A successful debut for the LAPT - hbiagi in top third of chip standings

The first day of the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour in the Hotel Intercontinental in Rio de Janeiro was a complete success. 314 players paid the buy-in of $2.500, generating a prize pool of $785.000 before taxes.

Actually, every tournament of the first LAPT season was supposed to be capped at 300 participants, but the rush convinced the organizers to loosen up, and finally 314 players took their seats in the Intercontinental.

Even the fact that 30% (for Brazilians), or 15% respectively (for other nationalities), of the winnings had to be ceded to the brazilian state didn't change anything. Without these taxes such an event would have never been possible in the brazilian metropolis. Thus it became the biggest poker event ever in Brazil. Especially positive is the fact that 151 of the participants are locals.

Particularly the two Team PokerStars pros André Akkari and Humberto Brenes were celebrated by the crowd.
Akkari, originating from Brazil, is literally a folk hero. The enthusiasm of the spectators showed the huge potential for the poker business on the continent. Deeply disappointing was thus the early elimination of both pros. Nonetheless the tournament will continue to be a big party.

10 German-speaking players could also be found in the field. From our German community, Nico "behlinho" Behling, Tobias "Tobsen" Kotthaus and Armin "Schmette" Mette participated, and among others were also Christian Taepper and Niki Jedlicka.

Unfortunately, Nico
„behlinho“ Behling, Tobias "Tobsen" Kotthaus and Christian Taepper have already been eliminated. Niki Jedlicka also had to leave his seat early. Armin "Schmette" Mette is the only German survivor, taking 17.550 chips into Day 2.

Much better ranked is one of our English community members Hermann "hbiagi" Biagi who we already know from his two recent online victories (10K GTD on Titan / 25K GTD on Stars). With 37.000 chips he is still in the top third of the chip counts.

The Team PokerStars members were a tough act to follow at the first major in Brazil. Apart from André Akkari and Humberto Brenes, they also lost Chad Brown, Gavin Griffin, Isabelle Mercier, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer.

Vanessa Rousso and Victor Ramdin
still represent their team today. They are joined by another 101 players who will start the second day of the LAPT.