Season 4 - Latest Post

Seat 1: Rafael Lopes Monteiro, Brazil (PokerStars Player) - 810,000 Rafael Lopes Monteiro from Florianopolis, Brazil splits his time between poker and his studies. The 22-year-old student has been playing poker (mostly online) for the better part of three years. Monteiro's career live tournament earnings total just under USD...more

If you spent any time inside the ballroom at the Sheraton WTC this week, it was clear that the natives had one thing on their mind-- crowning a Brazilian LAPT champion. After four seasons in the southern hemisphere, a Brazilian player had yet to bring home an LAPT title,...more

9:38pm: Alex Manzano wins LAPT Sao Paulo in shocking final hand Alex Manzano came in for a raise to 270,000 pre-flop and Joao Neto made the call. On a 3♦2♠2♣ flop, Neto check-called a 275,000 bet. Neto then check- called a 615,000 bet on the 7♣ turn. The river was...more

Of all the poker tours in the world, there may be no circuit fueled more by national pride than the Latin American Poker Tour. Where else will you find players and fans packing bags with their country's flag on the off-chance they can drape it over their shoulders during a...more

4:47pm: Alex Komaromi wins Uruguay's first LAPT title Alex Komaromi came in for a raise to 150,000 and Claudio Piedrabuena made the call. Both players checked the flop of 4♠7♣K♦. On the J♣ turn, Piedrabuena checked, Komaromi bet 225,000, and Piedrabuena announced he was all-in for around 1.3 million. Komaromi...more

6:17pm: Oded dead in ninth as final table gets set Alex Komaromi opened to 65,000, a luxury afforded the chip leader at this stage. Oded Oscar Minond had been relatively quiet for the past hour or so, but finally woke up with an all-in for 445,000. Komaromi considered his options...more

A few years from now, when South Americans look back on what they consider the watershed moments for the rise of poker on the continent, someone will invariably point to the 2011 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour's Colombian National Poker Championship. It was a smaller buy-in event -- only $1,100...more

Jonathan Monsalves eliminated in 2nd place; Julian Menendez wins 2011 Colombian National Poker Championship! At long last, it came down to another flip for Julian Menendez and Jonathan Monsalves. Menendez limped the button for 150,000; Monsalves shoved all in with A♠5♦ and Menendez called with 4♠4♥. This time around Monsalves...more

10:58pm: Break time The remaining six players are on a fifteen-minute break. When they return, updates will be in a new post. 10:49pm: Rafael Pardo eliminated in 7th place It was inevitable that some of these flips were going to start going the bigger stack's way. Alexis Gomez (pictured below)...more

6:43pm: Kemal Ferri wins! The gradual chipping away of Raul Pino's stack that characterized the almost-half-hour of heads-up play had left the Panamanian with around 800,000, small change compared to Kemal Ferri's 6 million-ish stack. Finally, Pino pushed that stack all in from the button, and Ferri quickly called. Pino...more

3:10pm: Players take a 15-minutes break Smoke' em if you got 'em. 2:45pm: Chatting with Karlo Lopez The lovely Lynn Gilmartin spoke with PokerStars Team Online Karlo Lopez.... 2:33pm: Chip counts with six left Not too much to report from the last 20 minutes, other than to say the two...more

On Day 3 of the LAPT Lima, 24 players entered the Octagon and only eight survived. Okay, I took a bit of artistic liberty -- the Octagon was actually the swanky Atlantic City Casino -- but the fighting to the death metaphor still fits. With $207,400 on the line,...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

When the LAPT returned to Brazil for Season 4 it gave that country a chance to win its first-ever LAPT title in its home country. That nearly happened in Sao Paulo, but Chilean Alex Manzano took the title and denied Brazil its opportunity. Now, Brazil has exacted its revenge...more