Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players â both amateurs and professionals â play the game. In this ongoing series, Iâll highlight hands Iâve seen at the tournaments Iâve covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them. The Scene A few months back, I got the assignment to drive a few hours into Iowa to cover As it happened, my good friend Nick Pupillo would make a deep run to the final table and was still in it when six players remained. He'd already locked up $31,716 and was playing for $162K up top, so the stakes were getting big for everyone involved.