March 2009 Archives

There was a time when young Scandinavian poker phenomenoms were as commopn as internet start-ups. With many looking for investment a short period of boom got everyone excited until capitalist realities, tied in with nature's 'survival of the fittest', seperated the high-minded from the high-skilled.

Just as businesses floundered so did some poker players. But not all of them. Some, call them the Googles and Amazons, went from strength from strength, needed to do little to convince those watching that they were in fact the real deal.

Step forward one of those number Johnny Lodden, who this week became the latest player, and the first Norwegian, to join the talented ranks of Team PokerStars Pro.

New Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden

While Lodden has appeared on this year's European Poker Tour in the familiar colours of PokerStars his first as a Team Pro will be in San Remo next month, followed by the season five grand finale in Monte Carlo a week later.

Lodden's tournament palmares is long. Just last September Lodden finished 11th in the World Series of Poker Europe Main event and in January this year was awarded the title of Norway's best poker player. All this came after he became a feature of the poker press aged just 18, amassing EPT tournament winnings in excess of $245,000 to date.

Johnny, welcome to the team.

It's a lesson quickly learned by every player that as a game of skill poker remains a game of frustration and swings that can drive you to a misspent hour in an Omaha game. Whether it's in those ring games on PokerStars.net or on the tournament tables of the latest weekly round two events it can be difficult to find consistency in your game, an ability to play at your best in each hand that's dealt to you.

But it can be done. Step forward Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano.

If you want to know how to be an all round solid poker player then you could do a lot worse than watching every tournament Pagano plays after his result at the EPT Dortmund last week set a new record for cash finishes - that's ten now for the Italian, a result that takes him to second place on the tour's tournament leader board behind fellow Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano

Pagano's EPT success began all the way back in season one in Vienna where a 14th place, followed by final tables in Deauville and in Barcelona that same year inked the Pagano name into magazines and cyberspace where they've remained ever since. His solid

Where his play lacked the flash recklessness of some of the games more publicity friendly players Pagano's strength lay in his sound knowledge of the game, steadfast patience and an ability to change gears, all of which resulted in more cashes in season two and three and a final table finish in last season's grand final in Monte Carlo. His sixth place in Dortmund takes his EPT winnings to $839,288.

Pagano also has the knack of keeping some perspective. After the misery of defeat in Germany he kept his disappointment to a minimum, his smile returning as his eye turned to the next EPT prize on the calendar, this time in his native Italy. San Remo host's the tour's next leg. Number 11 perhaps?

by Brad Willis and Change100

In the late hours of Day 2, Tournament Director Mike Ward began joking with 20 year-old Norwegian Karl Hevroy. Ward called the young online poker player "Houdini." At first, it was an inside joke between the two men. Tonight, it has a lot more meaning.

Hevroy is, in fact, the LAPT's master of escape. No matter how dire the situation, no matter how deep the hole, no matter how sure the lock, Hevroy managed to get free. The result? One very impressive feat of magic, $283,500, and an LAPT title.

Three hundred twenty-seven players started this event three days ago. The top 36 walked away with cash, but the big money was handed out tonight at the final table.

Nine people from around the world made it to this ultimate felt. Here's how they stacked up going into final table action (you can learn more about the players at our LAPT Punta del Este final table profiles report).

Seat 1: Andre Ventura 103,000
Seat 2: Oliver Rowe 412,000
Seat 3: Bolivar Palacios 167,000
Seat 4: Waldemar Cago 263,000
Seat 5: Karl Hevroy 1,079,000
Seat 6: Magno Aragao 153,000
Seat 7: Angel Guillen 572,000
Seat 8: Alejandro De Arruabarrena 397,000
Seat 9: Ron Wasiel 134,000

The LAPT Punta del Este final table

Andre Ventura was the comeback story of the tournament. At the end of Day 2, Ventura got pocket sixes in against queens and was crippled to 13,000 chips--less than one big blind. Within an hour, Ventura had doubled up a few times and made the final table.

On the very first hand of the final table, Angel Guillén came in for a raise. Ventura pushed all in with pocket queens and got got called by Guillén's A-7. Ventura doubled up and looked to go deep. It took a minor cooler to bust him.

After Ventura opened for 41,000, Oliver Rowe reraised to 101,000, Ventura moved all in for 153,000 total and Rowe quickly called. It wasn't pretty: Ventura's Jh-Jd against Rowe's Qs-Qd. Ventura's chorus of railbirds started chanting "Jota! Jota! Jota!" imploring for a jack on the flop for their man.

The flop, though, came down 9h-5h-2s. The "jota" chorus turned into the "corazon" choir when the Kh appeared on the turn, Ventura picking up a flush draw, but he couldn't get there, the 3d landing on the river to eliminate him in 9th place.

Andre Ventura

Magno Aragao was without a doubt one of the most affectionate poker players we have ever seen. When someone won, when someone lost, when someone looked like they just might need it, Aragao offered a giant, warm, manly hug. In our time as poker reporters, we have only one person offer so many hugs. That top spot was once held by Gentleman John Gale at the 2005 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Mr. Gale, you have some competition in the Department of Affection.

Eventually, there came a time when Aragao needed a hug. Under-the-gun and with only 30,000 remaining, Magno Aragao dribbled his remaining chips into the middle and got two callers in Oliver Rowe and big blind Karl Hevroy. The flop came down Ts-7c-5c. Hevroy checked, Rowe bet 40,000 and Hevroy folded. With no more action to be had, the cards were turned up. Aragao held Qd-Qc to Rowe's Jc-Td.

The room buzzed as Aragao's pocket queens were revealed. Were we going to witness yet another amazing comeback? The turn was the 8h. Now Aragao was really sweating, as Rowe could win with a ten, a jack or a nine. And the river... was the 9h, making him a jack-high straight.

The always-affectionate Aragao hugged his opponent before heading out to collect his $26,640 in winnings.

Aragao, in need of a hug

It had only been a couple of days since we saw Bolivar Palacios take seventh place in the LAPT Mexico event. Today, he came here looking to better that performance. He was in pretty good shape to do that after a couple of timely double-ups in the early going. His Panamanian Rat Pack of poker players cheered him with as much gusto as any other group in the room. Finally, Palacios picked up a big hand and got his chips in with two black queens. He was racing against Alejandro De Arruabarrena's As-Ks.

All looked well on the early part of the board. The first four cards came out 5d-4h-4s-7c. Then that ugly Kd fell on the river and Palacios was out in seventh place...again. He earned $37,740.

Boilvar Palacios

If you're the kind to root for an underdog, Waldemar Cogo was your man today. Short-stacked for his entire time here, he managed to turn one big blind into a couple of money jumps. Every time it looked like he was out, the cards brought him back in. Ultimately, he used the last of his nine lives. With the action folded to the small blind, Oliver Rowe completed, Cogo moved all in and Rowe made the call. It was the Ks-7h for Rowe, dominating Cogo's Kh-3s. The board ran out Kc-5s-2d-Jd-4s and Cogo headed out the door in sixth place. He won $48,840.

Waldemar Cogo

With Cogo gone, most of the stacks at the table were pretty big. We expected things to go slowly. They did not.

The next big hand was the kind that could make a player give up the game forever. On a flop of Js-9s-3h Oliver Rowe led out for 50,000 from the small blind and Karl Hevroy called.

The Kd came on the turn and Rowe considered for several minutes before settling on a bet of 115,000. Hevroy moved in and Rowe quickly called, showing 3d-3c for bottom set to Hevroy's Kc-Qh. The young Norwegian who entered the final table as the dominant chip leader was now drawing to only four outs that would save his tournament life.

What happened next was the stuff of tin foil hats. The Th landed on the river. Hevroy made a king-high straight and claimed the rest of Rowe's stack. Rowe's face told the story.

Oliver Rowe

With Rowe out of the way, short-stacked Ron Wasiel finally gave up the ghost. He got the rest of his chips in on a flop of Td-Ts-9s and Karl Hevroy made the call. Wasiel was in a tough spot, his Js-9c up against Hevroy's pocket jacks. The 8c on the turn gave him some outs to a chop should a seven or a queen appear, but the 3c hit the river, giving the hand to Hevroy and sending Wasiel to the rail in fourth place.

Ron Wasiel

We all started to learn our lesson on the next hand. The lesson?

Don't ever count out Karl Hevroy when he's behind.

Angel Guillen opened from the button for 64,000. Hevroy bumped it to 210,000 from the big blind and Guillen quickly moved all in. Hevroy made the call.

Guillen had his opponent dominated, holding the Ac-Jh to Hevroy's As-Tc. But remember what we told you...

The flop came down Qd-Ts-6c, pairing up Hevroy. The crowd roared in a mixture of celebration and total disbelief. The turn was the 6h, the river was the 7d, and just like that, Hevroy had claimed another victim.

Angel Guillén wits for his end with an anxious Team Mexico

And so we went to heads-up play. How long would you expect it to take when Hevroy had a nearly 6-1 chip lead on Alejandro De Arruabarrena?

Answer: One hand.

Alejandro De Arruabarrena completed the small blind and Karl Hevroy checked his option. The flop came down 9c-9d-8s. Hevroy checked over to De Arruabarrena, who bet 70,000. Hevroy called. The turn brought the 4h and another check from Hevroy. De Arruabarrena fired another 100,000, Hevroy moved all in and De Arruabarrena called.

It was all over as soon as the cards were turned up. Hevroy had flopped the nut full house with 8h-9h. De Arruabarrena was drawing dead, holding the Qd-Js. No river card was necessary, but for posterity's sake, we'll let you know it was the 4c.

Alejandro De Arruabarrena

Hevroy leapt from his chair and embraced his friends on the rail. It's probably the most emotion we've ever seen from a Scandinavian poker player.

De Arruabarrena was gracious and shook the young man's hand, wearing the same bewildered look that so many opponents have shown after playing a hand with this one-man wrecking crew.

Afterward, Hevroy could barely speak. Just a few days ago, he was having trouble withdrawing money from his online account. He borrowed $4,000 from a friend to buy in. Now, he is $283,500 richer.

"I'm so happy, I don't feel like I know anything. It's so sick," Hevroy said.

If there's any way to sum it up, it was this final quote from the man with the trophy.

"I had a few moments where I was in danger," he said,"and then I luckboxed my way out of it."

Congratulations to Karl Hevroy on his knockout, magical win.

The next stop on the Latin America Poker Tour will be our final of the second season. Join us in just a few weeks as we cover the finale in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

All photography Joe Giron/IMPDI

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 23 (15,000/30,000/3,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 9:12pm

9:12pm-- Karl Hevroy wins the LAPT Punta del Este ($283,500), Alejandro De Arruabarrena eliminated in 2nd place ($155,420)

I think the entire room agrees. It's good to be Karl Hevroy. And we all want to run as well as he does.

Heads-up play took exactly one hand. Alejandro De Arruabarrena completed the small blind and Karl Hevroy checked his option. The flop came down 9c-9d-8s. Hevroy checked over to De Arruabarrena, who bet 70,000. Hevroy called. The turn brought the 4h and another check from Hevroy. De Arruabarrena fired another 100,000, Hevroy moved all in and De Arruabarrena called.

It was all over as soon as the cards were turned up. Hevroy had flopped the nut full house with 8h-9h. De Arruabarrena was drawing dead, holding the Qd-Js. No river card was necessary, but for posterity's sake, we'll let you know it was the 4c.

Hevroy leapt from his chair and embraced his friends on the rail. It's probably the most emotion we've ever seen from a Scandinavian poker player. De Arruabarrena was gracious and shook the young man's hand, wearing the same bewildered look that so many opponents have shown after playing a hand with this one-man wrecking ball.

Congratulations to Karl Hevroy, our newest LAPT champion. We'll have a full wrap-up of all the final table action shortly.

9:06pm--Back in action

Heads-up play has just started. Blinds will go up in a matter of minutes.

8:59pm--Time to go

The players are coming back from dinner. While we wait, check out what our chip leader had to say before play started today.

7:48pm--Updated heads-up chip counts

Karl Hevroy -- 2,927,000
Alejandro De Arruabarrena --543,000

7:41pm--Dinner break

Before we get to the heads-up match, the players are going for a bite of dinner. We'll be back at 9:00pm local time.

7:32pm-- Angel Guillen eliminated in 3rd place ($99,120)

Don't ever count out Karl Hevroy when he's behind.

Angel Guillen opened from the button for 64,000. Hevroy bumped it to 210,000 from the big blind and Guillen quickly moved all in. Hevroy made the call.

Guillen had his opponent dominated, holding the Ac-Jh to Hevroy's As-Tc. But remember what we told you...

The flop came down Qd-Ts-6c, pairing up Hevroy. The crowd roared in a mixture of celebration and total disbelief. The turn was the 6h, the river was the 7d, and just like that, Hevroy had claimed another victim.

"Luckbox," Hevroy said, patting his chest and looking back at the crowd.

With that, we're now on a 75-minute dinner break. We'll be back just before 9 p.m. local time (EDT+1).

7:22pm-- Ron Wasiel eliminated in 4th place ($82,160)

Ron Wasiel got the rest of his chips in on a flop of Td-Ts-9s and Karl Hevroy made the call. Wasiel was in a tough spot, his Js-9c up against Hevroy's pocket jacks. The 8c on the turn gave him some outs to a chop should a seven or a queen appear, but the 3c hit the river, giving the hand to Hevroy and sending Wasiel to the rail in fourth place.

Here's an interview with Wasiel from a little earlier.

7:06pm-- Oh, the humanity... Oliver Rowe drowns on the river, finishes fifth ($59,960)

It was the kind of hand that could make a player give up the game forever. On a flop of Js-9s-3h Oliver Rowe led out for 50,000 from the small blind and Karl Hevroy called.

The Kd came on the turn and Rowe considered for several minutes before settling on a bet of 115,000. Hevroy moved in and Rowe quickly called, showing 3d-3c for bottom set to Hevroy's Kc-Qh. The young Norwegian who entered the final table as the dominant chip leader was now drawing to only four outs that would save his tournament life.

And in a stroke of luck that made us all want to break out our tin foil hats, the Th landed on the river. Hevroy made a king-high straight and claimed the rest of Rowe's stack.

Wow. I mean, just... wow.

"Just like your queen from last night!" exclaimed a railbird as Hevroy circled the table in a daze.

"This is worse," he replied.

Hevroy is still stacking up his massive lake of chips, but our estimate puts his chip count close to the 2 million mark.

...shame

Here is an interview we did with Rowe...back when we all still believed in justice.

6:57pm--Anyone want to see a flop?

In the 22 minutes that have ticked off the clock since returning from break, we've seen precious few flops. A pre-flop raise has been typically met with a reraise from the blinds and then a fold from the opening bettor. While Karl Hevroy and Angel Guillen still control most of the chips in play, Ron Wasiel's stack has been whittled down quite a bit by the blinds and antes.

