I watched some of the streaming final table of the NAPT Venetian main event yesterday.  I was excited to see an old poker friend, David 'Gaucho2121' Paredes playing.  He is one of the few poker players who I've seen try to balance his poker interest with high powered other career options like law school, working for a hedge fund, and being an author.  I know it has created tension in his private life, but he's a very talented player who has done well both live and online.  He has an acute mind for the game and he obviously relishes the challenge when he can carve out the time.

David played quite well, from what I could tell, remaining very composed while nursing a smaller stack for a while.  Then five handed, he got Aces in against A,Q and doubled up to a healthy second place stack.  A few minutes later, he got Aces in against the chip leader's Jacks for the chip lead, only for a Jack to come out on the flop and be out in 5th for $184k.

At that point, Sam Stein had a massive 18 million, where the next largest stack had 3 million, 4 handed.  I figured he would waltz to the win, but kudos to Tom 'Kingsofcards' Marchese, who remained patient and played very well heads up to take down the title.  While checking things today, I found an interview that Tom gave to FTR a couple years ago that was interesting if you are into heads up and analysis of his game at that time.  It's also interesting to see the progression of players who really apply themselves.