “Nixon studies.” Great fun, that.

Am following up that visit with one this morning with another favorite poker writer, Jesse May, whom I ran into earlier in the week. Hoping to write something from that meeting for the PokerStars blog as part of our Day 3 coverage today, so check out that and everything else over there (including the America’s Cup) as the reports continue from the Bahamas.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 4 -- Kay More Than Okay

More rapid-fire posting this morning as yet another day of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is quickly approaching.

They managed to wrap up the LAPT Bahamas Main Event yesterday, which for most of the day was The Martin Finger Show as he ran white-hot while mowing down most of the final table, knocking out everyone, in fact, except one player.

Then the German now living in Austria took a better than 2-to-1 chip lead up against the Michigan-based Josh Kay who had started the day in first position. Kay had been particularly snug for most of the day, but opened up noticeably at that point with some aggressive play. Then he began picking up several big hands, flopping trips, a straight, and a flush within the space of just a few hands and earning value in each case.

Kay had grabbed the lead. Then in a final hand that saw him flopping a set of nines he was able to get Finger to commit his last chips on the strength of a turned top pair, and one card later Kay had won. He ran incredibly well at the end, but Kay played very well, too, and came away a worthy champ.

Kay’s victory saved us from coming up with a term to describe a player winning an EPT Main Event, a WSOP bracelet, and a LAPT Main Event -- something Finger was on the precipice of accomplishing before getting thwarted at the end. Still, the turn of events allowed me to make one big pun at the end (“Kay breaks Finger’s momentum”).

Here’s my full recap at the end that links back to all of the Day 3 action. Meanwhile, the Main Event moves on to Day 2 today with just over 500 players still in action there. A few more can still join in as late registration doesn’t close until the start of play today.

Click over to the PokerStars blog today for PCA Main Event coverage, and also follow the live reporting at PokerNews for hands, counts, and the usual.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 3 -- The Long, Long, Long LAPT Event

Working on fumes here today as we had a second straight very long day with the LAPT Bahamas Main Event -- hardly surprising given the much, much, much bigger-than-planned-for field -- and the final day is about to start.

Was a fun day, and lasted so long I barely remember getting to chat with Jesse May for a while in the hall before things started. Actually saw and talked to James McManus, too, this week, and it was nice to reconnect.

They played down to the last 11 last night, which was a little shy of the eight-handed final table but close enough. Looking forward to the EPT Live guys doing their full-blown cards-up coverage of the final table (as they do on the EPT), which will be a bit of a change for a LAPT final table.

Also different with this LAPT final table is the fact that none of the players who’ll be there have ever played an LAPT event before.

There are in fact two PCA Main Event champs still left -- Galen Hall (2011) and Dimitar Danchev (2013). EPT and WSOP winner Martin Finger is there, as is WSOP bracelet holder Taylor Paur, Mustapha Kanit, and Aaron Massey. Josh Kay, a Michigan-based player, has the chip lead going into today, with a 21-year-old Polish player named Jose Carlos Garcia.

Read LAPT Bahamas reports from yesterday and today over at the PokerStars blog, and tune in over at PokerStars.tv starting at 1 p.m. ET today to watch the finish.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 2 -- The Surge

Last fall when I was in Lima reporting on the final event of Season 7 of the Latin American Poker Tour, I first heard about the plan to kick off Season 8 with a regular LAPT event in the Bahamas. The tournament would be positioned as a kind of special preliminary tourney at the PCA, and thus could draw both the regular tour players (a number of whom already go to the PCA every year) and a lot of new players who’d never participated in an LAPT event before.

My initial reaction was that it sounded like a cool idea, and I liked the thought of mixing together players from all over. I’m a big fan of the LAPT for a variety of reasons, including the many great characters and interesting people who play those events, so I liked thinking about a lot of players from the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere getting to play a big event with that crowd.

I also thought it would be a big event, maybe even the biggest the LAPT had ever staged. But then I interviewed LAPT President David Carrion on Tuesday and he suggested that the turnout might be on the modest side, saying that he’d be happy if it drew 250 entries. I shared Carrion’s thoughts over on the PokerStars blog, then came in yesterday very curious to see just how the turnout would turnout.

It was clear during the first hour that David’s hope to reach 250 was going to be a cinch, as there were already close to 200 in seats from the start and late registration (and the reentry period) lasted through the end of the dinner break. As the afternoon wore on they cruised past 250, then 350, then 450, and we were all laughingly trying to come up with suitable adjectives (“staggering,” “stunning,” “jaw-dropping”) to describe the size of the field.

By the dinner break the number was way over 600, then following the final tallying during the early evening it was determined there were 736 total entries, with 532 unique players and 204 reentries. Just incredible. I had to evoke the water slide here called “The Surge” in my end-of-day recap as I was out of adjectives to use.

