May 26 2012, Josh Cahlik

Day 3 of the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este Main Event has officially reached a final table and Brazilian Francisco Baruffi Neto is the man running the show with 1,346,000 chips.

Hot on Neto’s heels is Argentinian Guido Ruffini who is sitting with a solid stack of 1,259,000. Rounding out the top three is the chip leader going into Day 3, Ivan Luca, who is a mere blue T5,000 chip away from Ruffini with 1,254,000. Luca was quiet early on in the day but turned up the aggression as the day pressed on, leading to his retention of his spot among the tournament leaders.

Francisco Baruffi Neto gained a majority of his stack during a fortunate confrontation with Day 1 chip leader Juan Garcia. The two players shot raises back and forth before the flop until Garcia six-bet all-in and Neto made the call for his tournament life. Garcia was ahead with and Neto, who was holding was in need of a miracle. The flop of was of no help to Neto, but the on fourth street most certainly was. Garcia sat motionless, blankly staring at the board as if he could not believe what had happened. The board finished with a and just like that Neto went from having his tournament life on the line to being a dominating chip leader with over 1,500,000.

Saturday’s play saw a slew of competitors hit the rail. Among those who hit the rail were Pedro Komaromi, Julian Menendez, Bolivar Palacios, Luiz Filipe Andrade, and Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero.

The story causing all of the buzz among the tournament room of the Mantra Resort, however, is one about angels; one angel to be exact: Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen. Guillen had quite the dramatic day, being seen at both the top and bottom of the chip counts. At one point in the day, Guillen found himself in dire need of a double up, and instead was awarded with a very surprising triple up.

Guillen raised to 16,000 from under the gun and received a call from Vladimir Dobrovolskiy on the cutoff and Leandro Rubinsztain in the small blind. The trio of players saw a flop of . Action checked around to Dobrovolskiy who bet 24,000. Rubinsztain opted to call, but Guillen took this opportunity to move all-in. Much to the chagrin of Guillen, Dobrovolskiy three-bet all-in over the top and Rubinsztain quickly called off his remaining 140,000.

Showdown

Rubinsztain:
Guillen:
Dobrovolskiy:

Guillen was holding the worst hand and Rubinsztain was ready to score a sweet triple up. The came on the river, giving Guillen a set and a few more outs to take down the pot with a full house. The poker gods obliged to satisfy Guillen, as the drilled the river, pairing the board and giving Guillen a winning full house, overcoming a 4 percent chance of taking down the pot when the money was put in on the flop.

Guillen will be coming into the final table as the shortest stack, holding 421,000 in chips, That being said, Guillen has showed a tremendous will to remain in this tournament and spectators should expect no less when the final nine take their seats on Sunday. Guillen is also fueled by the need to seek redemption for his third place finish in this event during the LAPT’s second season.

Final Table Seating Chart

Saturday’s play saw 75 players become nine, and on Sunday, we’ll see nine become one champion. Join our Live Reporting Team at 1300 UYT (0900 PDT) for the exciting conclusion to the LAPT Punta del Este Main Event.

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May 26 2012, PokerNews Staff

Time is running out if you want to let Betfair Poker fly you out to Las vegas for the World Series of Poker armed with a $4,000 package!Sign up for Betfair Poker through PokerNews today!

Las Vegas is the dream destination for the majority of poker players and Betfair Poker are making those dreams come true for winners of this fantastic promotion. Along with entry to Event #59, the $1,00 No Limit Hold’em tournament, each package also includes spending money, accommodation, cash for flights and access to the legendary Betfair Poker welcome party. The full breakdown of the $4,000 package is shown below.

• $1,500 paid into your Betfair account for flights and spending money.
• Seven nights of luxury accommodation at the five-star Palazzo in Las Vegas.
• $1,000 buy-in to take your shot at glory in WSOP Event #59.
• Be part of the Legendary “Team Betfair does Vegas” experience.
• Team Betfair Exclusive Welcome Party and Events hosted by Betfair’s WSOP Crew, including John “kunku wap” Tabatabai and Hans “Birdie_BF” Vogl.

One package will be given away in a PokerNews exclusive freeroll that is to be held on June 10. The freeroll is open to both new and existing Betfair Poker players who have signed up through PokerNews. Existing customers need to earn just 100 points between now and June 5, 2012, in order to receive their ticket and new players need to download Betfair Poker, enter the bonus code “PNE250″ then earn at least 100 Betfair Points before June 5 for the entry to the freeroll to be theirs! 100 Betfair Points are very easy to earn because you will be awarded 3.6 Betfair Points per $1 paid in rake or tournament fees.

In addition, Betfair is hosting 12 WSOP Trials, each offering a minimum of two chances to secure a package. In all, they’ll be giving away 28 packages to this year’s WSOP, though only half remain as a number of players have already became members of Team Betfair 2012 including Svilen Kondov, Sergej Krapivin, Lothar Wolz, Kuriakos Tsiatte, Svilen Kondov, Mykola Fenchenko and James Wollgrove.

Online finals for the previous week’s trial period will be played on Wednesday evenings at 21:00 CET, and will award two Las Vegas Experience packages worth $4,200 each plus a total of $13,000 in added cash! All you need to do to qualify is earn 25 Player Points in any given Trial period – that’s the equivalent of playing just one $11 tournament per day!

Sign up for Betfair Poker today through PokerNews and get started now![/I]

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