February 2012 Archives

It's only been a few days since the close of the Latin American Poker Tour's fourth season in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Those of us who were there can still taste the cachaça in our mouths, hear the samba music outside, and see another big season on the LAPT come to...more

The first time I ever covered an LAPT event for the PokerStarsBlog was in San Jose, Costa Rica at the beginning of Season 2. What astounded me at the time was just how (for lack of a better word) crazy the players and the rail could get on the LAPT....more

Ever seen the crowd dictate the terms of a deal at a big buy-in poker tournament? I just did. After a rash of eliminations in the first two hours of the day, play slowed down considerably for the next two. With not much change in the chip counts between Daniele...more

Daniele Nestola is up on his knees in his chair. He looks like a bearded version of a Labrador puppy at meal time. He's happy, and if he had a tail, he'd be wagging it right now. Let this image stand in stark contrast to Nestola's attitude 20 minutes ago....more

You hear a lot of Spanish in South America. It's the predominant language of almost every country on this continent. Even in Brazil, where the primary language is Portuguese, passable Spanish can get you pretty far. Daniel Negreanu, among the most bantering of table banterers, may have wished for some...more

"What the hell is going on in this game?" Daniel Negreanu asked the final table. "Welcome to Brazil!" Negreanu was voicing his opinion of the pre-flop action that resulted in an all-in confrontation between chip leader Daniele Nestola and Argentinian Juan Gonzalez. They were both in the blinds for the...more

Brazil is very good at hosting Latin American Poker Tour tournaments. Some people might argue that Brazil does it better than any other country. What Brazilian players have a hard time doing, however, is winning an LAPT title in Brazil. Though the country had a player at the final table...more

When the LAPT first visited this amazing city at the beginning of this season, the event happened in the same room of the same hotel. When the first event of Season 4 reached the final table in Sao Paulo, half of them called Brazil home. This year? Things look a...more

The first season of the PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour was met with great enthusiasm from a poker community looking for its own tour in central and eastern Europe. Tournaments in Prague, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria were great successes, showing once again that PokerStars puts on the best live events. Now...more

Daniel Negreanu, a man who plays $100,000 tournaments for fun and profit, entered this $2,300 LAPT Grand Final main event and found himself caring about the outcome. He could be out partying it up 24 hours a day for Carnival, but instead he set about the process of winning this...more

There are downsides to being a Team PokerStars Pro. Like, you have to do constant media interviews, be nice to fans, or show up early to tournaments for press conferences. There are probably more bad things, but you get the gist. Being a Team PokerStars Pro means a lot of...more

Three or four times a year, something happens that makes me want to run to a computer and write the story. The only thing that kept me from writing this story earlier is that I didn't want the experience to end. So, when I saw one of the most...more

Caio Pimenta has a single word tattooed along the length of the top of his left arm, in scripted letters a few inches high: Believe. I tapped him on the shoulder in between hands at the feature table and asked him why he chose that particular tattoo. "Believe the dream,"...more

In between all the samba dances, caipirinhas and Brazilian flash mobs, there's this little poker tournament going on in the WTC Shearton ballroom. We're halfway home on Day 3. Playing for three hours has resulted in eight of the sixteen executions scheduled for the day. Among the ranks of the...more

You've seen those Japanese tsunami videos from last year, I'm sure. Onlookers watch in horror as walls of water come pouring into Japanese coastal villages and flow over, under, around and through anything that stands in their way. What you don't see in those videos, for very good reason, is...more

At various times in the past, in this very space, I have waxed eloquent about the coffee in South America. The last time that happened I was blogging from the LAPT Colombian National Poker Championship in Medellin in October. But I beg your indulgence to allow me to spill the...more

A better writer than me would figure out what the link is between peppers and turtles, as both played prominently in Day 2 of the LAPT Season 4 Grand Final. They're both green is the best that I could do. That doesn't really lend itself very well to a description...more

Day 2 has put me in the awkward position of admitting something about the nature of covering poker tournaments: by and large, we reporter types hate dinner breaks. We understand they are probably necessary, and we grok the whole idea of "people needing sustenance to survive." But, really, dinner breaks...more

I read an AP article this morning about a blog called, "Little Leopard, Where Are You?" that tries to re-unite Carnival couples. Apparently lots of random street-kissing goes on during Carnival. Sometimes those who lock lips get separated from each other in the press of humanity that takes to the...more

It's hard to say what, if anything, can prepare a person to stone bubble a major poker tournament. There aren't many experiences like it, and those that are usually involve some sort of physical pain or participation in a masochistic subculture. After the last break, 51 players remained in the...more

By now you've probably seen the new series of PokerStars television adverts. The series is titled "We are poker" and features three spots, including one called "Nacho v. Brazil". That spot begins with a voiceover declaring, "We are 10,000 people in Brazil, holding our breath" as Team PokerStars Pro Jose...more