6:30pm--On break

Players are on a short break before coming back to 15,000/30,000/3,000 blinds. Updated chip counts are:

Seat 2: Oliver Rowe 613,000
Seat 5: Karl Hevroy 1,052,000
Seat 7: Angel Guillen 760,000
Seat 8: Alejandro De Arruabarrena 450,000
Seat 9: Ron Wasiel 295,000

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 21 (12,000/24,000/2,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 5:51pm

6:11pm--A moving look at the final table

6:01pm--Hevroy takes a chunk out of Guillén

Karl Hevroy raised from the small blind and Guillén called out of the big (it's becoming a bit of a common thing these days). The flop fell Kh-Jh-7d and 90,000 came out of Hevroy's stack. Guillén called. The Qc on the turn slowed both players down. They checked and saw the Jd on the river. Now, Hevroy bet 170,000. Guillén seemed to be considering a raise, but eventually just called to see Hevroy's A-J.

5:51pm-- Waldemar Cogo eliminated in sixth place ($48,840)

Waldemar Cogo has used the last of his nine lives. With the action folded to the small blind, Oliver Rowe completed, Cogo moved all in and Rowe made the call. It was the Ks-7h for Rowe, dominating Cogo's Kh-3s. The board ran out Kc-5s-2d-Jd-4s and Cogo headed out the door in sixth place.

5:39pm--Cogo can't, won't, and don't stop

Waldemar Cogo just keeps doubling up. He doesn't have a lot of chips, but as long as he keeps winning, he's not going anywhere. Just a couple of hands after doubling through Angel Guillén once, Cogo did it again.

Cogo went all in for his final few chips from the button and got the call Guillén in the big blind.

Cogo: Kh-Jc
Guillén: 5c-Td

The board ran out Ah-Th-Kc-3s-2d and the Little Cogo (his nickname, not one we gave him) is still here.

5:30pm--Bolivar Palacios eliminated seventh place ($37,740)

It;s only been a couple of days since we saw Bolivar Palacios take seventh place in the LAPT Mexico event. Today, he came here looking to better that performance. He was in pretty good shape to do that after a couple of timely double-ups in the early going. Finally, he picked up a big hand and got his chips in with two black queens. He was racing against Alejandro De Arruabarrena's As-Ks.

All looked well on the early part of the board. The first four cards came out 5d-4h-4s-7c. Then that ugly Kd fell on the river and Palacios was out in seventh place...again.

5:23pm--Moving up

The remaining seven players are now on 12,000/24,000/2,000 blinds.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 21 (10,000/20,000/2,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 5:11pm

5:20pm--Half-million pot in battle of the blinds

After play folded around to the blind, Karl Hevroy raised to 60,000 out of the small blinid and Angel Guillén called in the big. The flop showed Qd-2d-6h. Hevroy bet out 80,000 and Guillén called. The turn brought the 3c. Hevroy didn't slow down and put out a bet of 150,000. Guillén, again, called. The river was the 9d. Hevroy finally backed off and checked. Guillén checked, too.

Wanna guess their hands?

Hevroy had 8-5 to Guillén's 8-6 and Guillén raked a pot worth more than half a million chips.

5:11pm-- Magno Aragao eliminated in 8th place ($26,640)

Under-the-gun and with only 30,000 remaining, Magno Aragao dribbled his remaining chips into the middle and got two callers in Oliver Rowe and big blind Karl Hevroy.

The flop came down Ts-7c-5c. Hevroy checked, Rowe bet 40,000 and Hevroy folded. With no more action to be had, the cards were turned up.

Aragao Qd-Qc
Rowe Jc-Td.

The room buzzed as Aragao's pocket queens were revealed. Were we going to witness yet another amazing comeback?

The turn was the 8h. Now Aragao was really sweating, as Rowe could win with a ten, a jack or a nine. And the river... was the 9h, making him a jack-high straight.

The always-affectionate Aragao hugged (hugged!) his opponent before heading out to collect his $26,640 in winnings.

5:07pm--Waldemar Cogo stays alive again

With only enough chips to pay his big blind, Cogo had no choice in the matter. When play folded to Oliver Rowe on the button, he pushed all-in to drive small blind Bolivia Palacios out of the pot. After Palacios folded, Cogo realized he was ahead.

Oliver Rowe -- Qs-6c

Waldemar Cogo -- Ad-3c

The board ran out Ks-5-s-5c-9c-Kh and Cogo lived to see another hand.

5:02pm-- Now that's a pot

After a thus-far subdued level of play, Angel Guillen and Oliver Rowe finally obliged us with a bit of action. Guillen opened for 42,000 and Rowe made the call. Guillen led out for 51,000 on the Ts-8s-5d flop and was met with a raise from Rowe to 151,000. Not content to give it up, Guillen three bet to 451,000. Apparently it was enough for Rowe, who mucked his hand.

4:43pm-- Another double for Wasiel

Ron Wasiel just earned another double-up courtesy of Magno Aragao. The action played out almost exactly the same as last time, Wasiel moving in for 104,000 from early position and Aragao making the call from the big blind. This time, though, Aragao had the best hand with 5c-5d, racing with Wasiel's Ad-Qc. The board ran out As-7d-2s- Qs-2c, Wasiel making aces up to double his stack and then some to 246,000. Aragao was left crippled with less than a big blind.

4:31pm-- Guillen playing back at Palacios

Bolivar Palacios opened for 60,000 and Angel Guillen made the call. The flop came down 8s-5s-4h. Palacios led at it for 80,000 only to have Guillen almost immediately move in. Looking a bit frustrated and taking off his sunglasses, Palacios reluctantly folded and gave up the pot to Guillen, who currently sits in second place in the chip count.

4:20pm-- Ron Wasiel doubles through Magno Aragao

Extremely short-stacked, Ron Wasiel moved in for his remaining 62,000 and with the action folded around to Magno Aragao in the big blind, he made the call. Wasiel showed the Ad-7d while Aragao turned up the 3c-5c. The Qs-9d-4s flop was safe for Wasiel, but the 6h on the turn gave him pause, Aragao making an open-ended straight draw. A deuce, three, five, or seven could do it for Aragao, but the river fell the As and Wasiel earned a reprieve with a double-up to just over 150,000.

4:16pm-- Updated chip counts

Here's how our remaining eight players stack up as of the first break:

Seat 2: Oliver Rowe 539,000
Seat 3: Bolivar Palacios 313,000
Seat 4: Waldemar Cogo 78,000
Seat 5: Karl Hevroy 1,237,000
Seat 6: Magno Aragao 174,000
Seat 7: Angel Guillen 542,000
Seat 8: Alejandro De Arruabarrena 333,000
Seat 9: Ron Wasiel 64,000

4:12pm--New level

After the break we'll be at 10,000/20,000/2,000 blinds.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 20 (8,000/16,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 4:00pm

4:00--SIETE!!!!!!!!!

Play folded around the the blinds and Bolivar Palacios almost immediately announced "All-in." The only thing faster was Waldemar Cogo's call

Cogo: Ad-Ts

Palacios: Ah-7h

"Lucky siete!" Palacios' crowd yell from the rail. "Vamos siete! Siete! Siete! Siete!"

From this side of the room, but to the guys waving a Panamanian flag scarf, it seemed sure to come. The flop came Kh-2d-3d, but it didn't quiet down the Panamanian Rat Pack.

"SIETE!: they screamed

And there it was. The 7c.

Palacios jumped in the air and landed with both feet flat on the ground, mouth agape, and his arms flexed (think King Kong if Fay Wray had just offered him special favors).

Palacios got a key double up and Cogo is now on the short stack.

We're on a 15 minute break.

3:33 pm-- Hevroy hits the turn

On a flop of Kh-7d-4h, Waldemar Cogo checked over to Karl Hevroy, who bet 52,000. Cago came along with a call and both players checked the 8c on the turn. The river fell the Ad and was met with checks again. Cogo had middle pair on the flop with 9h-7h, but Hevroy caught up on the turn with Ts-8d. Hevroy dragged the pot, adding to his already-formidable chip lead.

Cogo (left) and Hevroy

3:27pm-- Bolivar Palacios not letting up on the gas

Thus far, Bolivar Palacios has been playing quite aggressively despite his short stack, opening more than his fair share of pots. After open-shoving from early position, and Alejandro De Arruabarrena pondered a call, Palacios taunted, "This game is made for men... I'm not afraid of you!" De Arruabarrena must have believed him, as he gave up his hand and ceded another pot to the Panamanian.

3:09pm-- Andre Ventura eliminated in 9th place ($21,000)

Andre Ventura opened for 41,000, Oliver Rowe reraised to 101,000, Ventura moved all in for 153,000 total and Rowe quickly called. It was a bit of a cooler-- Ventura's Jh-Jd against Rowe's Qs-Qd. Ventura's chorus of railbirds started chanting "Jota! Jota! Jota!" imploring for a jack on the flop for their man.

The flop, though, came down 9h-5h-2s. The "jota" chorus turned into the "corazon" choir when the Kh appeared on the turn, Ventura picking up a flush draw, but he couldn't get there, the 3d landing on the river to eliminate him in 9th place.

Andre Ventura, 9th place

3:00pm--Blinds up!

After finishing off the last half of Level 19, we're now in for one hour of 8,000/16,000/1,000 blinds.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 19 (6,000/12,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 2:43pm

2:55pm--Magno Aragao forcing the action

Magno Aragao is not going to be content to sit back and get blinded out today. Two hands ago, he pushed all-in pre-flop and got the blinds and antes. On the next hand, Bolivar Palacios raised to 30,000. Aragao wasted no time before pushing all-in again. Palacios took a long time to fold, but eventually put his cards in the muck. Palacios told Aragao, "I'll see your hand later." While Palacios may see the cards on TV at some point, he's going to have to wonder today. Aragao didn't show his hand before raking in the chips.

2:43pm--New LAPT record

This is the first time in its two season history that the LAPT has had a prize pool of more than $1 million.

2:40pm--Hey, Mom! I'm on the TV!

If you've ever hung around the 441 production crew (the same folks who do the fantastic work for the ESPN WSOP broadcasts, you know the TV stage is pretty spectactular. It's no different here. The guys behind the cameras are top pros. They're here today to make stars of the nine men left in the tournament.

2:34pm-- Andre Ventura doubles through Angel Guillen

Angel Guillen kicked off the action with a raise to 29,000, Andre Ventura moved all in for 102,000 and Guillen made the call. It was Qc-Qs for Ventura against Guillen's As-7h. The flop came down Qh-5s-2d, Ventura letting out a deafening roar as he flopped top set. The 4h on the turn gave him a bit of a sweat as Guillen picked up a gutshot wheel draw, but the 6c on the river game Ventura a much-needed double up on the first hand of the final table.

2:30pm-- And... we're off

Our fearless tournament directors have introduced our nine final table players to the audience in both English and Spanish and play is now underway.

2:15pm--Final table about to begin

With 29 minutes left in Level 19, the final table players are taking their seats. We will begin shortly.

The final table of the Latin American Poker Tour event in Punta del Este is scheduled to begin in about an hour. Nine people out of the original starting field of 327 remain and will be competing for the $283,500 first prize. The PokerStars Blog will have live coverage beginning at 2pm local time.

Here is a little bit about the final table players.

Seat 1: Andre Ventura (Brazil) 103,000 -- You may look at Andre Ventura's chip stack and wonder if he's at all happy with being the shortest stack at the table. Consider this: just an hour before play broke for the night, he only had 13,000 chips--not even enough to pay the blinds. After getting crippled with pocket sixes against pocket queens,

Ventura battled back to make the final table. The 28 year-old hedge fund manager is a married man, but after not having a vacation in two years decided to come to Punta with his buddies. He's been playing online since 2004, but this is his first live event.

Seat 2: Oliver Rowe (Canada) 412,000 -- If you look at Oliver Rowe the right way, you might think he's a South America revolutionary.

With a bit of scruff on his face and a particular kind of cap, he could pass pretty well. In fact, the online poker pro is from Vancouver, Canada. S

oft-spoken and hard to read, Rowe came out of Day 1 with the chip lead and powered through Day 2 to make the final table.

Though he's played the World Series Main Event and a tournament on at APPT, this is his first big live cash. Rowe qualified for this event through a PokerStars Steps tournament.

Seat 3: Bolivar Palacios (Panama) 167,000 -- Bolivar Palacios, born and still living in Santiago de Veraguas, Panamá was an industrial engineer for 5 months until he received a check for $300 and deposited it online. Since that deposit, he has cashed for $350,000 in lifetime winnings online. Now a professional poker player for a year, he has two final tables under his belt. He took seventh place in the LAPT Mexico event and now is ready to play his second. He think he is a better online tourney player than live tournament player, but he seems to be proving his theory wrong so far this week.

He is a member of the "rat pack of Panama" along with his best friends, Jose Severino, Victor Lemos and Jose Miguel de la Guardia.

Seat 4: Waldemar Cogo (Brazil) 263,000 -- Waldemar Cogo hails from Ponta Porã in Mato Grosso.

Retired and living strong at 64 years old, he's living the high light afteer a career seeling auto parts. Cogo only started playing online poker a couple of months ago. This is his first live tournament ever.

Cogo carries himself quietly and plays with a general calm that is an example to anybody who plays.

Even when doubling up just before the final table, Cogo barely raised his voice.

Married with three daughters, Cogo is known in his home town as "Coguinho"...short for "Little Cogo."

Seat 5: Karl Hevroy (Norway) 1,079,000 -- Karl Hevroy had a problem with his buy-in. He couldn't withdraw enough money from his account in time to buy into the event. Fortunately, the 20-year-old politics student had some friends to call on. Hevroy had met a bunch of Peruvians buddies at EPT Copenhagen and decided to come visit. The friends were headed to Uruguay for the LAPT, so he joined them. It turned out to be a good decision. He's the chip leader in this event with nearly double the chips of his closest competitor. Hailing from Bergen, Norway, Henvroy is a long way from home, but already showing he has adapted well to warmer climes.

Seat 6: Magno Aragão (Brazil) 153,000 -- Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Magno Aragão was chip leader on Level 3, but ended up losing most of his chips before the end of Day 1.

At 42 years old--married with three kids--he chalked up his Day 1 losses to fatigue. After making it to Day 2, he hoped to make the money. He did more than that.

After spending the entire day on the short stack, he "climbed the ladder step by step" and made the final table.

The aluminum company owner also likes to drive rally cars in his spare time.

Seat 7: Angel Guillén (Mexico) 572,000 -- Angel Guillen hopes to be the first Mexican to win the coveted title of LAPT champion. The opportunity is source of pride not only for him, but for Mexico in general.

Guillén represents the PokerStars-sponsored Team Mexico. Guillén has been playing poker professionally more than two years.

His day job consists of live cash games, and on Sunday he likes to sit back and relax while cashing in the Sunday 500. Having recently placed 51st in the PCA, Guillén is still hungry for a live tournament victory and hopes Friday will be that day.

