Quick news flash before day 2 begins:

I take my hat off and bow to the organizers - a field of 259 was a lot more than I would have bet on, and also a decent amount of interesting profiles. I saw David Plastik, said hi to my old buddy Paul Magriel, Leo Fernandez and his companion Veronica - now PokerStars Pros - were there, along with all the Breneses and the Latin American Stars pros.

The winner of the LAPT in Chile was seated to my immediate left, another excellent player to his left, and then Arturo Morales in seat 8 - I was in seat 4. I was struggling all day mostly under average. With about 1,5 hours before day 1 finished I was at 37,000 but I finished the day in $24,700 with average around $43,000, so it'd be great to double within the first two hours of play, blinds will begin at $500-1,000/100 ante. A couple of bigger stacks - but no monsters of bully-size - at my new table, but also 3-4 of my own size, so it could have been a lot worse.

wish me luck!