That meant a prize pool of close to $2 million, just shy of the LAPT’s biggest ever at Brazil last year. The scheduled first prize of $367,928 is almost a tour record as well, with only the $381,030 Dominik Nitsche won in Argentina back in Season 2 being higher.

The LAPT folks were all predictably elated, and I also was excited to see the event prove such a hit. I thought back to David’s references to the event overlapping with the PCA Main Event (which starts today) and other factors that might limit the field size, all of which had sounded reasonable. But it turned out the LAPT Bahamas event was positioned perfectly for many players arriving a little early this year.

Also had a chance to talk with last year’s PCA Main Event champion yesterday, the young Polish player Dominik Panka. Very friendly, well-spoken guy.

We went late last night, and thanks to the super-sized LAPT field today is guaranteed to be a long one, too, as they’ll try to whittle the 183 survivors down to something manageable before tomorrow.

Check back over at the PokerStars blog today for reports on the LAPT Bahamas event, the finish of the Super High Roller, and the start of the PCA Main Event, and also follow the live reporting at PokerNews for hands, counts, and more. Among other things it should be interesting to see if this LAPT Bahamas surge carries over into the Main.

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Day 1 -- Down-and-Up, Down-and-Up

Was a fun first day yesterday helping report on the $100,000 Super High Roller here at the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. As expected, the tournament attracted a big turnout -- 61 entries, with 48 unique players. Late registration extends to the start of today’s Day 2, which could possibly add more to the field and prize pool.

While there were some intriguing hands, by far the most interest was derived by the constant games of “What Lodden Thinks” and prop bets, including a couple involving Mike “Timex” McDonald that saw him perform some impressive physical feats.

The first was a $10K bet with Bill Perkins requiring McDonald to perform 300 air-squats during a single one-hour level. That turned out to be relatively simple for McDonald -- in fact, he did 320 with more than 20 minutes to spare. Click here to read my report on how that bet developed and the result.

Later in the day McDonald was given a more strenuous challenge by Perkins to do 350 push-ups in an hour. If McDonald accomplished the feat, he’d win $10K more from Perkins plus another $10K to go to a charity chosen by Timex, and if he lost, he and Perkins would be square with the businessmen winning back his money.

It was quite a scene watching McDonald, ably described by my PokerStars blogging colleague Stephen Bartley. He ultimately came up just shy, doing 323, though earned a lot of respect from all nonetheless. (That pic above was taken during the attempt.)

It was down-and-up, down-and-up for Timex all day beside the table, but strictly up-up-up when he was seated as he managed to win a lot of chips during the day to end in second position. Players were commenting on how he couldn’t play as many hands and also had to act more quickly than usual when he did -- there were no “McDonald stares” -- and so it was interesting to see him accumulating regardless.

Also managed a post yesterday highlighting Donovan’s classic “Atlantis,” a tune that’s basically been stuck in my head ever since I arrived here at the Nassau resort. That’s one of those songs many people have heard yet don’t know the title, instead being more familiar with the much-repeated chorus from which I borrowed my headline: “Way down below the ocean, where I wanna be, she may be.”

Here... you can sing along:

Gonna move over to cover the first ever LAPT Bahamas Main Event today, about which I talked with LAPT President David Carrion yesterday. A lot of excitement surrounding this $3K event, and I’m very curious to see who plays and what the turnout ends up being.

Again, head over the PokerStars blog today for reports on both the LAPT Bahamas event and the Super High Roller, and also follow the live reporting at PokerNews for SHR hands, chip counts, and more. Looking forward to another long day of sitting down, getting up, sitting down, getting up....

Travel Report: 2015 PCA, Arrival -- Slipping and Sliding

My first full day here in the Bahamas was suitably restful with a couple of enjoyable meals bookending an afternoon of water sliding as we took advantage of the time available before the poker cranks up in earnest today.

After a quiet morning in the room tending to various tasks, I met up with my PokerStars blog colleagues Stephen, Howard, and Adam for a burger and root beer float at the Johnny Rockets. Then Adam parted from the group for the afternoon, leaving the three of us to tour the water slides for the next several hours as I took advantage of Stephen and Howard’s considerable prior experience with them.

Had thought initially I’d confine myself to the Lazy River, the super slow, “toddler friendly” slide better suited for those more interested in seeking sun than fun. But thankfully my guides directed me to the more adventurous options.

We rode the Serpent which includes a slow section carrying you through an enclosed tube surrounded by sharks, and also the Surge which like the Serpent features a stretch of complete darkness as you whipped around the curves. If you're curious, those are the first two slides in this video someone took with a GoPro.

We didn't try the Abyss (the third in the video), but Howard and I did go on the Challenger -- a five-second ride in which you race down against one another (Howard won). We also did the Leap of Faith (the fifth ride in that same video).

Otherwise we took a few tours around the River Rapids, which I think stretches about a mile as it winds all around that side of the island near Cove Beach. A fun mix of fast and slow sections in that one, and in fact each of us managed to get completely dumped from our respective tubes once during the day.

There were lots of families enjoying themselves all around us, and I kept thinking how much Vera would have liked it. Also thought of my nephew who turns six next month and how much fun he could have there as well. Spotted a few poker players and media, too, amid our adventuring, here early enjoying the amenities.

I cannot remember the last time I’d been down a water slide. Might well have been way back as a preteen, for all I know. Pretty easy thing to pick back up again, and it was definitely a blast getting a chance just to relax and let the water carry us where it would.

For dinner we all reconvened along with Brad and Joe for a cab ride over to the Poop Deck, a favorite seafood place of the PCA vets, and the Grilled Fisherman’s Platter I had did not disappoint. Just west of Nassau on the northern coast of the island, we had a spectacular view out onto the water tracking the upward progress of the big round moon shining down as it rose from the horizon for its nightly trek.

Having a morning coffee now and readying to ease into things with today’s $100,000 Super High Roller. Looking at a preliminary list of entrants, many of the usual suspects appear set to participate, including a few new ones like the WCOOP Main Event winner Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz.

This is the fifth year of the $100K tournament at the PCA, and it looks like it could attract a largest-ever field for the event. There were 46 entries last year (when Fabian Quoss won), 43 in 2013 (when Scott Seiver won), 30 in 2012 (when Viktor Blom won), and 38 in 2011 (when Eugene Katchalov won the first PCA SHR).

Check over at the PokerStars blog today for reports from this first 2015 PCA event, and additionally follow the live reporting at PokerNews for hands, chip counts, and the usual. I’ll also today be looking ahead to start of tomorrow’s LAPT Bahamas Main Event event, a three-day tournament with a $3,000 buy-in and unlimited reentries. In other words, after today it’ll be a lot more slipping and sliding around from event to event as the 2015 PCA starts to unfold.

Me and the Wing

I’m back in the Caribbean, having made the short flight down yesterday for this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Things don’t really get going until tomorrow when the $100,000 Super High Roller kicks off, which means I have the luxury of a day to get acclimated and perhaps ride a water slide or two.

Actually I am getting more than a day to enjoy the warm temps and other diversions here, as I arrived during the early afternoon on Sunday. The flight was fine, though delayed an hour while we sat on the plane waiting for various weather-delayed traffic to clear. It was a wet, cold day I was leaving, and while I didn’t mind the wait -- I was in no rush -- I was glad when we finally rolled out on to the runway for our turn, then soon took to the air.

The plane was only half-full. I had a window seat near the wing and a whole row to myself. As we gained altitude I found myself looking intently at the rows of houses, the criss-crossing streets and highways, and the mostly empty parking lots below. I spotted an idle amusement park, too, which felt like a faint bit of foreshadowing of my destination, Atlantis.

As we climbed higher I trained my eyes in particular on the green and brown squares of open land, mentally measuring them against the one we’ve been tending to back at the farm. At last we rose up above the clouds and suddenly it was just me and the wing.

Growing up and even into young adulthood, I’d never been especially adventurous when it came to traveling or even trying new things. Like many, I find routines largely comforting, and so it really wasn’t until Vera and I boldly decided to live abroad in France for a year that I ever challenged myself to break out of the familiar.

I’d slipped back into such routines soon after that, though, and while we’d continue to travel now and then I mostly locked into a full-time job for a decade that provided both financial security (if modest) and more or less ensured I wouldn’t be edging beyond a fairly circumscribed path without great effort. That ended nearly five years ago when I even more boldly stepped away from that life and into this one which has carried me places I’d never even thought to go previously. And even more importantly, has brought me many friendships, too.

The airport in Nassau was easy to negotiate with an elderly Bahamian trio providing live music to accompany what was a short wait in the customs line. I didn’t check any bags, which after hearing several stories of lost luggage last night seems to have been a smart move. That also allowed me a quick walk out to catch a cab. My driver played a Teddy Pendergrass CD, and soon after his last Love TKO had landed I was checking in.

Spent the afternoon and evening reuniting with a number of friends and colleagues, including the LAPT folks, some PokerNews guys, and the PokerStars crew with whom I’ll be working. I know pretty much everyone else will be coming here soon, too -- media and players -- which makes me realize coming to PCA was a good decision after having skipped going to Las Vegas last summer.

It’s good to break away and connect with everyone like this once in a while. We’re all flying around on our own most of the time, the clouds of our own personal tasks and duties obscuring our view of others. Nice to come down out of all that and get grounded, when we can.

More to come.