Seat 8: Alejandro De Arruabarrena (Argentina) 397,000 -- Alejandro De Arruabarrena is looking at an ideal situation for any sport: beautiful weather and homefield advantage. De Arruabarrena has been playing poker for the past four years in Uruguay, and he's done well. He's won five tournaments in Uruguay. His most recent victory was in December. When he's not tearing up the Uruguayan poker scene, this father of two returns to his day job of importing computers and electronics. De Arruabarrena recently discovered the joy of online poker. He joined PokerStars under the name of 'Alex6818' and has been spending his Sundays on the virtual felt. De Arruabarrena feels confident about Friday, and expects to improve his homegame record to 6-0.

Seat 9: Ron Wiesel (USA) 134,000 -- Normally a $10 rebuy tournament player on Pokerstars, Wiesel is about to embark on his biggest poker performance ever. The union painter from the south Chicago, Illinois suburbs is playing on only his second big live event ever. He played one event on the APPT in Macau, but didn't manage to cash. Now, he's made it all the way to the final table. The return on his investment looks to be a good one. He got into this event through a PokerStars $10 3x chance qualifier. Now he stands to make a minimum of $21,000. No matter how he paints it, it's a good showing. "Hey, I made it," he said as he walked off the stage on Day 2. "I didn't expect to be here tomorrow." You are, sir. You are.

Latin American poker players are an emotional bunch. It's almost impossible to spend more than a few minutes inside of the tournament room here at the Mantra Resort & Casino without witnessing a wild outburst, hearing a palm slam against the felt in frustration or seeing a fist pumped into the air in victory. While poker phrases like "so sick," "pair the board," and "one time!" are so overused these days they have become cringe-worthy, these words somehow seem all the more dramatic when bellowed en espanol. Even as I type this, some poor man in the next room is shouting "SEIS! SEIS! OH MY GAAAD! SO SEEEEK!" at the top of his lungs after suffering a brutal river suckout.

Welcome to the Latin American Poker Tour, where the sun shines, the breezes are warm, the beef is plentiful and grown men can sound like psychiatric patients when the cards don't fall their way.

64 players returned to action today, 36 would earn prize money and nine would make the televised final table. With a second-chance event running in the main ballroom, the remaining field moved to a smaller adjacent room adorned with camera-friendly lighting and ringed with red curtains. Alberto Font and Oliver Rowe came into Day 2 as the chip leaders, with 135,000 and 136,000 respectively, though only one of them would reach the final table.

Alex Brenes' Day 2 started and ended on the TV featured table. The tournament's third-shortest stack coming into play today, Brenes moved all in for 22,600 from under-the-gun and Magno Aragao made the call from the button. It was a race situation with Th-Ts for Brenes and the Ad-Jd for Aragao. The flop was Kh-Qs-7d, Brenes still leading, but the Td on the turn made Aragao an ace-high straight. It also gave Brenes a set and some hope of survival if the board paired on the river, but it blanked out with the 2h and Brenes exited stage left. Brenes finished in second place in Season 1's installment of this event, but a final table repeat for him just wasn't in the cards.

Alex Brenes departs from the featured table

Brazilian pro Christian Kruel had been playing a tight, calculated game the entire tournament and seemed a shoo-in to go deep, but he would hit the rail well before the money. Kruel ultimately got his chips in the middle with a monster draw, holding Ah-Qh vs. his opponent's pocket kings on a Js-Th-8h flop. The turn and river blanked out for him, however and his tournament came to an end.

So Kruel...

It took four hours of play for us to hit the money bubble, which was burst by Alberto Araujo. Down to less than three big blinds and with the action folded to him, Araujo moved all in from the small blind. It was up to Oliver Rowe in the big blind.

"You have the odds, you have to call!" quipped Araujo, who was already out of his seat in eager anticipation.

Rowe couldn't have liked the 3d-6c he saw, but nevertheless was compelled to call. Araujo turned up Kd-Qs.

The flop, though, came down Jd-7c-3s, pairing up Rowe. The Ad came on the turn, giving Araujo outs with a king, a queen or a ten, but the river was another three, and Rowe took it down with trips, leaving Araujo as Punta del Este's bubble boy.

Alberto Araujo sees the bad news

Once our remaining 36 players were in the money, the chips really started flying. We lost ten players in the space of an hour, including three who busted on the same hand and ended up splitting the $2,780 difference between 28th and 27th place three ways.

With three tables remaining, a trio of players began taking control of the action and collecting most of the chips. Ron Wasiel, a house painter from suburban Chicago, started flopping two pair like it was nothing. First he cracked Gabriel Loyo's pocket kings with A-Q when the flop came down A-Q-5 to send him to the rail. Only minutes later, Ricardo Goncalves moved his short stack in from the button with A-6 and Wasiel called from the big blind with K-6, the flop coming down K-6-9.

Ron Wasiel

Oliver Rowe took the chip lead early in the day when he opened from UTG for 20,000 only to be met with an all-in reraise to 115,000 from Alberto Font. With 165,000 behind, Rowe made the call for most of his chips and saw his A-K hold up against Font's 9s-7s to vault him over the 300,000 chip mark. He ended the day with 412,000, good for third in chips.

Oliver Rowe

The story of the late evening, though was Karl Hevroy, aka the one-man Norwegian wrecking ball. He of the perfectly messy blonde hair knocked out Walter Arakaki in 20th place when his A-Q flopped trips against pocket fives. Minutes later he did away with 19th place finisher Hernan Reyes, his 7h-7c flopping a set against Reyes' Kh-Ts. 17th place finisher Adolfo Vaeza also hit the rail courtesy of Hevroy, as did Octavio Bernardini (12th), and Alejandro Bonnanato (11th).

Karl Hevroy

On the final table bubble, Hevroy's Houdini-esque powers would give all of us a relatively early night. On the very first deal of hand-for-hand play, Rommer Prado pushed for 120,000 with Ad-Jd and Hevroy made the call with Qs-Jh.

Oh, the agony

"How can you call with that?" asked Prado in Spanish as the board ran out Tc-Ts-2h-7d-Qd. The room exploded and our final table players celebrated around Prado's grief.

A bewildered Hevroy can't believe he rivered the queen

Our final nine will return at 2 p.m. local time (EDT+1) tomorrow to crown a new LAPT champion. Here's how their chip counts stack up:

Seat 1: Andre Ventura 103,000
Seat 2: Oliver Rowe 412,000
Seat 3: Bolivar Palacios 167,000
Seat 4: Waldemar Cago 263,000
Seat 5: Karl Hevroy 1,079,000
Seat 6: Magno Aragao 153,000
Seat 7: Angel Guillen 572,000
Seat 8: Alejandro De Arruaballena 397,000
Seat 9: Ron Wasiel 134,000

All photography © Joe Giron, IMPDI

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 19 (6,000/12,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 11:45pm

11:45pm--Final table to begin at 2pm Friday

Join us here for a live coverage of the final table Friday at 2pm. We'll be back with a full wrap-up in just a bit.

11:30pm--Final table chip counts

Karl Hevroy 1,079,000
Angel Guillén -- 572,000
Oliver Rowe -- 412,000
Alejandro De Arruaballena -- 397,000
Waldermar Cogo -- 263,000
Bolivar Palacios -- 167,000
Magno Aragao 153,000
Ron Wasiel -- 134,000
Andre Ventura -- 103,000

11:15pm--Rommer Prado eliminated 10th place ($18,320)

The final table of nine is set, Rommer Prado was just beat in a dirty, dirty way. He pushed all in for nearly 120,000. Karl Hevoy called with Q-J. Prado asked in Spanish, "How can you call with that?" The board ran out Tc-Ts-2h-7d-Qd. The room exploded and our final table players celebrated around Prado's grief. Prado finishes 10th for $18,320.

11:00pm-- Alejandro Bonanata eliminated in 11th place ($18,320)

Making his last stand with Kd-Th, Alejandro Bonanata moved all in from middle position only to run smack into Karl Hevroy's pocket aces. Though the Ks-Js-8d flop paired him up, the Ah on the turn made Hevroy a set, leaving him drawing only to a queen. The river came the 2s, though and Bonanata's tournament came to an end. He'll go home with $18,320 as well as the autographed fossil he earned yesterday by knocking out Greg Raymer.

10:45pm--Octavio Bernardini eliminated in 12th place ($18,320)

As it looks right now, there's no stopping Karl Hevroy, who just added even more to his massive stack by taking out Octavio Bernardini. Their money went in a flop of Qc-Ts-7s, each having hit a piece of it-- Bernardini with Ah-Td for middle pair and Hevroy the Ac-Qd for top pair. There was no help for Bernardini when a deuce hit the turn and an eight the river, leaving him to hit the rail.

10:30pm-- Blinds up!

The blinds have climbed up once more, with our final twelve playing 6,000/12,000 with a 1,000 ante.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 16 (5,000/10,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 10:38pm

10:38pm--Mario Salvagno out in 13th ($15,540)

You might have noticed a trend here. People are saying all-in more than they're saying fold. This time, it was our early Day 2 chip leader Mario Salvagno. He got Ac-Qc all-in pre-flop against Oliver Rowe's pocket aces. The board came Qd-Jd-3s-Kc-8d and Salvagno was gone.

10:34pm--Lisandro Gallo eliminated 14th place ($15,540)

Lisandro Gallo spent most of his day beating up on people, but in the end, he couldn't outrun a pair of eights with his K-J all-in pre-flop. He's out in 14th place for $15,540.

10:27pm--Oscar Hilarro Quijada eliminated in 15th place ($15,540)

Moments after doubling up against Karl Hevoy, Octavio Bernardini put Oscar Hilarro Quijad out of the event, his Qh-Jh beating K-2 all-in preflop. The board ran out Qs-5c-3h-8d-Qd and Quijada was eliminated.

10:20pm--Andre Ventura crippled, doubles -- Magno Aragao loves his lady

Moments ago, Andre Venture got all in with pocket sixes against Waldemar Cogo's queens and was left with barely enough to pay the blinds after failing to suck out. On the next hand, he doubled up against Cogo with Ac-9c against Ah-8d.

On the outer table Magno Aragao got all-in with K-Q versus against Karl Hevoy's black jacks. Aragao paired both his king and queen to double up.

9:57pm--Felipe Ivar eliminated 16th place ($12,760)

Brazil's Felipe Ivar just got Ac-9c all in against pocket tens. Though he flopped a nine and turned a club draw, he couldn't get there on the river and was eliminated in 16th place for $12,760.

9:44pm--Adolfo Vaeza eliminated 17th place ($12,760)

Adolfo Vaeza just got it all-in pre-flop with chip leader Karl Hevroy. At this point in the tournament, you could call this one a cooler. Vaeza held Ac-Qd to Hevroy's Ad-Kd. Hevroy made his king on the flop and that was that.

9:40pm--Antes up

We're now playing 5,000/10,000/1,000 blinds with 17 players remaining. We will play until we reach the final table of nine.

While we get rolling here, here's what some of the people here thinks goes into making a good poker tournament.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 16 (4,000/8,000/500) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 9:04pm

9:30pm--Level ends

Dinner must be digesting slowly. That level ended with no more significant action. A color up is pending, followed by the blinds going up.

9:07pm--A word with Oliver

Oliver Rowe has been near the top of the leaderboard. Here's what he had to say to our video blog team.

9:05--Ready to go

We're back from dinner and ready to go with the final 17 players. There are 19 minutes left in the 4,000/8,000/500 level.

7:40--Dinner time

After a bit of a break for the redraw, it's time for dinner. Back at 9:00pm.

7:34pm--Karl Hevroy, a long way from home

Norwegian Karl Hevroy came a long way from his home poker game to play here. Here's how he feels about the event so far.

7:24pm-- Hernan Reyes (19th), Simon Castro (18th) eliminated

Play went hand-for-hand with a pay jump imminent and once again, we managed to eliminate multiple players at multiple tables on the same hand.

Over on the TV featured table, Hernan Reyes moved all in for 42,000 and received a caller in Norway's Karl Hevroy. It was a race situation, Reyes' Kh-Ts against Hevroy's 7h-7c, but the flop was a disaster for Reyes, Hevroy hitting a set of sevens when it came down Ad-Ks-7s. Reyes was drawing dead on the 4c turn and was already on his way to the payout desk before the meaningless Jh hit the river.

Meanwhile, on one of the two remaining outer tables, Simon Castro made his last stand with Q-J only to run into Ron Wasiel's K-K. Castro couldn't improve on the T-8-6-3-6 board and he, too was eliminated.

Splitting the difference between 19th and 18th place money, both players will take home $11,380 for their efforts.

7:13pm--Walter Arakaki eliminated in 20th place ($10,000)

In a huge battle of the blinds at the feature table, Walter Arakaki got his stack in with a pair of fives against Karl Hevroy's Ac-Qd. The flop was a soul-crusher: Ah-Jd-Ad. The turn and river revealed no fives and Arakaki was gone. Meanwhile, Henvroy is stacking chips in relief. He is now among the top two or three remaining stacks.

Karl Hevroy sighs with relief

Nineteen players remain. We are now playing hand for hand.

7:05pm-- Ricardo Goncalves Neto eliminated in 21st place ($10,000)

If we've learned anything today it's not to try and cross Ron Waisel-- he will flop two pair on you. This time Waisel's victim was Ricardo Goncalves Neto, who moved all in with As-6s from the button. Waisel called from the big blind with Kd-6d and Neto looked practically giddy, having his opponent dominated. Not so fast there, amigo.

The flop came down Ks-9h-6c, Waisel making kings up. The turn and river blanked out with the 2h and the Jd and Neto was knocked out in 21st place.

6:57pm--Bad time to bluff--Tiago Boita eliminated in 22nd place ($10,000)

Tiago Boita may have missed a few of the earlier eliminations when Lisandro Gallo acted as a one-man wrecking crew. So, when Gallo came in for a raise, Boita probably didn't think much about bluffing all in with K-4. Gallo called in a shot with Jd-Jc. Boita seemed confident, telling his friends to watch, because the king was coming.

And sure enough, there it was, right in the door. He cheered and then groaned when he saw the next card. The jack have Gallo his set and the virtual lock on the hand. Boita finished in 22nd place for $10,000.

6:51pm-- Vialaret Ezequiel eliminated in 23rd place ($10,000)

Vialaret Ezequiel moved all in from under-the-gun for his case 29,500 and Waldemar Cogo called from the big blind. Ezequiel turned over his 9c-3d with a shrug that said "Hey, I have less than four big blinds, what could I do?" while Cogo revealed Qh-Tc. A ten hit the flop and another hit the river, sending Ezequiel over to the payout desk to collect his $10,000 in prize money.

