February 20 2011, Donnie Peters

The third day of action came to a close Saturday night for the 2011 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour São Paulo Main Event. Coming in Day 3 with only 24 players remaining from the record-breaking field of 536, Alex Manzano of Chile headed the pack. He wasn’t able to ride that big stack to the chip lead heading into the final table, but will enter second in chips with 1.73 million. Leading the way is Day 1 chip leader Leandro Csome from Argentina. Csome bagged up 2.875 million in chips at day’s end.

The action didn’t start off slow, as a few doubles up and eliminations came in the first level of the day. It wasn’t until the second level of the day though that the last woman standing Daniela Zapiello was eliminated from action in 22nd place. On the feature table, Zapiello got her money in with the . Henrique Bernardes held the and off to the races they went. The board ran out to end the tournament for Zapiello and leave her with a payday worth R$14,350. In February 2010, Zapiello placed fifth in the LAPT Punta del Este Main Event for USD $52,110.

Manzano began the day as the largest stack and kept his aggression up all day long, using the big stack just like a big stack should be used: like a club bashing on shorter stacks. He constantly opened pots preflop if the action got to him unopened. If that didn’t happen and someone else raised in front of him, Manzano would often three-bet, especially against smaller stacks where he would effectively raise enough to force them to a decision for their tournament life.

In one hand that exhibits just how aggressive Manzano was playing, he took a big pot from Fabio Colonese. Sitting in the cutoff, Manzano opened a pot preflop with a standard raise. On the button, Colonese reraised, clearing out the blinds. With action back to Manzano, he four-bet an additional 80,000. Colonese took two to three minutes before five-betting an additional 120,000 on top of Manzano’s four-bet. The seconds ticked quietly off the clock while Manzano pondered. With about a million left behind (against Colonese’s 500,000), Manzano six-bet shoved. Colonese put his head down on the table, seemingly pained by his decision to call or fold. Several more minutes went by before he finally folded. Manzano casually flipped up ! Colonese tapped the table “good hand” and showed one card, the .

The biggest name to move onto Day 3 was none other than Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes. The two-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet and holder of more than $5.85 million in live tournament winnings went on to finish in 15th place. Brenes was all in and dominated against Marcelo Fonseca. He failed to get the come-from-behind victory, which made the water a little bit safer minus this shark. His finish earned him another R$16,740 for his career.

With even more chips than ever, the Chilean Manzano started picking off Brazilian players left and right. First, he eliminated Caio Brites in 13th place. Then, he knocked off Walter Oaquim in 12th place. Following that, Manzano clipped Eduardo Costa in 11th place. After all of this, Manzano had well over two million in chips.

Amos Ben Haim was the last player to go before the remaining nine players all settled in around the main feature table. Ben Haim open-shoved his button for 482,000 holding the . Unfortunately for him, Marcio Motta was waiting in the small blind with the . No help came on the board and Ben Haim finished in 10th place.

With the tournament down to its final nine, Manzano still had the lead with over 2.4 million in chips. He was the only player over two million at the time, but Day 1 chip leader Leandro Csome wasn’t too far off the mark with 1.9 million.

About an hour into nine-handed play, Joao Bauer was all in preflop for roughly 650,000 holding the . Chip leader Manzano was his opponent and he held the to make the end of Day 3 look just a flop, turn and river away. The deck had other things in mind though, or maybe it was just a bit partial to Bauer. Either way, the board ran out to keep Bauer alive in stellar runner-runner fashion.

From there, Manzano lost more chips. He missed out on some value against Colonese when he failed to bet a straight on the river against Colonese’s top pair. A few hands after that, Manzano check-raised to nearly half a million in chips, but was forced to fold to Csome’s reraise on the flop of . That pot gave Csome the chip lead and from there he continued to rise. Csome finished off Colonese in ninth place to end the day and padded his stack a little bit more.