When I was a college student in St. Petersburg, Russia in late 1996, Galina Nikolaevna drilled the phrase "Извините за опоздание" ("forgive me for being late") into my head. Galina Nikolaevna was my professor for Conversational Russian, a class that met four times a week, and was a stickler for...more

Vincenzo Giannelli stood like a giant over the two children in front of him and opened his bag. The boy and girl stood with wide eyes and looked up at the man towering above their little heads. The one-time judo champion is a man of amazing size. Shaking his hand...more

The PokerStarsBlog team here in Sao Paulo is comprised of a bunch of old men (though we often don't act like it). When Day 1 play at the LAPT Season 4 Grand Final concluded just after midnight last night, we were knackered. The combination of a red-eye flight on Wednesday...more

Imagine sitting in one of the world's largest cities. Twenty million people are packed in the streets around you celebrating the biggest weekend of their year. It's the excitement of Mardi Gras, the World Cup Finals, and New Year's Eve all packed into one and injected with steroids. That's where...more

Five stops on Season 4 of the LAPT in five different countries produced five Main Event champions of five different nationalities. When converted to old-fashioned greenbacks, each man cleared at least five figures in his win. All five were invited to Sao Paulo to take part in the Grand Final,...more

Daniel Negreanu has a secret. That's right. The man with no secrets has a secret. And he may not be the only member of Team PokerStars Pro trying to hide something tonight. Negreanu, the man who famously (or infamously) shares a majority of his life and true feelings about everything,...more

"If I ever became fabulously rich, the first thing I'd do is a get a driver." Brad Willis, Donnie Peters, Kristy Arnett and I were crammed across the back seat of a compact four-door, make, model and year unknown. Brad let his remark hang in the tight confines of...more

Leandro Csome is playing the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final with my money. Or at least he could be. What's more, he could be using my money to win the LAPT Player of the Year. The last time I saw Csome, he was sitting on my left in a...more

So there's this little poker tournament going on here in São Paulo. You might have heard about it. It's the Grand Final of LAPT Season 4. Dry statistics don't tell the tale of what's going on in the 10,000-square-foot ballroom at the WTC Sheraton. Sure, close to 400 players took...more

We ate meat last night. Giant hunks of cow, lamb, chicken, and pig. It came to our plates bloody and oozing its juices with each careful cut of the giant blade. There was other food, too--potatoes, plantains, and grilled mozzarella cheese--but we there for the meat. Gluttonous slices of picanha....more

It's almost impossible for me to see Brazil with the fresh eyes of a newcomer and big buy-in poker player. For one thing, I'm no newcomer. I've been here multiple times over the last decade. For another thing, I'm not a big buy-in poker player. And as long as we're...more

She wore red lipstick, a white collared shirt, and a warm smile that is more normal here than in other parts of the world. At her feet was a cooler full of water and soda. In her hand was a list of names: Brad Willis, Mike Ward, Greg Pappas,...more

The first time I set foot in Brazil was on Friday, February 8, 2002. I came for Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. It was the first trip I took out of New York since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 reduced a building in which I once worked to a stories-tall...more

"Look! Look!" Our driver's eyes were off the road as he he pointed. Whatever he wanted us to see was far more important than the certain death about to happen on the highway in front of us. The Sao Paulo traffic was like something out of a video game. Motorcycles...more

Well, this is just silly. Seriously, if you were going to plan a vacation and had the means, wouldn't you hop from Sydney to Queenstown and then back over to Melbourne? It's pretty much the perfect vacation. Now, try this on for size: what if you could play a...more

I loved Brazil before I ever went to Brazil. I loved it for its people, their genuine smiles, and a joie de vivre that is impossible to find in other countries. It's difficult to fully appreciate unless you've seen it. It's as if every major hardship a Brazilian has suffered...more

Well, well, well. Here's a piece of news that is sure to knock the socks off Asia Pacific Poker Tour players. Today, the APPT announced its final stop of Season 5, and it's one of the most popular destinations on the tour. April 25-30, the Waterfront Airport Hotel and...more

They had their moment in the sun. They had their moment in the spotlight. They had their moment with a Latin America Poker Tour trophy hoisted above their head. Now, they are going to have their moment at the LAPT Grand Final Carnival of Poker. As you might know, the...more

The Chinese New Year celebrations are complete and the Year of the Dragon appropriately launches the 2012 Asia Player of the Year race with the Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon series which takes place from February 18-26 hosted by PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa. The 15th installment of Asia's...more

PokerStars Macau has announced that the 2012 edition of the Macau Millions has been postponed indefinitely. "Our current agreement to operate PokerStars Macau events and tournaments at Casino Grand Lisboa will expire in March." said Danny McDonagh in a statement. "As a result, the Macau Millions will be postponed for...more