6:35pm--New blinds and food in sight

Tournament Director Mike Ward has just announced the decision to move the dinner break up by one level. That means, we play one more hour before heading for grub. Twenty-three players remain.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 16 (3,000/6,000/500) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 6:20pm

6:20pm-- Gabriel Loyo eliminated in 24th place ($10,000)

Ron Wasiel opened the action with a raise to 15,000 and Gabriel Loyo popped it to 45,000, leaving himself only 31,000 behind. Wasiel set him all in and Loyo snap-called. Though Wasiel's Ah-Qs trailed Loyo's pocket kings, the house painter from Illinois hit a blessed flop, clapping his hands together as the first three came down Ad-Qh-5s. Loyo got a bit of a sweat when the Td hit the turn, giving him more outs with the four remaining jacks in the deck but the river came the 8c and Loyo exited with handshakes around the table, in 24th place.

6:05pm--Local boy does good, Cesar Sanguinetti eliminated in 25th place ($10,000)

It was ugly. There is simply no other way to put it. Oliver Rowe raised to 16,000 and Uruguay's Cesar Sanguinetti moved all-in for 38,500 more. Rowe thought for just a moment before calling with his pocket sevens. Sanguinetti held pocket kings. The seven on the turn drew a wry smile from the Uruguayan. He didn't catch his two outs on the river and is out in 25th place for $10,000.

5:38pm-- Geoff Swan (28th), Helio Chreem (27th) and Alberto Font (26th) simultaneously eliminated

Just as we hit the first post-bubble money jump, three players on three different tables were all eliminated on what was essentially the same hand.

Oliver Rowe opened for 16,000 from UTG and with the action folded to Alberto Font in the cutoff, he moved all in for about 115,000. Rowe had about 165,000 behind and must have picked up on something from his opponent, as he made a massive call for the majority of his stack. Font sheepishly turned up 9s-7s, well behind Rowe's As-Kc. The board ran out Ah-Jh-6c-7h-Tc and Rowe became our dominant chip leader, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 in chips.

Alberto Font

One table over, Tiago Boita moved all in from UTG and Geoff Swan called from the small blind. It was Kc-Qc for Boita, and Ah-Jc for Swan, the flop coming down 7c-7d-6c. Swan still held the lead and he made top two pair when the Jh hit the turn, but the Qh spiked on the river, giving the hand to Boita and sending him to the rail.

If that wasn't enough action, on our third outer table, Helio Chreem moved all in from under-the-gun with A-5 only to get a quick call from the man on his immediate left, Ricardo Goncalves Neto. Neto showed pocket jacks and they held up.

The three men will split the difference in prize money three ways.

5:25pm--Ibuki Fukui and Mauricio Zeman bust in same hand ($7,220)

Ibuki Fukui moved all-in under the gun for around 35,000. Play folded around to Maurcio Zeman in the small blind. He called all-in for 10,000. Alberto Font was in the big blind and had both players covered. He thought for a couple of minutes before deciding, "There's too much money in the pot." He called the 35,000 and turned over pocket deuces. Fukui held A-Q. Zeman turned over A-9. The board ran out babies, including a deuce to lock up the pot for Font. Zeman finished in 30th position. Fukui placed 29th.

Zeman sees his end

5:11pm--Players returning from break

Players are on their way back from their break. Play will resume shortly.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 15 (2,000/4,000/400) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 5:01pm

5:01pm--Alex Fitzgerald and Edson Esquio eliminated back to back ($7,220)

Lisandro Gallo may get us to a final table before dinner. He knocked out both Alex Fitzgerald and Edson Esquio back to back in the lat hands before the break.

Alex Fitzgerald was short and in need of a double-up. Folded to him in the cut-off, he got it in with Jd-8d. Unfortunately for him, Lisandro Gallo woke up with big slick. The board blanked out and Fitzgeral exited in 32nd place.

Just a minute later, Esquio bluffed all-in on a QQ3 board with K-J. Gallo called him with pocket sevens. Esquio missed and went out in 31st place.

Players are now on a 15-minute break.

4:50pm-- Jose Rosenkrantz eliminated in 33rd place ($7,220)

Over on the TV featured table, Jose Rosenkrantz made his move with Qc-Jd and was called by an opponent with Ac-Jh. The flop gave Rosenkrantz a gutshot straight draw, coming down Ts-8d-2h and he picked up even more outs with the Ks on the turn, but the river blanked out, the 3c falling to eliminate the WPT champion in 33rd place.

4:48pm--Rodrigo Acerbi Lasmar eliminated in 34th place ($7,220)

Rodrigo Acerbi Lasmar made his last stand with Qh-9d and found himself dominated by Simon Castro's Qd-Jd. Though Lasmar flopped a nine, Castro rivered a jack and sent him to the rail in 34th place.

4:45pm--Ron Wasiel still alive

We mentioned a few minutes ago that PokerStars qualifier Ron Wasiel managed to survive his all-in. The painter from south of Chicago spoke to our video blog team just a bit ago and had this to say.

4:39pm--Let's go spend $7,220!

With the prize money not jumping for a bit, players are starting to drop off like canaries in gas-filled mine. We'll update with recent eliminations in just a bit.

4:30pm--Clemenceau Merheb Calixto eliminated 36th place ($7,220)

Clemenceau Merheb Calixto was looking to triple up with pocket threes all-in against Ron Wasiel's Ad-Qh and Lisandro Gallo's Ac-Jc. He was doing fine on the Td-5d-Ts-2d board. And then the river paired the five to counterfeit him and send him out in 36th place.

4:20pm-- Alberto Araujo Jr. bursts the bubble

Down to less than three big blinds and with the action folded to him, Alberto Araujo moved all in from the small blind. It was up to Oliver Rowe in the big blind.

"You have the odds, you have to call!" quipped Araujo, who was out of his seat in eager anticipation.

Rowe couldn't have liked the 3d-6c he saw, but nevertheless was compelled to call. Araujo turned up Kd-Qs.

The flop, though, came down Jd-7c-3s, pairing up Rowe. The Ad came on the turn, giving Araujo outs with a king, a queen or a ten, but the river was another three, and Rowe took it down with trips, leaving Araujo as Punta del Este's bubble boy.

Our 36 remaining players are all in the money and guaranteed at least $7,220 for their efforts here in Uruguay.

4:15pm--Man down!

Short-stacked Gustav Schuldt Langner needed a double-up. He shoved with Qd-5h and got called by a pair of queens. Langner couldn't catch up. With his exit and one on the outer table, we're now on the bubble.

4:06pm-- Spada! Spada! Spada!

Octavio Bernadini put his last hopes on the As-Qs, getting all in before the flop but found himself up against Lisandro Pablo Gallo's Ac-Ah. With the tournament stuck at 39 players remaining for the last half a level, a crowd swarmed the table to watch Bernadini's fate play out. The flop came down a sweat-tastic 7s-5d-2s.

"Spada! Spada! Spada!" cried Bernadini, while Gallo countered with "Roja! Roja! Roja!" praying for a red card. Bernadini, though would be the one to get his wish, the 4s falling on the turn.

A booming "YES!" pierced the clatter of chips as Bernadini survived the hand, and high-fived one of his tablemates as he made his flush. Gallo could only shake his head in frustration. And we remain... at 39 players.

3:48pm--Head up, move'em out, blinds up

The 39 remaining players have moved up to 2,000/4,000/400 blinds.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 13 (1,500/3,000/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

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Last update 3:42pm

3:42pm--"I don't not want to risk losing with a pair of aces."

Bolivar Palacios was facing a raise to 10,000 from Andre Ventura. Palacios was still stack checks from a previous hand and casually re-raised to 25,000. Venture started counting in his head, with his fingers, and in a whisper. Eventually, he pushed out 75,000 chips. Palacios was facing a 60,000 raise on his re-raise.

That's when Ventura said it.

"I don't not want to risk losing with a pair of aces."

Do you ever believe a guy when he says that? Palacios simply couldn't figure it out. After nearly five minutes of thought, he mucked. Ventura flashed one ace and folded.

3:40pm--As you might expect...

Play has slowed down a little bit as we approach. Players are craning their necks to check out the action on the other tables. The bubble will come, but it may not be for a while.

3:35pm--Song for the departed

You can't win'em all. Paulo Santiago started the day with us, but is no more. Here's what he had to say a little bit earlier.

3:18pm--Leonardo Emperador eliminated in the battle of Venezuela

With twelve big blinds remaining in his stack and the action folded to him on the button, Leonardo Emperador moved all in for his remaining 36,000 and got a caller in fellow Venezuelan Hernan Reyes. Emperador's Js-Jh was in great shape against Reyes' Ad-2d, but the Ah-6s-4s flop swung the lead around to Reyes. The turn was the Ts, Emperador picking up a flush draw, but the 7d on the river sealed his elimination, only three spots off the money.

3:06pm-- Cruel timing for Kruel

Christian Kruel just got his money in with Ah-Qh versus pocket kings. You might expect that when the flop looked like Th-8h-Js. The turn and river blanked on him and he's gone. Thirty-nine players remain.

2:52pm-- Two more down

They're dropping like... you know, as we rapidly approach the bubble. In the opening minutes of this level, we lost Ernesto Eduardo Panno when his 3c-6c couldn't outrun Angel Guillen's Kd-Qc and only a few minutes later witnessed Eduardo Canto's shove from the small blind with Kd-4s, only to run into Oliver Rowe's Ah-Th. Though Canto flopped a four, Rowe turned an ace and he hit the rail only a precious few spots from the money.

39 players remain, 36 get paid.

2:45pm--Back in action

After a short break to collect their thoughts and hit the head, the players are back at their tables and ready to play.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 13 (1,200/2,400/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 2:25pm

2:25pm--Break time

The remaining 45 players are headed to a 15-minute break. While you're waiting, check out this Day 2 preview from the PokerStars Video Blog team.

2:22pm-- A monster pot to send us to break

Tournament Director Mike Ward's announcement that "Maximilian is all in for 49,500" sent us scurrying to the feature table to catch the action in what would be a monster pot. With the board reading Jd-9h-2h-7s, Maximilian Heinzelmann made a significant all in overbet with the 4h-5h and got a call from Alejandro De Arruaballena, who held Kh-Js. The 5c couldn't do it for the young German and he hit the rail just as the final seconds of the level ticked down. De Arruaballena lost the first five minutes of the break stacking up his massive lake of chips but something tells us he wasn't too upset about it.

2:20pm--The turn giveth...

And the river taketh right the heck away. Just ask Marcelo Costa. He got all in with K-T against Vialaret Ezequiel's K-Q. Bad news, to be sure, especially after the A-6-9 flop. But there it was, glorious and spectacular--a ten on the turn. But what? Yep, that's a queen on the river. It cost Costa the rest of his chips and leaves him short of the money by about ten spots. We'll let you figure out which player is which by looking at the two photos below.

2:08pm-- Cowboys save Neto

Marcelo Costa opened from the hijack seat and a short-stacked Ricardo Goncalves Neto moved all in from the cutoff. Costa called the small balance and saw the bad news-- his Ad-Qh was up against Neto's Kc-Kd. The board ran out 9h-9s-2c-9c-7s and nines full did it for Neto, doubling his stack to 33,000.

2:00pm--Salvagno gives some more back

Chip leader Mario Salvagno just lost a race for a 60,000 chip pot. He got it all-in pre-flop with a pair of sixes against Tiago Boita's Ad-Qd. The board ran out to an ace on the river. Salvagno is still in good shape, but the 30,000 hit obviously didn't feel very good.

1:50pm--Andre Ventura eliminates Juan Jose Perez

Rodrigo Acerbi Lasmar came in for a raise and got a call from Andre Ventura. Juan Jose Perez squeezed all-in from the small blind. Lasmar mucked fairly quickly, but Ventura made the call with Ah-Qh. Perez turned over A-J. The board was irrelevant, except for Lasmar who grumbled. He'd folded a pair of threes which would've flopped a set. Ventura was left to spend the next five minutes stacking chips.

1:46pm-- Rowe KO's Neto

With the action folded to him in the small blind, Francisco Neto moved in for his remaining 18,600 and Day 1 chip leader Oliver Rowe made the call from the big blind. Neto needed some help, his Ah-Th dominated by Rowe's Ac-Jd, but couldn't improve on the Kc-6d-6s-4h 9h board, sending him to the rail.

1:37pm-- Try not to hit the boom...

Growing short-stacked, Walter Arakaki moved all in from the button and Juan Jose Perez quickly called from the big blind. Perez's Ac-Kc dominated Arakaki's As-Td, but fortunes were reversed when the flop came down Th-6d-2h. Arakaki went wild, leaping from his seat and unleashing a torrent of Spanish as ESPN's crack sound operators moved their boom mikes up and away to avoid smacking him in the head as he celebrated. The turn was the 7s, the river was the 4c and Arakaki doubled up, leaving Perez with 36,000 in chips.

As Arakaki celebrated, one table over Samo Muhia committed his last 9,400 chips with 3c-5s and couoldn't outrun Clemenceau Merheb Calixto's Ac-Ts and made a quiet exit.

1:30pm--New level, new blinds

We lost ten players in Level 11. We now have 54 players in the field playing at 1,200/2,400/300 blinds.

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 11 (1,000/2,000/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100.

Click refresh to see the latest updates.

Last update 1:22pm

1:22pm-- Alberto Font takes out Pablo Zarnicki

We caught up with this hand on the flop, the board reading Js-7c-2s. Pablo Zarnicki put out a nearly pot-sized bet and Alberto Font made the call. Zarnicki couldn't move all in fast enough when the Ah hit the turn and Font snap-called, revealing a set of deuces. Zarnicki, bluffing with Ks-Qc, was drawing only to the four remaining tens in the deck and couldn't get there on the river, his lake of tumbled chip stacks pushed across the table to Font.

1:15pm--It was always a race...

When you have a pocket pair against overcards, it's easy to accept you're in a race pre-flop. However, once the cards come down and you see the flop and turn, it's a little harder to accept you're still racing. Poor Alexandre Reichardt De Souza started this day with just a little more than 20,000 chips and needed a good race to double up. He found it with pocket sevens versis Juan Jose Perez's K-Q. When the flop and turn brought 4d-5d-Th-5h, the man with the sevens started to look pretty happy. If not for that pesky Ks on the river, everything would've been fine. Instead, De Souza is gone.

1:11 pm-- Alberto Araujo doubles through Mario Salvagno

Mario Salvagno opened from UTG for 6,000, Alberto Araujo moved all in for 14,700 and Salvagno called the 8,700 balance. Araujo's Ac-Kc dominated Salvagno's Ah-3h and with the board running out Jc-6d-4s-7c-Ad, he doubled through our current chip leader. Salvagno, though still likely has that title-- his stack is still well over the 170,000 mark.

