$5,200 Mar del Plata Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.net LAPT Mar del Plata

04-16-2009 21:30 UTC-4

43 Players and Counting....

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04-16-2009 21:21 UTC-4

Vanessa Machado Busts a Player

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"They just want to keep giving me their chips!"

One player with a short stack open-shoved for 4,000 and Vanessa Machado called on the button with {5-Hearts}

. Her opponent held {Q-Hearts}

. Somehow, the former model faded both overcards, a flush draw, and a gutshot as her pocket fives magically held up. She increased her stack to 20,000.

Tags: Vanessa Machado

04-16-2009 21:06 UTC-4

52 Players Remaining

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I just got word that they might play 2 or possibly three more levels this evening. The target number of players is 27. Stay tuned for more official details.

Level: 9

Blinds: 500/1,000

Ante: 100

04-16-2009 20:55 UTC-4

Players Take a Ten Minute Break

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Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

04-16-2009 20:49 UTC-4

Please don't kill the messenger. I'm weeping as I type this.

Angelita Feijo, yet another Brazilian model in today's field, is no longer with us. She just busted out much to the chagrin of everyone in media row.

Not to worry, Vanessa Machado is still in.

Tags: Angelita Feijo

04-16-2009 20:42 UTC-4

Chip Castles, Chip Snakes?

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I posted earlier in the day about players who were letting their chips snake around the rail instead of neatly stacking them. I wondered what it would look like if a player did this after picking up more than a handful of chips and, well, this is what Julian De Ventis' "stack" looks like right now.

04-16-2009 20:22 UTC-4

The 9th Hour

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Former chipleader Charles Alexander Sylvestre

I took a quick walk around the tournament room at 9 o'clock local time. Here's what I saw....

Former chipleader Charles Alexandre Sylvestre went from 62,000 to 30,000. I didn't see what happened, but the Canadian is no longer all smiles.

Brazilian model Vanessa Machado increased her stack to almost 13,500. She also knocked back a bottle of Stella Artois while Andre Akkari wandered over to chat her up.

Once Akkari finished his pep talk with Vanessa, he sat down next to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes at an empty table. The two Brazilians were worked on by two of the more attractive masseuses in the casino.

Brandon 'ih8pp' Demes (the young American from Tempe, Arizona) moved to Chris Moneymaker's table. His stack topped over 30,000 at one point, but he's since slipped to 9,250. "I made the worst call of my life," he said about how he lost most of his stack.

Tags: Charles Alexander Sylvestre

04-16-2009 19:59 UTC-4

Moneymaker Pushes Back

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"In order to be the man, you gotta beat the man."

Chris Moneymaker has been a target all day long. When he's not getting called down to the river by his opponents, they have been coming over the top and bullying him around. He finally made a stand.

One local player limped for 600 from UTG. Moneymaker raised to 2,300 from the button. The player from UTG reached down and grabbed a handful of 1,000 chips and tossed them across the betting line. Moneymaker asked for an exact account. His opponent had limp/re-raised to 6,600 total. Moneymaker went into the tank for a couple of minutes. He counted out 4,000 in chips from his stack and then paused before he pushed all in for his entire stack with over 15,000. A camera crew rushed over to film the action as a group of media and players from adjacent tables circled the table. The local player sat idle for a few minutes before he shook his head. He flashed a {10-Spades}