Carnival Outside; All Business Inside
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The streets of São Paulo were flooded with thirsty locals and sun-seeking international tourists today as Carnival kicked off in full force. But we had some more important business to attend to as the day of celebration coincided with the kickoff of the PokerStars.net LAPT Grand Final. Three hundred sixty-seven people passed up Carnival to come play poker, and after ten levels, it appears that Jean Double has done the most work. He's got 189,400 chips in his bag to end the night, setting the pace for tomorrow's Day 2. Shaun Sheffield is hot on his heels with 181,700.
As is always the case, the Latin American wing of Team PokerStars Pro was well represented. Humberto Brenes came down from Central America to play, drawing the same starting table as his son, Roberto. The pair of Mexican Team Pros, Angel Guillen and Christian de León also came down to play, though both of them had their tournaments cut short with relatively early exits. Also joining up from the region were Argentina's Nacho Barbero and Leo Fernandez as well as Brazil's own Gualter Salles and Andre Akkari. The latter may well be the best-known poker player in this country, but he too was forced out early to leave Salles fighting the good fight for the home crowd.
Salles' chips lasted late into the day before he was parted with them, joining the likes of Eugene Katchalov, Juan Manuel Pastor, Matthias De Meulder, Fatima Moreira de Melo, and the rest of the eliminated Team PokerStars Pros. While they were off sipping caipirinhas on the beach, four Team Pros were working hard enough to bag up chips. Daniel Negreanu made a big splash in the Brazilian poker scene, and he had a productive day that ended with 121,700 chips. Humberto Brenes came down from Costa Rica, and he and his plastic shark worked a count of 59,000 before the bags came out. Right on Brenes' left was Leo Fernandez and his 41,700 chips, and Nacho Barbero also survived to make Day 2 with 59,000 flat.
All told, right around 100 players lasted through the first ten levels, and they'll return for Moving Day tomorrow at noon local time. We'll be back, too, and we hope you'll join us right back here to pick up the story.