12:59 pm-- Alex Brenes eliminated

Over on the TV featured table, a short-stacked Alex Brenes moved all in for 22,600 from under-the-gun and Magno Aragao made the call from the button. It was a race situation with Th-Ts for Brenes and the Ad-Jd for Aragao. The flop was Kh-Qs-7d, Brenes still leading, but the Td on the turn made Aragao an ace-high straight. It also gave Brenes a set of tens and some hope if the board paired on the river, but it was the 2h and Brenes exited stage left.

57 players remain in the field.

12:56pm-- There's no Judice here

With the action folded to him on the button, Bjorn Ivan Johansen open-raised, Renato Judice moved all in from the big blind for just over 20,000 and Johansen made the call, turning up Kc-9c to Judice's Jd-Th. The flop came down Ks-7h-2s, pairing up Johansen. The turn gave Judice some hope when the Qs fell, giving him and open-ended straight draw, but the river blanked out withthe 4d and Judice hit the rail.

12:44pm-- Mario Salvagno= your new chip leader

On a flop of Qh-Th-3h, Sebastian Stratta got the rest of his chips in the middle and got a call from Mario Salvagno. Salvagno held Ah-Ts for middle pair and an ace-high flush draw while Stratta revealed As-Qs. The turn was the Jc, but the 6h made Salvagno's flush, eliminating Stratta and vaulting him into the chip lead.

12:40pm-- Rosamelia Ferreira, our last woman standing, is eliminated

Rosamelia Ferreira came into Day 2 with only 15,500 in chips and when Ernesto Panno moved in ahead of her, the Kc-Js looked like a decent enough hand to make her last stand with. Unfortunately, Panno turned up the worst hand possible for her-- Kd-Kh. The board ran out Jh-8c-4s-7c-6d and Ferreira hit the rail after graciously shaking her executioner's hand.

12:35pm--Down to seven tables

With the loss of our 64th place finisher, Table 8 has broken and we're down to seven tables in play.

12:29pm--Like Helvetica?

Alberto Font started the day second in chips. Yesterday, we described him as a hard-to-read Font. Today, Brazil's Tiago Boita seems to think he's got a read on his man. Boita came in for a raise to 3,600 from the cutoff. The button folded and Font re-raised to 15,000 from the small blind. Boita barely though before pushing in 40,000 more. Font raised an eyebrow,

"You're happy?" Font said.

"I'm happy with this," Boita said, waving his hand over the chips already in the pot.

Font pondered his move for a minute or so before folding.

Boita flashed Ad-Qh. Font shook his head. Though Font didn't say a word, his face was as clear as Helvetica. It said, "You're pushing on me with that?"

Boita shrugged and raked his chips.

12:23pm--Let's find us a final table

After a short delay for players to sign their TV release forms and such, TD Mike Ward just announced, "Shuffle up and deal."

12:00pm -- Play about to begin

The final 64 players are taking their seats and unbagging their chips. We expect play to begin shortly.

When we began the Latin American Poker Tour event in Punte del Este yesterday, the 327 starting players were scattered over three rooms. Today, with 64 players remaining, we've moved to one room. By the time the day ends, we'll only need one table.

When we last left our fearless poker players, those 64 left the room behind chip leader Oliver Rowe. Just one step and 1,000 chips behind him was second place Alberto Font.

When we begin the day here in a few minutes, players will be coming back to 1,200/2,400/300 blinds. To replace the flowing prose from yesterday, we're going to give you run-and-gun coverage as we head toward the money bubble. The top 36 will get paid. The final nine will get one more day in the tournament.

Today also begins feature table coverage by the ESPN crew in the room. The TV lights are on and the featured table is ready for its players.

Play begins in just a few minutes.

A wise man once said, when a room is packed to the rafters, it's good to have an escalator.* Fortunately, the Mantra Resort and Casino has several.

The buy-in for the second season in Punta del Este went up this year to $3,700. Most folks here expected the field to be significantly smaller than last year. Suffice it to say, the crowd of 327 players was a pleasant surprise for everybody. We can't say it enough: even in a tough economy, the LAPT seems to be recession-proof. The players who made it through the day are playing for their share of a $1.1 million prize pool.

Fortunately for everybody involved, the tournament organizers had room for everybody. It took putting a few tables up the escalator in the main casino, but everybody who wanted a seat got one. That was when the carnage began. People screamed. Chairs flew in the air and landed on tables. Somebody cooked a lot of steak. Somewhere, a feral dog barked. It was yet another day on the Latin American Poker Tour.

Today's field was packed with some of the biggest names on the tour: Andre Akkari, Humberto Brenes, Dennis Phillips, Greg Raymer, J. C. Alvarado, Victor Ramdin, Fabian Ortiz, Leo Fernandez, Veronica Dabul, Christian De Leon, Maria 'maridu' Mayrinck, Gualter Salles, and Max and Maria Stern.

To give you some idea of how crazy the day was...none of the people listed above have any chips.

Raymer winces as the river spells his doom

Only 36 people will walk away with money. At this point, the most likely person to see a decent chunk of that money is Canada's Oliver Rowe. The PokerStars qualifier made a late surge tonight to 136,000, good for the chip lead going into Day 2.

Spain's Alberto Font went on a huge tear after the dinner break tonight, To date, Font's biggest cashes come from a 441st place finish at the World Series and a final table in a side event at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Now, he's among the top ten in chips.

Alberto Font

PokerStars qualifier Ron Wasiel spent a good portion of the night near the top of the leaderboard.The painter from the 'burbs of Chicago is only playing his second big live event of his life. Normally a $10 re-buy player on PokerStars, Wasiel qualified for this event through a $10 3x chance event on PokerStars.

Ron Wasiel

Thanks for joining us tonight. We're headed to bed where we plan to dream of steak and a day where no chairs take flight. We'll be back here at noon local time on Thursday to play down to the final table.

All photography © Joe Giron/IMPDI

*We actually have no record of any wise men ever saying this. We feel pretty confident somebody said it at some point, and chances are he was pretty smart.

Alex Fitzgerald had a rough go of it at the EPT Dortmund. On an A-J-5-A-4 board, he flopped top pair and turned trips, value betting his A-Q beautifully on each street and getting called down each time. The only problem was, his opponent turned up 4-4 on the river and dealt the 21-year old Seattle native a crushing blow. Even worse than that, he got his money in with A-A against 9-7 only to watch the board run out Q-J-T-9-7, eliminating him from the tournament. So it's fair to say that Fitzgerald doesn't exactly harbor loving memories of the Motherland.

Only a few days later, he was on a plane to Montevideo, hoping to turn things around here in Uruguay.

Alex "Assassinato" Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald, known online as "Assassinato," has been traveling the world almost nonstop for the last couple of years after quitting his day job at age 18 to play full-time. In Season 1 of the LAPT, he missed the final table in Rio de Janiero by only two spots, finishing 11th. What he lacks in live finishes he's more than made up for online, regularly crushing high buy-in tournaments on PokerStars. Fitzgerald finished fifth in the Sunday Million last September for a $54,000 score, won the Nightly Hundred Grand in December, and has final tabled the $109 Rebuy at least three times.

A picture of quiet strength at the table, Fitzgerald has been steadily amassing a stack all day, carefully choosing his spots and applying pressure the moment he senses weakness. Faced with a middle position limper and a call from the small blind, Fitzgerald checked his option and saw a flop of Ah-6h-4s. The small blind checked, Fitzgerald rapped the table, and the middle position player quickly tossed out a 3,000 bet. Maybe too quickly. It was enough to chase away the small blind, but after a moment's consideration, Fitzgerald slid out one of his stacks of yellow chips, making a raise to 20,000. His opponent couldn't fold quickly enough and Fitzgerald picked up the pot, increasing his already-formidable stack to over 50,000.

Fitzgerald ultimately hopes to retire from poker and pursue a career as a writer. But perhaps a victory here might change his mind.

If he would take off his shiny shades, Alberto Font might be easier to read. Maybe he knows this, because it's rare to see him without them.

We first spotted the Spaniard this year at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure when he final tabled a side event and picked up nearly $35,000. Before that, his biggest live finish was $27,020 for a 441st finish at the 2007 World Series.

Tonight, the ever-quiet player is making some noise without saying a word. At this late hour, Font has taken his stack to the 140,000 range. That's good for the chip lead with a level and half to go.

With 90 minutes left to play tonight, a few more than 80 of the original 327 players remain. There is no chance of making the money (top 36) tonight, but we stand a good chance of only having seven tables left at the end of the night.

Some of the bigger names left in action tonight include Alex Brenes, Jose Rosenkrantz, and Christian Kruel.

We're now out in search of anyone who may be creeping up on Font's stack. Back in just a bit.

Things looked dire for Victor Ramdin. With the blinds up to 500-1000 with a 100 ante, Ramdin had only 4,900 left-- barely enough to survive two orbits. With the action folded around, the button moved all in, having Ramdin well-covered. The small blind folded and Ramdin peeked at his cards. The As-4c looked good to him and he slid his stack into the middle, cringing when his opponent turned up pocket nines.

The flop was Qd-Js-5c. Most players would be out of their chair and gathering their things at that point. But this is Victor Ramdin, folks.

The turn? The 4h. The river? The Ad. And just like that, the jovial, Bronx-based pro had life again with 12,200 in chips. Unfortunately, his reprieve wouldn't last for long.

A short time later, Ramdin moved in with pocket aces and was called by an opponent with pocket eights. Safe flop, safe turn... but an eight on the river sent him off to the bar. Or the craps pit.

Victor Ramdin, all-in and awaiting his fate

Almost immediately afterward, Andre Akkari was crippled in similar fashion. All in with Q-Q against 5-5, Akkari's opponent spiked a set on the river to chop out most of the Brazilian's stack. Though Akkari was able to double up against Alex Brenes on a subsequent hand, he met his end on the very next deal, getting his money in with K-9 against A-8. An ace hit the flop, the king on the turn gave him a ray of hope, but the eight on the river sealed his elimination.

Queens cracked

And with that, Andre Akkari wins the (very unofficial...in fact completely fabricated) Team PokerStars Pro last-longer.

We'll concede Jim Croce's point. The south side of Chicago might very well be the baddest part of town, but go a little farther down Illinois' I-55 and you best beware of a man named Ron Wasiel.

You might be a little bit like we are tonight and wondering where in the world Mr. Wasiel came from. He's barely Google-able. He seems to have come from nowhere to climb the the top of the leader board in Day 1 action and it seems nothing can hold him back. On an all undercard board, his opponent has jacks, but Wasiel has queens. On a board reading AQ246 with two clubs, Wasiel makes what appears to be an exceptionally thin value bet (or, perhaps more likely, a bluff) at the pot for 5,000 and gets called. He turns over pocket eights. His opponent taps the table and concedes the eights are good.

Who is this man behind the dark Terminator glasses.

Turns out, Wasiel is a union painter from Illinois. This event in Punta is only his second major event. He went to Macau for the APPT but walked away without a cash. Still, it gave him a taste for the big live events. "It was fun," he said. "It was an experience. I had Vanessa Rousso at my table. How often does a guy get to travel like this?"

Now, the man is amassing yellow 1,000 denomination chips like his paint buckets depend on it. At latest count, Wasiel had moved his stack north of 135,000. That's not bad when you consider the chip average is around 30,000 right now.

You will typically find Wasiel on PokerStars playing $10 rebuy tournaments. He qualified for this event through a $10 3x chance event. With a firm hold on the chip lead, he could easily go back to his room and play a PokerStars tourney and still be near the top of the leaderboard on Day 2.

We're going to guess he won't do that. It takes a lot to be humble when you have more than four times the chip average, but that's how Wasiel is carrying himself tonight.

"There's some good players here," he said. "Some really good players."

Alex Brenes is no stranger to this venue. Back in Season 1, Brenes had the LAPT Punta del Este title in sight, but came up just short of a victory, finishing second to Spain's Jose Miguel Espinar. Yesterday, he played his second career final table here at the Mantra Resort and finished eighth, albeit in a tournament that originated 5,000 miles north of here in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. Though Brenes made a bit of a late arrival here this afternoon, having indulged in a bit of celebration following his elimination last night, his tardiness has not deterred his progress in this event, where he is still alive and kicking.

Alex Brenes (foreground), and tablemate Andre Akkari

Much like his gregarious older brother Humberto, Alex plays a tight-aggressive style (though he's a far quieter presence at the table than the "Chark"). Ergo, when he moved all in over the top of an early position player's 2,075 opening raise and received a call, it wasn't too big of a surprise to see him turn over a premium hand. And premium it was-- Brenes was in perhaps the best pre-flop spot in Texas hold'em, his Kc-Kd up against Ks-Qd.

By our observations, Latin American players tend to be a boisterous and emotional bunch (the over/under on outburts of "VAMO!" is about 3.5 per level), but Brenes hardly batted an eye as the board safely ran out Jc-7h-4c-6h-2c, increasing his stack from a "push and pray" 6,975 to a far more workable 15,800. He certainly has his work cut out for him, as the always-dangerous Andre Akkari is now seated on his right.

If you've ever thrown a really big party, you know the feeling. You invite everybody, spend a of of time preparing, and then deal with the rush of people through the front door. People are eating, drinking, and rummaging through your drawers. One of your friends has shaved your cat and hidden it either in the pantry or clothes dryer. There comes a point at which you must stop and take notice of where you stand. Is there enough food left? Are you about to run out of tequila? What's that meowing sound coming from the bread box?

That's sort of where we are now. After eight hours of sheer madness (somebody threw a chair on a table at one point, if that tells you anything), things have finally settled into simple, controlled pandemonium that we have come to love so much. Finally, we're able to take stock of the room.

We started the day with 327 people who put up $3,700 to play in Uruguay's biggest poker event. Now playing for a prize pool that has eclipsed $1.1 million, 130 players remain after the dinner break. Only 36 of those players will walk away with money. As we mentioned before the break, Ron Wasiel is our chip leader with 120,000 chips. Among those dearly departed are Maria "maridu" Mayrinck, J.C. Alvarado, and Greg Raymer. All of them exited just before dinner.

It's unclear at this moment exactly how long we'll be in action tonight, but it's looking like we'll be running until a little past 1am, at which point Tournament Director Mike Ward hopes to be down between 54 and 63 players.

After that, it will be to bed, to sleep, and to dream about where that infernal meowing is coming from.

Scientists have determined that large amounts of red meat in a short period of time can cause a rapid onset of euphoria and nausea typically associated with illegal hallucinogenic drugs. As we and the assembled poker rumblers have just exited the hotel's House of Steak Orgy, assume that we will be coming down off this high for the next few minutes.

We promise we'll be back and straight-headed in a matter of moments. In the meantime, please enjoy the PokertStars Video Blog team's recent interview with team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin.

Mere feet from the tournament room sits a giant hearth. A sweating man in a chef's hat maniacally throws giant logs into the flames. He stares at the fire until he feels it's right and then he throws giant slabs of red meat on the adjoining grill. It is, in a word, beautiful.

