367 Players Enter Day 1b to Bring Total Entrants to 651; 30 More than 2011's Record-Setting Field
Season 5 of the Latin American Poker Tour Chile continued on Thursday at the Enjoy Casino & Resort in Vina del Mar with Day 1b of the Main Event, which attracted 367 players. Combined with Day 1a’s 284, that brought the total to 651 players, surpassing last year’s field of 621 players and creating a prize pool of $651,840.
Among the players who took a shot at the $129,470 first-place prize on Thursday were Team PokerStars Pros Nacho Barbero, Humberto Brenes, and Andre Akkari, Flavio Reis, Eric Brenes, Luis Montano and Thiago "XtheDecanoX" Nishijima, a Brazilian online pro who has had quite a bit of success on both the live and virtual felt.
Unfortunately not everyone could survive. Brenes lasted until after the dinner break, but soon met his demise. It happened when he defended his big blind after the button had raised, leading to a 
flop. Brenes committed the rest of his stack with 
, his opponent called with 
and while the 
turn changed nothing, the 
completed the opponent's straight draw and ended Brenes' tournament.
Likewise, Akkari put up a good fight for much of the day, but couldn’t hold on after he lost the majority of his chips in a monster pot after hitting an ace with 
only to have his opponent hit a runner-runner flush with . A short time later, action folded to Akkari on the button and he moved all in for around 12,000, which the player in the big blind called.
Showdown
| Akkari |   |
| Big Blind |   |
The 
flop gave Akkari a pair and a straight draw, but he was behind his opponent's flopped pair of jacks. Neither the 
turn nor 
river were what Akkari needed, and he was eliminated from the tournament.
Others who found themselves on the rail were Barbero, Ariel Celestino, Wilmer Gomez, Miguel Solano, Samar Hodali, Alex Brenes and Fernando Araujo.
Those who managed to punch their ticket to Day 2 were Joao Lopes, who emerged as the Day 1b chip leader with an impressive 207,000; as well as, Alejandro Vargas (162,600), Odilon Machuca (143,500), Julio Kim (130,600), Javier Pinto (127,700), William Espinosa (123,000) and Luis Montano (118,000).
The approximately 101 surviving players will combine with the 89 remaining players from Day 1a and return to action on Friday at 1200 CLST (0800 PDT) for Day 2, which will be covered in great detail right here on PokerNews.
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