Latin American Poker Tour Rio Tournament - Brenes and Burguillos in the Hunt
314 players took to the felt in Brazil's capital, Rio de Janeiro, on Saturday, May 3, 2008 for the first event in the inaugural event of the Poker Stars' Latin American Poker Tour. Representing the online poker room were a slew of big name pros including Brazil's Andre Akkari, Costa Rica's Humberto Brenes, Americans Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, Chad Brown, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker and the lovely Canadian player Isabelle Mercier. Other regional superstars showed up including Igor Federal, Sergio & Alessandra Braga and Leandro Pimentel Brasa. Brasa, who finished fourth in a $1,500 NLHE event at the WSOP in 2007, was the first Brazilian star out of the event.
Chad Brown was PokerStars' first elite player KOd from the event. He bid the competition adieu after Andre Pardal flopped top pair. Humberto Brenes would follow soon afterwards. Chris Moneymaker had the best of it pre-flop with cowboys in the hole but was sandwiched between two Brazilian players (and a bit of a cold deck situation). Renato caught a jack-high club flush on the river, sending the 2003 WSOP Main Event champ, back from whence he came before the end of Day 1.
Also leaving the table on Day 1 were Vanessa Rousso and Isabelle Mercier. They were among the 211 players eliminated from the tournament on the fast-paced day of play. When the night ended, Carlos Lopez of Spain was at the top of the chip heap. Before the final levels were played, it was announced that the first prize would be $222,940.
On Day 2, 103 players returned to play down to the final table. 32 of these would make bank. The unfortunate title of bubble boy belonged to Piragibe Lindolfo Ataide. His hopes for some moolah in the tourney were dashed by Venezuelan player Juan Carlos Burguillos. Burguillos, who goes by the online moniker of juanchis58, was also the recipient of the event's first 200,000 plus pot. He rode his wave of success all the way to the final table, where he'll be playing against eight others at 2pm (Brazilian local time) today. Joining the Caracas resident at that table is Alex Brenes, a Costa Rican player and brother of PokerStars' own Humberto.
Here's how the final table stacks up:
• Julien Nuijten (Holland) - 970,000 • Alex Brenes (Costa Rica) - 324,000 • Vitaly Kovyazin (USA) - PokerStars qualifier -- 380,000 • Severin Walser (Switzerland) - PokerStars qualifier -- 175,000 • Eduardo Henriques (Brazil) - 275,000 • Rafael Pardo (Colombia) - PokerStars qualifier --- 278,000 • Juan Carlos Burguillos (Venezuela) -- 297,000 • Oliver Kugler (Germany) - PokerStars qualifier -- 176,000 • Nikolai Senniger (Germany) - PokerStars qualifier -- 318,000
To qualify for the LAPT, head on over to PokerStars now !