Final Table Seating Assignments and Chip Stacks:

Everyone left has locked up a minimum of R$45,440, but they’ll all have their eyes set on the R$615,840 first-place prize. The button will start with chip leader Csome in Seat 6, making Politano and Bernardes the small blind and big blind, respectively. Play resumes on Sunday at 1:00 PM local time and you can be sure to follow all of the action live on PokerNews.

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2010 December 23, Elaine Chaivarlis

With as cold as it is outside and everything and everyone going into hibernation, we figured we’d better do the same thing. It’s the last Nightly Turbo of the year, but don’t get discouraged, we’re putting up the top ten stories of the year starting tomorrow to refresh your memory. We’d like to thank you for reading and coming back day after day. We do this all for you — really. Enough of that, we don’t want you so teary eyed that you start thinking the four of spades is the ace of clubs. What’s perfect is that we’re leaving you with a photo of a pretty lady who knows how to win, the nominees of the World Poker Tour Magazine awards, and more. See you next year, same time, same place!

In Case You Missed It

Is the continuation bet in your arsenal of poker tricks? It should be, and PartyPoker pro Bodo Sbrzesny tells you why in our latest strategy article.

Every week, Lynn Gilmartin makes us jealous with her photos and stories from her trips — and this week is no different. Check out Around the World with Lynn for a sneak peek at season four of the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour.

Were you railing the PokerStars 1/4 Million last night, but had to go to sleep and didn’t get to see the winner? We’ve got the results of that and more of the week’s tournaments in the Midweek Briefing.

Do you listen to the Matt & Matt Show every week but want to know more about the guys behind the show? Well, here’s your chance. Read Getting to Know Matt Parvis and Matt Brown of the Matt & Matt Show to find out more.

Felicidades!

Last woman standing at the 2009 World Series of Poker, 888 ambassador Leo Margets took down the Full Tilt Poker Masters Series at the Grand Casino in Barcelona last week. She took home €100,000 for the win in which she beat beat 31 of Spain’s best players who had qualified for the event.

The tournament was a three-day event that covered a range of poker disciplines including deepstack, shootout, and turbo tournaments.

Check out the press release for more.

WPT Magazine Awards

World Poker Tour Magazine is holding a reader’s choice award (which is a little different from Bluff Magazine’s — the one Gloria Balding is nominated in – go vote). So, the categories are Favorite British Player, Best International Player, Best Poker Personality, Best Online Player, Best UK Cardroom, Best International Cardroom, Best Online Room, Best Online Forum, Moment of 2010, and Outstanding Contribution to Poker.

We’d go through the nominees, but that would make this way too long. Voting is currently open and will remain open through February 1, 2011, with the results being announced in the March issue of World Poker Tour Magazine.

Go vote at WPTMag.co.uk.

Reserve Not Met

Last week in the Nightly Turbo, we told you about 1991 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Brad Daugherty who was selling his bracelet on eBay. Well, that auction has ended, and if there was a lucky buyer, we’d tell you who it was. The undisclosed reserve on the bracelet was not met; therefore, the last bidder, who was going to shell out $30,100 for the 14k gold bracelet won’t be doing so.

Raise it Up

Some of the biggest online gambling companies in the world are headquartered in Gibraltar. It sounds random when you think about it, but a one percent gaming tax up to a maximum €500,000 charge is quite the incentive. However, all that will change come January 2011.

With the new year comes a corporation tax hike of 10 percent. Gibraltar is trying to keep its tax regime in line with EU regulations on fair competition. Some companies on the island are currently paying the 10 percent tax, but some of the companies that have been on the island longer are paying the lower tax rate.

“We’ve known about this for some time, and we’ve factored it in,” Partygaming spokesperson John Shepherd said. “The tax is still going to be very low.” He also doesn’t think the tax hike would deter other companies from setting up operations in Gibraltar.

The Telegraph has more.

Happy Holidays!

And because there’s nothing like a good light show….

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Just a minimum deposit is required of new players to qualify for our final $2,770 Freeroll of 2010 with Poker770 next week.