Play began here shortly after noon today. Now coming up on eight o'clock, the assembled poker players are being forced to play one more hour as dinner begins to cook. Normally, this would be no big deal. However the smell of bubbling beef fat hitting the hot coals hurts in a place only hungry poker players know. It is, in another word, torture.

We can't say for sure how this could affect the level of play over the next few minutes, but we feel sure it's not going to help anyone concentrate on pot odds, implied odds, reverse implied odds, or for that matter, how to even play the game of poker. These players know that when the clock hits zero, they can run, grab their seats, and get their meat on. For now, though, we must concentrate on the task at hand.

As we careen headlong toward the dinner break (...sirloin), it appears we have two players fighting for the chip lead. Our most recent counts put Ron Wasile out in front with 110,000. Spain's Alberto Font is next on the list with 70,000 chips. Brazil's Magno Aragao is not far behind with 65,000 (...filet mignon). To put those stacks in perspective, the chip average currently sits somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 (...chorizo sausage...).

Ron Wasile

In all honesty, there may be no better smell than what is currently wafting through this room. We honestly thought we could go our entire careers without writing that sentence about a poker room, but, as they say, it is what it is.

You're going to have to excuse us for a bit. If we don't get out ahead of these poker players, there won't be any beef left for us. And that would be, in a final word, tragedy.

Greg Raymer showed all the signs of a man who was card-dead. With a ring of spectators watching his every move, Raymer folded hand after hand, giving a little eyebrow raise or shaking his head ever-so-slightly as he was dealt pair after pair of rags. Still, he chatted up his table and cracked jokes as he waited for a playable hand, his stack barely past the 10,000 he started with.

The hand started innocently enough. With the blinds at 300/600 with a 75 ante, there was an opening raise to 1,500. One caller. Then two. Then three-- all before the action came around to Raymer in the small blind.

"I know if I squeeze here, I'm gonna get at least two callers. Maybe even three," he speculated, before taking a look at his hole cards. What he saw was apparently enough, and Raymer announced that he was all-in for the 10,000 and change he had in front of him.

"I'll get into character" he quipped, donning his signature glasses and crossing his arms over his chest.

The initial raiser folded, as did his first caller but Alejandro Bonanata, the second caller behind him, moved his own stack into the middle. That got Johannes Korsar, the third caller, to muck his hand and the rail craned their collective necks as the two prepared to show down.

"I only looked at one" said Raymer, revealing the As. Bonanata showed Jd-Js and Raymer reached for his second card, turning up the Qc.

Raymer shows his first card

"I feel good about this one... I think I'm going to win it" said Raymer as the dealer burned and turned.

The flop came down Ac-9s-2s. The turn was the 4h and it looked like FossilMan would at last earn his double-up.

Until the Jh cruelly hit the river. Holy two-outers, Batman.

Ouch...

Gracious as ever, Raymer asked for the proper spelling of his opponent's name and proceeded to sign the shiny gray fossil he had been using as his card protector and handed it across the table as a parting gift as he made his exit.

With the dinner break approaching, we're down to 154 players.

Melina Villegas offered to eat a wax candle holder a couple of nights ago.

"I'll do it for $3,700," she said.

The thing was bigger than a grapefruit. It hardly seemed healthy. So, I undercut her and offered to do it for $1,000 (she was painfully unaware that I have eaten a lot of wax for money in the past and would probably do it again for the right price).

Villegas has become a friend over the course of our time on the LAPT circuit (she also happens to be the older and much wiser sister of our chip counting monkey Alex Villegas). Her offer to eat the candle holder was largely in jest. Even though she wasn't going to shell out the $3,700 buy-in to play today, she was a lock to win a seat in one of the super satellites. We say that because she's done it at the last three LAPT events. She shows up, plays a satellite, and gets her seat. It's just what she does.

And that's what she did this time.

The PokerStars Video Blog team caught up with Villegas a little bit ago and got a report on her early Day 1 action. As far as we could see, it didn't involve eating wax.

It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the moment in Uppsala, Sweden, the town 40 miles north of Stockholm that Johannes Korsar calls home. With the forecast looking grim and gray, Korsar and a friend decided to take a holiday in Buenos Aires to escape the frozen Nordic winter. After two weeks in the Argentinian sun, the two decided to hop on a 30-minute flight to Punta del Este to compete on the LAPT. Though Korsar's pal ended up having to skip the tournament (apparently Swedish ATM cards have a bit of trouble working here) the blonde 22-year old is currently near the top of the leaderboard and is seated at one of the room's toughest tables, which boasts a lineup including Greg Raymer and Veronica Dabul. As you may recall, back in 2007 Korsar made a splashy debut on the international tournament circuit, finishing fifth in the inaugural WSOP-Europe Main Event, taking home over $386,000.

Johannes Korsar

Korsar had already doubled his stack to just over 20,000 when he was dealt pocket nines and hit top set on a 9h-5s-4h flop after the pot had been raised and reraised pre-flop. Korsar made a crafty check, allowing his opponent to bet 5,500. Korsar moved all in for 13,500 and was quickly called. His opponent's Jh-Jd went down in flames when the turn and river blanked out and Korsar doubled up to over 45,000.

"Gosh, there's NO action at this table!" quipped Greg Raymer with a laugh as Korsar stacked up his chips.

Of our 327 starters, 238 remain after four and a half levels of play. Already we've witnessed the departures of Humberto Brenes, Martha Herrera, and Jim "MrBigQueso" Collopy, who is currently enjoying a sandwich in the atrium outside the tournament room and recounting his bad beat story to a few friends.

Unfortunately, Dennis Phillips has also just hit the rail, courtesy of an unlucky flop. Phillips got his chips all in on an A-Q-J flop, his two pair queens and jacks in dire shape against his Henry Merchan's A-Q. The turn was a nine, the river a deuce, and everyone's favorite Cardinals fan was left with no more than his precious can of Speed Unlimited. Don't forget, kids-- speed kills. Merchan is at or close to the top of the leaderboard with over 60,000 in his stack, much of it acquired when he knocked out Leo Fernandez earlier in the afternoon.

Dennis Phillips

Most of the top female players in this event, though, are still alive and kicking. Melina Villegas is sitting on 12,000 chips at the moment, while Maria Stern is hanging on with 6,500 chips at a nearby table. Veronica Dabul has a healthy stack of 15,500 and the new addition of Greg Raymer at her table, while behind her, Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck is cruising along with 17,000.

And Victor Ramdin, previously atop the "deathwatch" list is still cooking. "I've got 11,000 and just folded A-Q" he told us after mucking his hand to a reraise.

Listen, we're not the kind of people to just throw out wild accusations. In the world of online poker, calling someone a multi-accounter is the equivalent of calling someone a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. That said, there is something very fishy going on around here.

There's this cat named Lerner who we keeping seeing more often than we should. The first time we saw him, he had a few days of beard growth on his face. Then he showed up clean shaven. Even more odd, we keep seeing him at different tables.

Again, we're not making any accusations, but there are some shenanigans going on. We're currently looking for a duck to weigh against this Lerner guy. If he ends up weighing the same as our quacking friend, we're going to start building a fire.

Just sayin'.

Our video blog team has been working to get to the bottom of the situation. Judge for yourself.

If you've spent any time in farming country, you know the Back 40. Those acres on the back part of the property make for a long walk. The Back 40 here at the Mantra Resort and Casino takes us out the door, through the Wine Bar, up an escalator, through the casino, into the VIP room and over a velvet rope. There sit several overflow tables that simply could not fit in the main tournament room.

If you're observant, you'll notice something. Though some quirk of randomness, it seems as though most of the Costa Rican field has been seated in the Back 40.

Melina Villegas, she of the serial live satellite qualifying, is up on her knees and overlooking her domain. Nearby is Jose Rosenkrantz. Ten feet behind her is Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes. Off in the corner is the always lovely Maria Strern. It's as if somebody took the LAPT San Jose event and moved it a few thousand miles south to Uruguay.

Melina Villegas

In other news, we just saw a huge pot develop against three big names here in Punta. We picked up the action on af Kh-Ts-Qh-9c board. Martha Herrera moved all in for her final 1,525. Team PokerStars Pro made the call. Veronica Dabul sat on the button and after a minute or so of thought, raised 3,000 more. Again, Raymer made the call. When the river came the 9s, Raymer barely thought before pushing all-in for a little more than 5,000. Dabul tanked hard. It seemed fairly clear she had a jack, but she couldn't be sure that Raymer didn't slowplay an A-J or boat up on the river. After nearly five minutes, Dabul tossed in the call.

"If you have the ace-jack, you're good," Raymer said and rolled over J-8. Dabul smiled and turned over J-T. Herrera made it official and turned over a jack of her own. After a pot that took nearly ten minutes, the three players chopped it up and moved on.

Finally, in the Bad Beat of the Day story, PokerStars-sponsored player Leo Fernandez managed to get his opponent all-in on a QQ2 flop. Fernandez held pocket deuces to his opponent's K-Q. All seemed peachy until the board went runner-runner sevens. We'll only say this: we're glad we weren't anywhere near Fernandez's chair when the river it.

We're going into the second break of the day. We'll be coming back to Level 5 and 150/300/25 blinds.

It's not exactly the cheeriest term, but for those of us in the poker media, the word "deathwatch" is our shorthand for "lost most of his stack, about to bust." After taking a walk around the tournament room, we noticed that Victor Ramdin's starting stack of 10,000 had all but evaporated, leaving him with only a small collection of black 100-denomination chips, totaling just over 1,000.

Victor Ramdin was officially on deathwatch. Members of the media, this reporter included, kept a close eye on his table, hoping to catch either his final hand, or a much-needed double-up.

How dare you put me on "deathwatch?"

"If Victor had 150,000 chips right now, he'd be on deathwatch" joked one tournament official, noting Ramdin's aggressive, swingy style of play.

"Yeah, I've seen him do this a million times" added a fellow journalist. "He'll lose 90% of his stack in the first few levels and in the blink of an eye, he'll have it all back."

Only a few moments ago, we caught Ramdin power-walking out the door. Fearing he'd busted, we hurried over to his table to see if we could piece together what had happened.

There were 9,700 chips in front of his empty chair. Ramdin had just tripled up, and could finally afford to miss a few hands and grab a bathroom break.

Guess we can cross him off that list.

It's always a pleasure to chat with Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck. One of Latin American poker's great success stories, Maridu used to... well... do our job as a writer for PokerStars' Brazilian blog before she started cashing major events left and right, leading to her present status as a PokerStars sponsored player. The Rio de Janiero native now makes her home in Austin, Texas where she lives with her boyfriend Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet and U.K. transplant Steven "stevie444" Chidwick. Her hair streaked blonde from the sun and a luscious caramel leather Balenciaga bag slung across the back of her chair, Maridu is presently sharing a table with Team PokerStars Pro Dennis Phillips, whom, according to her, was apparently quite adamant about keeping his table energized.

Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck

Phillips, perhaps a bit weary from the 6,000+ mile flight to Uruguay, was jonesing for some Red Bull and sought the assistance of a waiter at one of the Mantra Resort's restaurants in the hopes of procuring some of the fizzy, sugary energy drink. The restaurant didn't have any Red Bull, but did have a few servings on hand of its Uruguayan equivalent, called...no joke... "Speed Unlimited." Phillips requested ten cans, one for each player at his table. Apparently, his order was enough to buy the entire restaurant out of their Speed supply, and the waiter hurried into town by taxi to purchase enough to keep Phillips & Co. sufficiently awake and alert.

Phillips, in the midst of his "speed" binge

Both Phillips and Mayrinck are still hovering near their starting stacks. From what we can tell, LAPT Vina del Mar champion Fabian Ortiz is the room's current chip leader, with 26,000 in his stack.

We like to think we're giving you a pretty clear picture of what's going on here at the Punte del Este stop on the LAPT. We passed carpal tunnel a long time ago and have moved into a state of arthritic bliss. Still, there is something to be said for video. While we'll concede it killed the radio star, we're not ready to say it's done us in yet. Regardless, the PokerStars Video Blog team is hard at work today and brings us this introduction to Day 1.

For nearly ten hours yesterday, Josh Prager sat in the audience of the LAPT Mexico final table and called out, "Way to go, Helen!" No matter how tedious the night, no matter how slow play went, Prager held his seat and cheered on his wife.

Anymore, there isn't a prototypical picture of a poker player. The old grizzled gambler has given way to fresh faces around the world. Helen Prager is one of these beautiful new exceptions. A glowing three months pregnant, she was the picture of poise and beauty yesterday as she came runner-up at the LAPT Mexico final table. All the while, husband Josh sat on the rail.

On any other day, the roles might have been reversed. Josh is the pro poker player. His most notable result came in 2007 when he made the final table of the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Today, husband and wife sat down in the same tournament. In a room packed with hundred of people, the pair ended up just a few feet away from each other.

Their time together in the tournament was short. After her stellar performance yesterday, Helen has made an early exit. With one final table under her belt, she is leaving this event for her hubby.

"I don't know what happened today," she said with a smile.

After playing ten hours of intense poker on Tuesday, Helen can be forgiven her early exit. Josh is still playing for the Prager family name. We wish him the best of luck today and Helen a much-deserved break from the table.

Let's just state the obvious here: People really like them some poker. Nowhere is that more clear today than in Punta del Este where more than 320 poker players have shown up for the second stop in this fine city.

Even in the face of the best planning money can buy, the Mantra Resort and Casino poker area is as packed to the gills. The tables spent an hour playing eleven-handed. The main room and overflow area couldn't make room for a small dog, let alone another poker player. Several tables are still playing out in the back 40 (how we've come to think of the casino poker room--up the escalator and in the main casino). The world economy may be stumbling over itself on a daily basis, but if this event is any indication, the LAPT is recession-proof.

The smart money says this field will be cut in half by the dinner break, but for right now, navigating through this crowd requires an electric cattle prod (or, if you prefer, several polite utterances of "excuse me").

The room did open up a bit ago, but we're not at all happy about why. The always imposing Vincenzo Giannelli made an early exit in this event. While that certainly will cut down on the fun factor, it does free up a little space in the room. If you've not had the pleasure of meeting Giannelli, he stands at least 6'5" and takes up his fair share of space in a place of this size. However, as his personality is as big as his frame, we'd just as soon have kept him around for a while.

Players are getting ready to go on their first break of the day. We plan to spend the time shopping at the Crowd Control Warehouse.

Over 300 players have packed themselves into our tournament room here at the Mantra Resort and with space at a premium, play has begun eleven-handed and will continue in this fashion until the field has been sufficiently thinned. A cadre of Team PokerStars Pros, past LAPT winners and the premiere poker players in Latin America have made their way to the sunny shores of Punta del Este in pursuit of an LAPT title.

