Coming together as one

Tomorrow, two flights become one. Essentially, two tournaments will merge into one and the long road to the money begins.

As the clerical staff is swamped with work at the moment, it could be some time before we have an official count and leaderboard. As promised, you'll have it when I have it.

Until then (maybe morning, so don't get all jumpy on me)I thought we'd take a look at the math before we close out the blog for the night.

Out of 201 that started in Flight #1, 116 remain.
Out of 260 that started in Flight #2, 141 remain.

That leaves us with 141+116 going into Saturday.

Two-hundred fifty-seven.
Twenty six tables.

One hundred seventy-seven people have to bust out before we hit the money.

Saturday is going to be a long and brutal day for the players. A long day of play with still no guarantee of hitting the money.



The rail is growing thick as the tournament moves into its third day. Busted players, looky-loos, and vactioners are filling the poker room and sneaking into the tournament area for a quick peak at their favorite player.

I chatted for a while with a New York Times writer who sweated Daniel Negreanu all day long for a piece in the Times Sunday Magazine (due out some time in February). Negreanu was having a fantastic day, up to more than $40,000 in chips, before losing about half his stack (I'm not sure how it happened).




Not Gus Hansen

Toward the end of the day, I accidentally caught this player as he flopped the nut flush, played it slow until the river, then got some poor guy to go all in with a six through ten straight on the board. I can only guess his opponent had QJ. I thought for a moment the winner was pretending to be Gus Hansen. As it turned out, he was showing his tablemates the source of some nerve damage that causes his hand to shake when he places out his bets.

Didn't I feel like the heel...

Through it all, some of my favorite floor guys kept it all running smoothly.



Glenn, pictured right, is from Rhode Island. I eavesdropped on a conversation he had with his wife back home, where nearly a foot of snow is on the ground.

Mrs. Glenn, please know, we're all miserable here in the islands.

Miserable.

Again, when I have the leaderboard, you'll have it.

The Official Day 2 starts tomorrow (Saturday) at Noon.

Two flights become one tournament and 257 people start the battle for the cash in the Bahamas.