March 22 2012, Chad Holloway

Season 5 of the PokerStars.net 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, Andre Akkari, as well as 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.

In one of the more interesting hands of the day, a player in middle position opened for 2,000 and was met with an all-in three-bet to 3,000 by the player on the button. When action was on Nishijima in the big blind, he thought for a moment before putting out a four-bet to 5,200. The player in middle position called and the flop fell.

Nishijima was first to act and slid out a bet of 5,000, which inspired the player in middle position to fold.

Showdown

It was a sweet flop for Nishijima, who held middle set, but the player on the button was in big trouble. The turn did give him a gut-shot straight draw to a jack, but it was not meant to be as the river gave Nishijima quads! He advanced to Day 2 with 92,900.

Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. Humberto 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

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).

They will all join Day 1a big stacks like Waldermar Barrientos (140,300), Jaime Farriol (128,300), Sebastian Rios (126,200), Carlos Munoz (124,100) and Daniela Horno (122,200), all of who hail from Chile.

End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

The 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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