Uruguayan flags line the walls

In the field we have husbands and wives, brothers, and even a set of identical twins. Helen Prager, fresh off her runner-up finish at last night's (delayed) final table of the LAPT Mexico, is playing only one table away from her husband Josh, whom poker fans will remember from his final table finish at the 2007 EPT Monte Carlo. Josh came in 16th at the LAPT's Season 2 stop in San Jose, Costa Rica and is looking to improve on that finish here in Uruguay.

Max and Maria Stern, the Costa Rican husband and wife duo, are also playing today. Max currently has a seat in the main ballroom while his wife is shuffling chips upstairs in our overflow room in the casino, one table away from their home country's premiere poker superstar, the ever-gregarious Humberto Brenes. Brenes' brother Alex, who finished eighth at last night's LAPT Mexico final table, wandered in about halfway through the first level to take his seat at Table 13. Word on the street is that he engaged in a bit of "celebration" last night after his final table appearance.

Three of Latin America's top female players are clustered close together. Argentina's Veronica Dabul and LAPT Mexico sixth-place finisher Martha Herrera are seated together, while only a few tables away, Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck has Team PokerStars Pro Dennis Phillips to contend with at her table.

Veronica Dabul

Identical twins Aaron and Derek Lerner have made the lengthy trek from their native Montreal to play in this event after winning their entries via satellites on PokerStars. The two first appeared on our radar at the 2007 WSOP, when both of them made deep runs in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event, becoming the first twins to cash in the same WSOP event.

The duo of Rory Cox and Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari rounds out another "table of death" in our tournament room. Cox, as you'll remember, won the LAPT Mexico last night after a four-hour heads-up battle with Helen Prager.

Andre Akkari

Some more familiar faces on the LAPT playing today include LAPT Vina del Mar champion Fabian Ortiz, Vina del Mar runner-up Vincenzo Giannelli, Felipe Ramos, Leo Fernandez, Melina Villegas, Jesus Bertoli, Jose Perez, Christian Kruel, Paul "X-22" Magriel, Christian de Leon, and Jaime Ateneloff. Team PokerStars Pro, of course, is well represented with the likes of Greg Raymer, Victor Ramdin, and J.C. Alvarado joining the aforementioned Team Pros in the field.

As the LAPT Mexico final table crept toward Rory Cox's victory last night, we heard tales of a party going on. We struggled with our inner demons. We could either continue our duties live blogging the final table or slip off to one of PokerStars signature welcome parties. We chose to stay alongside the final table instead of indulging in the free beer and food.

Yeah, we're not sure what's wrong with us either.

Fortunately, our crack video blog team was on the case. We can always count on them to find the free booze.

We'll watch the video below with you and see what we missed.

If the breeze wasn't an issue, we would just pick up the tables here at the Mantra Resort and Casino and play this tournament outside. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and the temperatures are perfect for kicking back for a few hands of poker. Alas, we're going to play this one inside as normal.

Fortunately, we still get to watch this thing under the shining sun's face. The Uruguayan flag hangs around the tournament room as we begin to kick off the Punta del Este stop of the the Latin America Poker Tour's second season. That blue and white striped flag is decorated with a yellow sunshine. In the middle of that star is a smiling face. It's not quite as good as playing cards by the pool, but it will do. After all, everyone is here to work.

Here in just a few minutes, more than 250 people will come into this room and sit down for three days of poker. Last season, Jose Miguel Espinar defeated a record field of 351 players to win the top prize of $241,735. By Friday night, we will have a new champion.

Keep it here. Unless we get drawn outside by the real sun, we'll be here until the end.

While we wait for the event to begin, take a look at the video blog below.

Watch LAPT Punta del Este s2: A taste of things to come on PokerStars.tv

by Brad Willis and Change100

If you don't know the story of LAPT Mexico by now, it's hardly worth re-telling in its entirety. Suffice to say, this is almost certainly the first time we have ever arrived at a champion in such a fashion.

And what fashion would that be?

Well, Day 1 of the LAPT Mexico event was played live in Mexico. It was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. So, what was essentially Day 2 of the event played out online at PokerStars. Once play reached a final table, the final nine players traveled more than 5,000 miles south of where they started the event to play down to a champion. In short, we'll likely never see anything like this again.

To say there was a disparity in chip counts would be a bit of an understatement. At the end of the online portion of this event, American Rory Cox went on an amazing tear and somehow managed to pick up nearly half the chips in play.

Seat 1: Rory Cox (USA) 1,074,500
Seat 2: Victor Ramdin (USA) 104,000
Seat 3: Pavel Naydenov (USA) 80,000
Seat 4: Helen Prager (USA) 326,500
Seat 5: Leonardo Emperador (Venezuela) 284,000
Seat 6: Steven Thompson (Costa Rica) 135,500
Seat 7: Bolivar Palacios (Panama) 128,500
Seat 8: Martha Herrera (Mexico) 88,000
Seat 9: Alex Brenes (Costa Rica) 154,500

While Cox's chip lead was frightening, he still had eight other people who weren't just going to roll over for him. In the early going, Cox used his stack to push people around. Eventually, Steven Thompson flopped a set against Cox' overpair for the first level double-up. Cox rolled with the minor loss and moved on.

Before the event began, Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin figured he had a couple of rounds in him before he started pushing with any two cards. He made it through the first hour before doing just that.

Victor Ramdin moved all in from the cutoff and Helen Prager quickly made the call from the small blind.

"Do I get a lifeline?" Ramdin laughed as he turned up his hole cards. He held Jd-6d to Prager's As-7s.

As Ramdin revealed his hand, several players on the other side of the table confessed to folding a jack.

"Thanks for the information, guys" quipped Ramdin dryly.

The flop was Td-7h-4h. As the Kc landed on the turn, the good-natured Ramdin stood up from his chair, resigned to his fate. The river was the Kd, eliminating him in 9th place. After shaking hands around the table, the Team PokerStars Pro took a seat in the audience to watch the rest of the action play out.

With Ramdin gone, play went on for another full hour before the blinds started eating deeply into the stacks.

Running low, Alex Brenes open-shoved from under the gun for his remaining 100,000, Pavel Naydenov moved all in behind him from middle position, and the rest of the table folded. Naydenov had Brenes slightly covered as the cards went on their backs. Naydenov held As-Qh to Brenes' 9s-9d

The flop ended the drama fairly quickly, Ad-Kc-2c, pairing Naydenov's ace.

"Nueve, Alex, nueve!" called Brenes' brother, Humberto, begging for a nine.

The turn, though, came the 7h, and the river the 4s, sending Brenes to the rail in 8th place.

Despite the increasing blinds, the players held firm to their seats.It would take nearly an hour before we saw the next elimination. That's when Steven Thompson open-raised on the button, Bolivar Palacios moved all in from the small blind for 60,500, Martha Herrera folded the big blind and Thompson made the call. Thompson held Ad-5d to Palacios' Kh-Qs

The flop favored Thompson, coming down 9h-6s-3c, and the Ac on the turn left Palacios drawing dead.

The now-meaningless Ks hit the river and Palacios hit the rail in 7th place, collecting $2,000.

Martha Herrera had a harder time getting here than the other players. After Day 1 in Mexico, Herrera managed to break her leg. She arrived here in a leg cast and with her eye set on the title. It was not to be.

Rory Cox raised to 36,000 and got calls from Pavel Naydenov and Steven Thompson. Herrera was in the big blind and moved all in for an additional 29,000. She got called in all three places.

All the players checked the Ts-Ad-4d flop and Th turn. On the Ks river, Naydenov bet out 50,000 and got a call from Thompson. Naydenov turned up Q-T for the turned trips. That was good enough to beat Thompson, not to mention Herrera who held Ac-Kh.

Thompson was crippled as the players went on a 15 minute break. On the first hand back from the break, Thompson got his remaining 22,000 in the middle and got three callers in Rory Cox, Pavel Naydenov, and Helen Prager.

The flop came down Kd-7h-6h. Naydenov and Prager checked, while Cox put out a bet. A few groans came out of the audience as Naydenov and Prager gave up their hands. Cox held 6d-8d to Thompson's 9h-Td

Cox had paired his six, but Thompson could double up with an eight, a nine or a ten. The turn fell the 7c, pairing the board and giving him even more outs with the three remaining kings, but the river was a blank, the 2h, and Cox raked in the pot, sending Thompson to the rail in 5th place.

With the action folded to him in the small blind, Leonardo Emperador moved all in for 149,500 and Rory Cox snap-called from the big blind. Emperador knew he was in trouble with his Ks-8c. Cox held Qs-Qh.

"Ocho, ocho, ka!" cried LAPT Vina del Mar runner-up Vincenzo Gianelli from the audience, calling for an 8-8-K flop for his friend.

Unfortunately for Emperador, it came down Td-5h-3s, leaving him drawing to the three remaining kings in the deck.

"Ka! Ka!" called Gianelli as the dealer burned and turned... the Ad.

"KA! KA!" he shouted again to the poker gods, or anyone who would listen.

The river, though, was the Ah, and Emperador hit the rail, collecting $5,000 for his efforts today. It's also worth noting that he arrived at this final table with only ten big blinds and was able to parlay that short stack into a 4th place finish.

Minutes later, on a flop of 5s-8s-4d, Rory Cox bet out and Pavel Naydenov raised to 75,000. Cox almost immediately raised all-in. Naydenov called after a moment and showed Ks-3s. Cox held 4h-5h. Naydenov picked up some more outs with the 3h on the turn. He missed all the kings, threes, and spades left in the deck on the 2c turn. He finished in 3rd place.

And so we were left with two. Rory Cox had come into the day with such a large chip lead, it didn't seem like he could be beaten. Helen Prager came in with a reasonable stack, but what seemed to insurmountable odds. By the time they got heads up, Cox had Prager by 5 to 1.

It seemed like it would be all over in a matter of minutes. Instead, Prager managed two double-ups within just a few minutes. Her first came courtesy of getting in with second pair, an overcard to the board and a gutshot straight draw against Cox's top pair. She made her gutshot. Moments later, she turned the nuts against Cox's top pair. He got it in with a flush draw against her nut straight. Cox missed on the river and suddenly, the opponents were nearly even in chips.

After the dinner break, the pair settled in for two more full hours of heads-up play. At one point, Cox got it all in with pocket sevens versus Prager's K-T. Prager flopped her ten and Cox fell way behind in chips.

But he battled back and back and back. Ultimately, he regained the chip lead.

Rory Cox opened from the button for 72,000, Helen Prager moved all in for 972,000 from the big blind and Cox made the call.

Prager Kh-7d

Cox As-Ts

Cox let out a whoop and pumped his fist as the flop came down Ac-Jh-8c, leaving Prager drawing only to running cards.

With her husband's arm around her, she watched the 5s land on the turn, a resigned look on her face as she realized she was drawing dead.

The river was the Js and Cox extended his hand to Prager for a sportsman-like shake, congratulating her on a good game.

When it was over, Cox looked at Prager and said, "You made me go bald!"

Later he admitted Prager had him on his heels for a bit. "She played the perfect style against me--very aggressive."

At 26 years old, Cox plays professionally from his home base in San Francisco, California. Before going pro, Cox worked as a counselor for special needs children. While much of his money comes from playing online, he says he has played some big live events.

"But not with much success," he said.

Now, he can add a major title to his resume. It may have taken three months and thousands of miles of travel but Rory Cox is now the LAPT Mexico champion.

"You'll like it," someone told us as we prepared to come to Uruguay. "It's very European."

We weren't sure what to make of the recommendation. When we last crossed the border into South America into Chile, we found an arid fishing community that looked like California--rolling green vineyards, desert mountains, and a pleasant, humble little community in Vina del Mar. It was fantastic, but not all that European.

Punta del Este, Uruguay is a different place. It's on the other side of the continent and could just as well be on the other side of the world.

The oceanside drive from Montevideo to Punta has rolling green hills speckled with cows. It's reminds an American boy of the Midwest. Pine forests line the roads like I-55 in the middle of Mississippi. Uruguay is beef country. Gone is the Vina del Mar's ceviche menu. Here, it's steak. Pick a cut, they'll cook it. The menu is beef and sausage as far as the eye can see.

Punta is the elite's playground on the Atlantic Coast. It sits an hour and half away from the relative hustle and bustle of Montevideo. And just as Punta is a quiet enclave on the coast, the Mantra Resort and Casino is cloistered away in the Punta hills. Set away from the main business district, the Mantra sits on a low rise on Punta del Este's northern border.

It does remind a traveler a bit of the Monte Carlo coast. Here we find a certain reserved and ubiquitous glitz that we find in Monaco. The prices are big, the money old, and the taste for the good life everywhere. We may not have seen Bentleys on the streets, but, we're willing to accept that we have found South America's destination for those of the big wallet.

Elsewhere on the property, the hotel hallways have pictures of Che Guevara alongside photos of Richard Nixon. And the bathrooms have bidets. Draw your own conclusions, but we find this to be a very interesting place.

Of course, we're here for more than the South American equivalent of Monte Carlo. We're even here for more than the beef and solitude. We've come to town for the second to last stop of the Latin American Poker Tour's second season. Last season, Jose Miguel Espinar defeated a record field of 351 players to win the top prize of $241,735. Now, an entirely new crowd is here in search of a new title.

More than 120 players won their Uruguay seats after qualifying on PokerStars. They are now at this exclusive resort with such notable Team PokerStars Pros as Andre Akkari, Humberto Brenes, Denis Phillips, Greg Raymer, and Victor Ramdin.

Tonight, the players will head down to the beach for one of PokerStars' signature welcome parties. Then, after they have fully digested the beef and beer, they will return to the Mantra Casino for Day 1 of the LAPT Punta del Este event.

We will join them for all of it and report the news accordingly. The live portion of our blogging will resume at noon local time (Eastern Time plus one hour) on Wednesday and continue until Friday when we crown the champion.

Join us here for all the action. The way we see it, if you can't make it here for the beef, we can at least tell you what it tastes like. That's just the kind of people we are.

Two years ago at the Victoria Casino in London, Vicky Coren triumphed on home soil to become the first woman to win an EPT main event. Coren remained alone until about an hour ago at Hohensyburg Casino, Dortmund, when Sandra Naujoks, a PokerStars ShootingStar, joined her in the exclusive club, winning €917,000 and the latest EPT championship.

Naujoks, 27, took the lot after a tense heads up finale against countryman Holger Kanisch. An all-in with aces over jacks gave Naujoks the momentum and despite a battling comeback from Kanisch, Naujoks never looked like letting go.

With their chips in the middle pre-flop for the last time, and the stacks close to even, Kanisch was ahead, A-Q over Naujoks' A-9. An ace landed on the flop changing nothing but the crucial nine hit the turn making Naujoks the champion.

Holger Kanisch

A modest Naujoks seemed awkward winning thanks to a well-timed dash of luck, but Kanisch, who had also played the tournament of his life, picking up €533,000, was as gracious in defeat as Naujoks was humble in victory. She lifted the winner's trophy to rapturous applause.

