Main Event
Day 4 Started
Main Event
Day 4 Started
The 2011 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour São Paulo Main Event will be remembered as the first main event in LAPT history to draw more than 500 players, a sign of poker's contuining progress in this part of the world. But when all is said and done, only one player can be the champion, no matter how many are in the starting field. Today we'll learn who that champion is.
He'll come from a short list of eight remaining players. His home county will be either Brazil, Argentina, Chile or Mexico. There's never been a Brazilian champion in the three seasons of the LAPT's existence. Could this Season 4-opening tournament be the moment when the Brazilians finally break through?
If it's going to be, the five Brazilians will have some work to do:
Final Table Seating and Chips
Seat | Player | Chips | Country |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Santiago Nadal | 555,000 | Mexico |
2 | Marcio Motta | 1,205,000 | Brazil |
3 | Marcelo Fonseca | 1,245,000 | Brazil |
4 | Joao Bauer | 1,395,000 | Brazil |
5 | Alex Manzano | 1,730,000 | Chile |
6 | Leandro Csome | 2,875,000 | Argentina |
7 | Bruno Politano | 1,030,000 | Brazil |
8 | Henrique Bernardes | 440,000 | Brazil |
Play begins at 1pm local time, in about 45 minutes. From there we won't stop until the champion is known. Stick around -- this final table could be a show-stopper.
The 29-year-old Henrique Bernardes is a lawyer who has been playing poker for the past seven years. Of the final table players, Bernardes poker experience is the most limited. He says he normally just plays home games with his friends and is fairly nervous to be at the final table.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
At 28 years old, Bruno Politano hails from Fortaleza in the Northeast of Brazil. Politano is very well known in the Brazilian poker community. Having played poker for the past five years, Politano has some very big live and online finishes. His friends know him as "Foster," a nickname he picked up when playing "Quake" in his teens.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
Leandro Csome is today's final table chip leader. At 28, he is mostly a live player and plays locally in Argentina. He has travelled to LAPT events in the past, but never cashed until now. This will be his biggest cash outside of his homeland. Before turning pro three years ago, he was a hairdresser and his online nickname "Pelu" is a reflection of the previous skills he mastered.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
Alex Manzano was the Day 2 chip leader here at LAPT Sao Paulo and comes into the final table in second place in chips. At 26 years old, he lives in Chile. A civil engineer, Manazano owns a sushi restaurant. This will be his biggest ever live finish.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
This is the first time the 24 year-old Joao Bauer has ever played an LAPT or any other international event, but he is an online phenom known as "joao bauer." While he's done exceptionally well in many PokerStars tournaments, his claim to fame is winning a 2010 World Championship of Online Poker bracelet after beating out a field of more than 12,000 players.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
Marcelo Fonseca, 25, currently lives in Porto Alegre and has a degree in Administration, but turned poker pro shortly after leaving university two years ago. He started playing home games with his friends and decided to invest some time playing online. The switch to online poker paid off as he placed 22nd in the 2010 WCOOP #1 beating a field of more than 9,000 players. He has played LAPT events in the past, but this is first cash in the richest poker tour of Latin America.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
At 41 years old, Marcio Motta is the oldest of the final table players. The business owner from Rio de Janerio is no stranger to poker. He has made five final tables in major Brazilian poker tournaments. Motta is known as "Kamikase" to his friends, but if you want to know why, you'll have to ask him yourself. The story is as crazy as the nickname.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.
Known online as "sampru", Santiago Nadal is a 26-year-old from Mexico. He is a student of marketing, but has already shown great promise in the poker world. In 2010, he nearly made the final table of a World Series of Poker $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. If his last name sounds familiar to Mexican poker players, it should. Nadal is the brother of the most recent Mexican Poker Champion Jose Nadal.
Bios courtesy of PokerStars.net.