August 05 2011, Mickey Doft

The PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour returned to Punta del Este, Uruguay, on Thursday for the 2011 PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este. The Mantra Resort is host to the LAPT for a fourth consecutive season and this year had the biggest turnout of all. A field of 422 showed up to play, creating a prize pool of $941,480 and first-place prize of $244,720. Only 188 remain, and at the top of the counts after eight levels on Day 1 is Juan Jose Perez with 197,500.

For much of the day, Perez quietly amassed a stack in the back of the main room. It was not until Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez arrived at his table during the final level of the day when the rest of the room took notice. The two tangled in a pot, and although it was by no means the biggest pot, it sure was a good way for Perez to head into Day 2. He limped in from early position and another played involved shoved for 15,100. Fernandez, short-stacked and in the small blind, called all-in for 6,700. Perez also called, putting both players at risk, but was behind with against Fernandez’s and the other player’s . Perez was happy to see the board roll out to score the double knockout.

Fernandez was not the only member of Team PokerStars to have a tough go of it on Day 1. All six of the Team PokerStars Pros failed to reach Day 2. Defending Champion Jose “Nacho” Barbero was the first to bust. Barbero never gained traction on Day 1 and eventually succumbed when a race situation did not go in his favor. With , Barbero found himself all-in against . It was about as bad as it could get for the Season 3 LAPT Punta del Este Champion when the flop came out . Barbero needed running queens of kings to survive, but that was not the case when the turn and river fell.

Angel Guillén was another member of Team PokerStars to hit the rail on Day 1. With pocket tens, Guillén nailed a flop, getting his chips into the middle against . The landed on the turn and it was at this point when another player at the table commented that he laid down the preflop. The , though, popped off on the river to end Guillén’s tournament with a brutal one-outer. Christian de León, Gualter Salles, and Greg DeBora were the other Team PokerStars Pros to make the trip Uruguay, but won’t be back for Day 2.

Play resumes at 1200 UYT (0800 PDT) on Friday and the goal of the day will be to reach the final 24 players. Our Live Reporting Team will be back on the floor to keep you up to date on everything that happens.

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April 11 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 3 of the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun came to a close on Monday as the field was cut down to its final 24 players. Leading the pack into Day 4 is defending champion Vanessa Selbst with 1.406 million in chips.

When play began for the day, 74 players returned to the felt, but only 56 of them got paid. That meant a handful of players would have to hit the rail empty handed. Some of those players who were eliminated short of the money included Kevin Eyster, Ronnie Bardah, Team PokerStars Online’s Andrew Brokos, Todd Terry and Dan O’Brien. The official bubble boy title went to Nick Binger, who ended his tournament in 57th place.

Binger had a rough day filled with a lot of bad luck. First, he had Adam Junglen on the ropes holding to Junglen’s . The poker gods shined on Junglen though as the board ran out to give him a flush and send the rockets of Binger crashing to the ground.

Junglen was then the player who finished off Binger, having to come from behind again to do so. This time, Junglen cracked a pair of queens for Binger. Binger was all in preflop with and Junglen held just one overcard with the . The board ran out to give Junglen an ace on the river and the winning hand.

Binger took it extremely well and left with a smile on his face. “I just keep telling people that bubbling builds character,” he said as he made his way to the rail. In fact, Binger hopped right back on his horse and was seen playing a satellite to the $10,000 Bounty Shootout later in the evening.

Once the money bubble broke, the players started dropping fairly quickly, as expected. The first to go was last year’s runner-up Mike Beasley. He was followed by a group of players that included Jerry Wong, Team PokerStars Pro Greg DeBora, Jeff Papola and Lee Markholt.

Selbst was able to build her stack pretty steadily throughout the day, but it wasn’t until right at the end of the night that she took over the chip lead from Vincent Rubianes.

From under the gun, Olivier Busquet raised to 21,000. Rubianes reraised to 51,000 from the cutoff and then action fell on Selbst on the button. She four-bet to 109,000 and play folded back to Busquet. He folded and then Rubianes made the call. The flop came down and Rubianes checked. Selbst bet 129,000 and Rubianes made the call, making this pot awfully big between two of the largest stacks in the room.

The turn card added the to the board and completed a possible flush draw. Both players checked to see the put a fourth club on board on the river. Rubianes checked and Selbst bet 294,000. After tanking for a bit, Rubianes made the call, but only to muck his hand when Selbst tabled the for a king-high club flush.

Day 4 Table and Seat Draw

Play resumes on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m EDT (1600 GMT) where the final 24 players will return to action and play down to just one final table of eight is left standing. There’s plenty of firepower still left in the field, but it’s Selbst’s tournament now and it doesn’t look like she’s ready to give up her title anytime soon. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live coverage from the event as only our world class Live Reporting Team can bring it to you!

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