Sandra Naujoks

"It was sick. I don't really know what I feel," she told the EPT host Kara Scott moments after the last hand. "I'm exhausted." She added later: "I can't believe it. It's such a great feeling to win my home EPT."

It's been a week to remember for the Germans and the final table here did nothing but live up to local expectation. Marc Gork finished third, completing a German one-two-three and giving the home-town railbirds something to cheer about in what has been the largest EPT event of the year outside of the PCA.

It had been a final table loaded with possibility. The Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson fell short of a first title on his third final table. He finished in seventh place for €116,500. Luca Pagano made a record-breaking tenth cash en route to the final but also came up short, finishing in an exhausted sixth place for €153,000.

Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano

As well as Johan Storakers, an EPT veteran who recorded his best finish, collecting €237,000 for fourth place, there was also the matter of a certain Mike McDonald.

The 19-year-old, who famously became the youngest ever EPT winner in this very room 12 months ago, spent periods this afternoon dominating the table, a succession of all-in moves refilling the tanks after a coin-flip went awry against Kanisch, costing him his earlier momentum.

Mike McDonald

But hope for an historic second title was quashed by Naujoks who came alive after the dinner break and jumped into the lead. While McDonald exited in fifth place for €197,000, she survived a few knocks and eliminated Gork to go heads up.

Gork was the oddball of the final, even more so than Cengizcan Ulusu from Turkey, whose exit in eighth place followed a dramatic coin flip (we're talking literally here) that convinced him to call Mike McDonald's pocket kings with his own K-2, with statistically obvious consequences that will be talked about for years.

A self-confessed amateur, Gork, a literature student, read poetry for much of the final, ignoring the others in a bid to maintain his own concentration. It worked, albeit to the confusion of those on the rail, securing him third place and €307,000 to spend on whatever a student might need.

Tribute to the popularity of the game in Germany more than a third of the field called this their home EPT with German players picking up more than €2.1million of the €3.3 million prize pool. Sebastian Ruthenberg in Barcelona, Moritz Kranich in Deauville and now Sandra Naujoks, not to mention German winners of past seasons Thang Duc Nguyen and Michael Schultze, have proven that German poker is here to stay.

The result of the EPT Dortmund final table:

1st - Sandra Naujoks, Germany, ShootingStar, €917,000
2nd - Holger Kanisch, Germany, €533,000
3rd - Marc Gork, Germany, €307,000
4th - Johan Storakers, Sweden, €237,000
5th - Mike McDonald, Canada, €197,000
6th - Luca Pagano, Italy, Team PokerStars Pro, €153,000
7th - William Thorson, Sweden, Team PokerStars Pro, €116,500
8th - Cengizcan Ulusu, Turkey, €83,500

All that's left is for us to say congratulations to Sandra Naujoks on what is unlikely to be her last tournament victory.

"The ShootingStars are a great team. We have so many good tournament players. My bet is that together we will win two bracelets at the World Series and I hope I win one."
Them's fighting words.

Next stop San Remo for what could prove an even bigger EPT jamboree, with a beach. See you there.

Four years is a long time in poker. If we cast our minds back to season one of the EPT, we can probably remember the sight of a spiky-haired young Swede and a suave young Italian making quiet yet confident progress through fields of about 200 players, anteing something like €2,000 a pop. There was some raw, rude talent in each of those young frames -- and about fifteen pots of hair gel on top of them.

These days, EPT fields regularly top 600, the buy-in is up to about €5,000 and any wetness behind those two pairs of ears is just the gel. William Thorson and Luca Pagano might still be only 26 and 31, respectively, but they are veterans of the EPT, with a huge string of impressive results behind them. They are proudly decked in the livery of Team PokerStars Pro and an EPT really isn't an EPT without either of them. They are seasoned campaigners, fearsomely talented, and part of the furniture.

William Thorson, left, and Luca Pagano

It has been a genuine delight, then, that this week in Dortmund, we have been treated to the maximum exposure of both of them. Both Pagano and Thorson have battled all the way through this monstrous field and will take their place around the familiar beige baize of an EPT final table. It's the third time for Thorson, the fourth time for Pagano, but the first time they have been there together. And neither is going to need reminding that they haven't yet gone all the way to the title.

This week, though, has been the time to break records. And doesn't a young Canadian named Mike McDonald just know it. He became the youngest-ever EPT champion when he took down last year's Dortmund renewal at the preposterously young age of 18.

Mike McDonald

This year, he is back to defend his title, and defend it to the death. At the preposterously young age of 19, McDonald is now at his second EPT final table, and in with a very real shout of becoming the tour's first double winner.

Those are only three of our finalists, and the other five are really not to be overlooked either. This week in the Ruhr region has also been the time for the PokerStars ShootingStars team to shine. That hand-picked band of the best players from the German-speaking countries has already recorded a number of high-profile results, most notably Sebastian Ruthenberg's victory in Barcelona this year.

And the last nine players here ended up featuring the two most-recent additions to the team: Sandra Naujoks and Florian Langmann, the former added to the teamsheet ahead of the PCA in January, and the latter earning his stripes on the opening day of this tournament. Although Langmann would ultimately perish in ninth, missing out on the final table, he has already taken a huge step towards paying back the supporters. Naujoks takes her place on her first EPT final.

Sandra Naujoks

Also joining them on the final table is Marc Gork, a young German who has been among the most distinctive presences here in Dortmund, not only for his happy-go-lucky table manner, but also for his unique stylings.

Marc Gork

He has been mixing it up in the vocal jousting for most of the day, but has also featured in more of his fair share of photographs, owing to a pair of headphones that he clamps over his eyes, and a book of poetry that he reads between hands. Poetry. Poker. It's another first.

No one knew a great deal about the Turkish player Cengizcan Ulusu at the start of today, except for the fact that he started yesterday with only 9,000 chips, which he built up to more than 300,000.

Cengizcan Ulusu

In truth, no one still knows a great deal about Ulusu except for the fact that he has been sitting under the studio lights of the featured table all day and never once looked out of place, flustered, or anything but utterly comfortable among the sharks. He also now has close to a million in chips and would surprise no one if he could really upset the form book.

Holger Kanisch was our overnight chip leader, and he has taken a roller-coaster ride through the day, but stays in with a shot at the title.

Holger Kanisch

Kanisch has, however, yielded the chip lead today to a man named Johan Storakers. The Swedish stalwart of the European scene has enjoyed his best run at an EPT here in Dortmund, and he seems to have been enjoying every minute. He was sitting for a long time beside Andreas Hoivold and the pair of them were laughing right up until the point that Storakers knocked Hoivold out, nines holding up against A-K. That started Storakers on a roll that takes him to tomorrow's final table with more than a million chips.

Johan Storakers

Storakers has ample experience of tournaments in all countries across the globe, and will fancy his chances.

All of which nine million words is a rather long winded way of saying that this is one awesome final table lined up for tomorrow in Casino Hohensyburg.

It started 11 hours ago. I remember something about fog in the trees but everything else since is just a blur. Such was the pace of eliminations today that in that relatively short time the hopes of 216 players were wiped away, a ruthless period of pain and suffering that left only 35 to return tomorrow for a day predicted to be no less forgiving on the nerves.

Back in season three, Dortmund's first EPT was won by a crazy-haired and chatty Norwegian by the name of Andreas Hoivold, who took home €672,000. The following year an 18-year-old with gap teeth and the quirky handle "Timex" crushed a tough field to become the youngest ever EPT winner and €933,600 richer. Flash forward to now and both seem in the mood for another pop, returning tomorrow with chips, chairs and EPT history on their minds.

Andreas Hoivold

A second title is not just within the reach of Hoivold (223,000 overnight) and McDonald (336,500). Also in the mix is the recent Deauville winner Moritz Kranich. He sat with a stack the size of a wedding cake for most of the day, amassed almost unnoticed, and finished on around 200,000.

Moritz Kranich

It was so nearly four champions up for the double. Down to 36 players, the EPT Warsaw winner Joao Barbosa moved all-in with A-2, called by an opponent with K-5. The five hit the board causing Barbosa to wince slightly before leaving with a simple handshake, not being the kind to mourn publicly.

Nevertheless, having been down to 35,000 before rallying well, Barbosa records his sixth cash in season five alone, beating the previous record set by Trond Eidsvig last year and bringing his combined EPT winnings to $552,067.

Not to be forgotten are the current chip leaders.

Chip leader Holger Kanisch

Holger Kanisch ended on top with 526,500 after multiple skirmishes. Behind him are the likes of Marc Gork (441,000), Sandra Naujoks (410,000) and Steve Jelinek, the latter's day starting with only 20,000 but ending with 347,000.

Steve Jelinek

Who else has something to shout about? Well, Luca Pagano.

Luca Pagano

The Team PokerStars Pro inked in his tenth career EPT cash, ending the day on 175,000, and could easily make it a fourth final table if he carries the momentum into tomorrow. One man in his way will be fellow Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson. One of the chip leaders coming into the day, Thorson continued his relentless assault, watching others crash and burn but coming through safely himself, despite a day alongside Max Pescatori and later Pagano. Just as he did yesterday, Thorson moved all-in on the last hand, adding a few thousand more to his closing stack of 192,500.

William Thorson

In their wake lies the likes of Pescatori, the Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko, Malte Strothmann, Petter Petersson, Oscar Silow, Jan Heitmann, Julian Thew and George Danzer among others. We will remember them.

So to tomorrow.

Play will end with a final eight. Will it include a former champion? Or maybe more than one? Will William Thorson or Luca Pagano close in on that first EPT title? Only tomorrow will tell.

There was a brilliant sideshow going on today in Casino Hohensyburg. While the cabaret of singers, dancers, gymnasts and burlesque performers took their well-earned occasional break, 358 poker players anted up €5,000 and squeezed in eight levels of an EPT event.

And in those brief moments when the lights were up and the room was not throbbing to the beat of Abba's "The Winner Takes It All", those poker players were taking their first steps towards determining exactly who would be that blessed individual vaunted by Benny, Bjorn, Frida and Agneta.

At final count, there are still 140 of today's players in with a chance after a characteristically remorseless cull of this day 1b field. As ever, there was a scant regard for reputation among the throngs: one of the first players to hit the rail, for instance, was the reigning EPT Prague champion Salvatore Bonavena, and by the time we took dinner he had been joined on the sidelines by the esteemed likes of Dario Minieri, Peter Eastgate, Jesper Hougaard and Clonie Gowan.

Clonie Gowan

Although they made it to the buffet, Bertrand Grospellier, Noah Boeken, Stephen Chidwick, Danny Ryan and Ramzi Jelassi didn't make it to curtain-down. And as night turned into early morning, Katja Thater, Frederic Hostrup, Marcel Luske and Jonas Molander also drifted off into the darkness. The Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano was the only one from that familiar band to make it through the day.

Luca Pagano

The frontrunners tonight seem to include the World Series bracelet winner Max Pescatori and last year's sensational EPT Dortmund champion Mike McDonald. The young Canadian scooped a huge pot late in the day to rocket past 60,000.

Mike McDonald

Even that is about 30,000 short of a man named Marco Noll, who might be our chip leader with around 90,000.

Marco Noll

Similar names for the future such as Jan Radow, Ville Haavisto and Peter Bueermann are also right up there and challenging. Our chip count page shows the approximate counts for some notable players taken in the dying moments of today. The full official count will appear there overnight, as and when it is provided by tournament staff.

It's also been a great day all round for Florian Langmann. The young German first came to prominence when he finished runner up to Joseph Mouawad at EPT London on season four. And today he was formerly welcomed onto the team of PokerStars ShootingStars, which includes only the finest talents from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Florian Langmann

Langmann also bagged up close to 40,000 chips, and will join his new team-mates George Danzer, Jan Heitmann, Sandra Naujoks, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Johannes Strassmann in tomorrow's draw.

Sandra Naujoks

All of those six will look to play a major part as the survivors from two tiers converge tomorrow, for a day when we might even play down through the money bubble. Another eight levels are planned for Thursday in the Ruhr region, and I dare say the dancing girls might even make a return.

Maybe it was the late start or maybe the rising temperature in the tournament room while the rain lashed down outside, but there was something about day 1a that made it feel like a long one. No one could put their finger on it but the 121 players from the 306 who started this morning have certainly earned their day off. Tuesday has become Wednesday. Here's how the day panned out.

There were highs and lows on and off the table - William Thorson's progress through the chip list (high), Marcin Horecki's elimination (low), showgirls dancing with leg kicks (high), the sinking of Barny Boatman (low), renditions of La Vie en Rose and Big Spender (high). You get the point.

Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson

As a level eight funk settled over the tournament room several players emerged looking pleased with themselves. Their number included Holger Kanisch, Jan Collado-Fernandez and Martin Hansen as well as Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson, who skipped past a number of potential pitfalls on his way to Dortmund (reaching the airport 22 minutes before his flight departed for example) to end the day on 84,450. That puts him at the top of the chip charts, narrowly ahead of second place Kanisch on 69,000.

Holger Kanisch

As you'd expect from a field of 300-plus there were spells of utter carnage. Arnaud Mattern went in half an hour, Ben Kang followed a little later, so too Thang Nguyen. The beer buying Casey Kastle and Michael Tureniec soon joined them as did Ivan Demidov. Stig Top Rasmussen too, but not without controversy. The Dane was eliminated after a clock calling fiasco left his stack in the hands of Petter Petersson. Mental note: when you call the clock make sure a floor person arrives and starts counting.

Ivan Demidov

EPTs are never short on local celebrities wanting to give this poker thing a go - today's notable being TV presenter Florian Silbereisen. Better known for his Volksmusic programme (picture the oompa-oompa type shenanigans of Bavarian beer drinkers), Silbereisen made some progress early on but was oompa'd out by level three.

TV's Florian Silbereisen

To be fair Silbereisen's day was not made easy by the table draw that seated him between Thorson and Jorn Walthaus, a final table finisher in Deauville earlier this season, who looked to be on course for a solid finish before losing all of his chips in a swan dive against Jan Collado-Fernandez.

PokerStars ShootingStar Sebastian Ruthenberg will be back on day two despite a turbulent day - at one point tripling up in part through Barny Boatman, before suffering a minor collapse, closing out day 1a with the same 10,000 he started with. Team Pro Alex Kravchenko did a similar survival job, leaving tonight with 22,500 while Andreas Hoivold, winner here two years ago, finished with 44,000.

But while there is joy for some there is bowel creaking pain for others, now harbouring that familiar feeling - that things could have been much different. Barny Boatman could easily have bagged up a good stack tonight but instead he rues the day from the rail. There are others like him but that's the price you pay when you take your seat... as well as the five grand of course.

Anyway, that's day 1a- day 1b is just a few hours away, where the likes of Eastgate, Minieri, Luske, Thater, Grospellier and some dancing girls, among a shed load of others, will prove that the show must go on - literally.

Goodnight from Dortmund.