October 15 2011, Chad Holloway

The first PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour event continued Friday at the Allegre Casino in Medellin, Colombia. Day 1b saw another packed house and, with a few alternates, attracted 351 players, surpassing Day 1a’s capped-field of 330. Combined, the two starting days created a field of 681 players, which makes LAPT Colombia the largest LAPT Main Event in history (surpassing the 621 entries of Chile’s Vina del Mar in March).

After ten levels of play, 108 players survived Day 1b, including Team PokerStars Pro (Brazil) Andre Akkari, Engelberth Varela, Jorge Alvarado, Tulio Bertoli, Cesar Mejia Medina, and Pablo Gonzalez. However, they’re all chasing Leandro Csome, who appears to be the Day 1b chip leader with 149,000. All of those players will return on Saturday for Day 2 and join the 101 survivors from Day 1a, who included Humberto Brenes, Daniel Ospina, and Fredy Torres.

All of these players will be competing for the C$288,329,000 first-place prize, which amounts to USD$151,027.03. Some players who won’t be making a run at the grand prize are Day 1b casualties: Team PokerStars Pro (Argentina) Leo Fernandez, Oded Minond, Jesus Bertoli, James Honeybone, Carlos Zapato, Julio Belluscio, Joao Henrique Lima, and Gaston Catzman.

One survivor, Varela, was active throughout the day, and his stack seemed to be on a perpetual roller-coaster ride. Then, toward the end of the evening, he hit a hand that helped carry him through to Day 2. It happened when he opened from middle position and Zapato three-bet from the button. Action folded back to Varela and he called, leading to a flop. Varela checked, Zapato bet 6,000, and after about 90 seconds of counting out his chips, Varela moved all-in for 37,600. Zapato tanked for about three minutes before calling with , which was behind Varela’s . Neither the turn nor the river changed a thing, and Varela doubled to nearly 90,000.

Likewise, the Day 1b chip leader, Leandro Csome, was the beneficiary of a late-night heater. With about 40 minutes left in the night, action folded to a player in middle position and he put in a raise to 3,000. Csome was next to act in the hijack and he three-bet to 7,000, which cleared the field all the way back the original raiser. A four-bet to 23,000 ensued, Csome called, creating a 50,000-chip pot preflop When the flop came down , the middle-position player moved all-in for around 40,000 and Csome snap-called for about the same amount.

Showdown
Csome:
Opponent:

The fell on the turn followed by the river and when the stacks were counted down, it was discovered that Csome was the one all-in, which meant he doubled to around 130,000.

One of the more interesting story lines as play headed into Day 2 is the race between Pablo Gonzalez and Daniel Ospina, who sit atop the LAPT Player of the Year Leaderboard with 1,125 points and 990 points respectively. These men played on separate starting days, but they’ll be in the same room on Day 2 looking to distance themselves from the rest of the pack.

Day 2 action is set to kick off at 1200 COT (1000 PDT) on Saturday, and we expect it to be a long day because the remaining field is set to play down to a final table, or at least come as close as possible.

Join the PokerNews Live Reporting then for all the latest hands, action, and eliminations from the LAPT Colombia.

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Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway

October 01 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 1b of the 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Main Event ended on Saturday after the second and final starting flight completed their first eight levels of play. Leading the way at the end of the day was Benny Spindler with 160,800 in chips. Out of the 411 players that came out for Day 1b, 255 will be moving on to Day 2.

Spindler received a lot of his chips from Nicolas Levi. After a raise to 1,350 preflop from an unknown player with the blinds at 300/600 with a 75 ante, Levi reraised to 3,400. Spindler four-bet to 10,000 and the original raiser got out of the way. Levi moved all-in for approximately 40,000 and Spindler immediately called. Spindler tabled and was up against Levi’s . The flop, turn and river ran out and Spindler’s aces were able to fade Levi’s big flop.

Although last year’s record of 848 players wasn’t broken, 691 for this year isn’t a bad number at all. A prize pool of £3,351,350 was created with first place being awarded a whopping £750,000. The top 104 places will be paid out.

Packed into the field on Saturday were plenty of big names including Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier, Joe Hachem, Angel Guillen, Victor Ramdin and David Williams. Negreanu and Selbst were eliminated on the day, while the other players named will be moving on. Mercier wrapped up the day with 99,200 in chips and wrote on his bag “Future EPT London Champion.” Whether or not that means this year is still yet to be determined.

Mercier just saw his stack take a giant leap to over 100,000 in chips after Anrei One gifted him about 45,000 in chips. During the 250/500 with a 50 ante level, One raised to 1,100 and Mercier three-bet to 2,725. One then four-bet to 6,200 and Mercier five-bet to 12,050. One still wasn’t convinced and moved all-in for about 45,000.

“I beat him into the pot,” said Mercier describing his call.

Mercier held offsuit and One held . The flop came down with two clubs and one spade before a was added on the turn and a on the river.

Other notable eliminations that occurred on Day 1b included Ross Boatman, Bill Chen, Eddy Sabat, Jean-Robert Bellande, Daniel Cates, Liv Boeree, Bertrand Grospellier and Leo Fernandez.

Players who are moving on with some heavy chip bags are Raj Vohra (156,600), Steven Warburton (142,300), Martins Adeniya (132,500), Sorel Mizzi (129,100), Justin Bonomo (126,100) and Wade Townsend (119,800).

Day 2 will commence on Sunday at 1200 BST (0400 PDT) where the remaining players from both starting flights will combine. Lukasz Golczyk is the overall chip leader with 211,600 in chips after his performance on Day 1a. The total number of remaining players is 417. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live coverage starting then.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters