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If not for Ryan's Fee obvious poker skill, a casual observer could mistake him for being the luckiest man in Costa Rica. He's fine with that. After all, he just won more than $200,000. The 20-year old from Philadelphia, Pennsyvania took less than four hours today to destroy the Season 2 LAPT San Jose final table.

Fee was among 219 players who travelled from across the street and around the world to the Ramada Herradura here in Costa Rica and put up their cash for a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The three day event startled everyone with a Day 1 that eliminated 83% of the field in 12 hours. Day 2 took substantially longer. It was anybody's guess how long the final table of the first stop of Season 2 would take.

The final table was a fun mix of younger internet pros, a dignified Costa Rican lady with a World Series bracelet, and a several journeymen from around the world.

The crowd favorite was easy to spot. Maria Stern is one of the most well-known poker players in this country. She and her husband Max both went deep in this event. Max was eliminated just short of the money and stood by to watch his wife battle all the way to the final table. A short-stack for two days, Maria Stern put on a clinic on how to make a short stack last. It could only last so long.

After growing so short she couldn't rightfully put in a standard raise without committing herself, Stern put all of her chips in the middle with a 116,000 open-shove. She ran right into Jeff Petronack's pocket queens. The board ran out 4h-5c-3d-Td-6c and Stern, who cashed here in Season 1 as well, finished in 8th place for $24,425.

Though Claus Rasmussen is as likable a Dane as you'd ever want to meet, he developed a reputation yesterday for taking longer than average to make a decision. His final decision today was rather easy. With blinds at 6,000/12,000/1,000, a single orbit was costing him 25,000. Under 100,000 in chips, he put his money in with Qd-7d and ran smack dab into Joel Micka's pocket kings. Though Rasmussen flopped a queen, he couldn't improve any further and exited in seventh place.

Claus Rasmussen

It was then eventual champion Ryan Fee went on a tear of good fortune that even a leprechaun would envy. Fee got it all in As-Ks against Jeff Petronack's Ah-Kh. You think you know what's about to happen don't you? Well, you don't know the half of it. First, Fee flopped the nut flush. Then he turned the Royal Flush. Then, just to rub the salt in Petronack's wounds, the board put out a straight flush. So Petronack's straight eight-to-queen straight flush on board fell to Fee's Royal Flush. Petronack won more than $43,000 for his sixth place finish.

Jeff Petronack (left) smiles as Fee hits his miracle

Fee was feeling it. It was obvious. So, it really didn't come as much of a surprise when he got pocket eights all-in versus Andre Chen's queens. And frankly, it didn't come as much of a surprise when he board ran out 6c-4h-5s-7d-x to give Fee the straight. Chen won $61,000 but looked as if he'd just accidentally taken a shot of antifreeze.

The hand moved Fee up over the 1 million chip mark "I'm really good at sucking out," he said sheepishly.
Not one to rest on his lucky laurels, Fee almost looked excited to call Jesus Bertoli's short-stack all-in. This time, Fee held Ks-Qs, up against Bertoli's Ad-3s. Again, it felt pretty natural by this point to see Fee flop top two pair and go on to send the man from Venezuela to the pay-out line. Bertoli collected $80,603 for his fourth place finish.

Jesus Bertoli

Finally, Fee took a break and let fellow 20-year-old American Joel Micka do some of the work. When Brett Sheribon pushed his short stack into the middle from the button with Qd-Td. Micka called in the big blind with a pair of deuces. Sheirbon couldn't find a pair and left in third place for $109,913.

Joel Micka and Ryan Fee took a short break to cut a deal. Though the exact terms of the agreement were not publicly disclosed, the players did a chip-chop deal and left a big chunk of money on the table for which to play. It didn't take long at all. On the final hand, the players got in a raising and re-raising war that ended with all the chips in the middle. It was 4s-4c for Micka and As-Th for Fee.

Joel Micka

If you've been paying attention this far, you should know that it didn't matter that Fee missed the first four cards on board. He still had the river to spike his ace, in this case, the ace of hearts. With a quick pump of his fist, Fee had done it. He had won the first event of the LAPT's second season.

The next stop on the LAPT is in Mexico next month. See you there!

All photography by Joe Giron/IMPDI

There was anoptimism in the ballroom of the Ramada Herradura events center this morning of a type that seems to pervade the small, tranquil nation of Costa Rica. The thirty eight players who assembled for Day 2 of LAPT San Jose were all keenly aware of a critical fact: twenty four players would make the money. That made cashing in this tournament sound deceptively simple. Don't bust before fourteen other players bust.

Anyone who's ever played a no-limit hold'em multi-table tournament will tell you that the truth is that making the money is a Herculean task. It takes unrelenting focus, an unending stream of excellent play and the ability to avoid (or at least minimize) the effects of bad luck. Beyond that, merely making the money was not the goal of any of the remaining thirty eight. They all wanted to win.

Play began just shortly after noon

Yet math is math. The numbers are unbendable in multi-table tournaments. Only eight of the thirty eight remaining players would see the end of the day. Fourteen of them would never even taste the money. Still in the hunt were a husband-and-wife team of WSOP gold bracelet winners and representatives of ten different countries.

The first two players eliminated for the day were out before the last player showed up to unbag his chips. Andrew Chen showed up thirty five minutes late for the start of play. By the time he finally arrived, Jose Contreras had already been busted by Jesse Macleod and Chase Chenoweth's top pair had run into Mark Hirleman's top pair, bigger kicker. So for Chen, at least, the math was different -- only twelve eliminations separated him from the money.

The big story of the early part of the day was the elimination of Abraham Rosenkrantz near the end of Level 11, the first level of play. Rosenkrantz was one of the overnight chip leaders, coming into Day 2 fourth in chips with 114,000. Yet when he ran his pocket kings into Brent Sheirbon's pocket aces, Rosenkrantz was out of the tournament and Sheirbon took over the chip lead from Robert Woodcock.

Abraham Rosenkrantz was eliminated early

Woodcock wasn't slouching. He was using his stack as a weapon to bludgeon his opponents and send people to the rail. One-by-one players like Mark Ioli, William Valladeres and Jesse Macleod were eliminated. Tournament poker stops for no one; either get on the chip truck or hit the rail.

With twenty seven players remaining a special story was brewing. It involved one of only two husband-and-wife teams to ever both win a WSOP gold bracelet: Max and Maria Stern. Both remained alive in the tournament as the money bubble approached. Maria had a healthy stack, but Max was very short. Everyone in the room that wasn't sitting at a poker table was pulling for Max to find a way to double up; everyone sitting at a poker table was rooting for him to bust. Max did finally get his chips into the middle holding ace-king against Carter Gill's pocket fives. An ace flopped, but Gill four-flushed Max in diamonds to eliminate the three-time WSOP champion.

Max and Maria Stern

It was towards the end of Level 12 when the money bubble finally burst. Someone always goes home the unhappiest of all the players who entered the tournament, having labored through all those hours of play to be the last one to go home empty-handed. Today that distinction belonged to Guillaume Noël, whose K-Q couldn't outrun Ryan Fee's A-2. Noël took his departure as good-naturedly as any bubble boy I've ever seen, smiling and shaking Fee's hand before retiring to the rail to watch the rest of the tournament unfold.

As things tend to go in multi-table tournaments, the short stacks kept busting. Jason Frazee, Maurice Millares Molina, Aaron Kielesinski, Mike Gorodinsky, Mark Hirleman and Martin Clemmensen all made their exits. Some took brutal beats (Frazee in particular, who flopped trips but lost when Brent Sheirbon rivered a two-outer for a full house), but most got their short stacks in and just couldn't get there.

Then came the first defining hand of the afternoon. Robert Woodcock and Brent Sheirbon somehow managed to put 110,000 chips into the pot before a flop came down. Sheirbon made a small 12,000-chip bet on an all-club flop that Woodcock raised to 37,000. The hand seemed destined to eliminate or cripple someone when Sheirbon shoved all in, but Woodcock folded. Even so, with that win Sheirbon eclipsed the 400,000-chip mark.

Brent Sheirbon

After that hand, normal order was restored and the short stacks went back to busting. Jon Van Fleet, Michael DeGilio, and Tark Abboud all slipped into the inky blackness of tournament elimination. Play consolidated to two short-handed tables. And that's when the tale of the day returned to late-comer Andrew Chen, the man who was thirty-five minutes late for the start of play. It might have been a sign of things to come that, as soon as he showed up, he eliminated Kevin MacPhee. Likely nobody would have predicted that Chen would even still be in the tournament with only two tables remaining. Yet there he was, tripling up with pocket queens against the ace-king of Joel Micka and the ace-king of Carter Gill. That hand knocked Gill out of the tournament in 14th place and sent Chen's chip count to more than 250,000. Michael Collins, Shawn Patrick Ryan, and Alan Milesky soon followed.

Andrew Chen

Ten players remained. The next elimination would result in another redraw to a single nine-handed table. Earl Burkland put his stack in the middle early in Level 16 with pocket sixes and knew he was in trouble when Robert Woodcock snap-called. It was aces for Woodcock, with a matching ace on the flop. Burkland's tenth place departure set us up for the final nine. One elimination remained before calling it a night.

If fourteen eliminations seemed like a simple order at the beginning of the day, then one last elimination seemed as easy as reciting the alphabet. Yet all of the chips were relatively evenly disbursed, and nobody wanted to be the person to bubble off of Day 3. Hand after hand went by with little change in the counts. Level 16 became Level 17; Level 17 became Level 18. Andrew Chen took a hit at the end of Level 17 when he called a river bet from Ryan Fee and couldn't beat pocket jacks, but it wasn't enough to knock Chen out of the tournament.

Robert Woodcock, the chip leader eight hours earlier at the start of Day 2, may have wished it was. A few hands later, Chen opened for 20,000 and Woodcock shoved all in over the top of him. When Chen called, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. It was Chen's pocket jacks against Woodcock's ace-king, and jacks were best on a Qd-7c-4s-Qs-7s board. Woodcock was unable to make it wire to wire. Andrew Chen showed up thirty five minutes late, but he personally made sure that he would make it to Day 3. We'll see if he shows up late again.

The remaining eight players will come back at noon tomorrow to battle it out and see who will walk away with the first place prize of more than $285,000. It appears that the overnight chip leader is Ryan Fee.

Photography by Joe Giron/IMPDI

There is a certain optimism in Costa Rica that belies the near-constant rain in the country. When the clouds roll over the valley and the mountains are covered by a gray haze, one wonders how the citizens of this beautiful place can live with their trademark Pura Vida spirit. It’s only after one watches the sun come out in the morning and the flowers blooming on the trees in November that one can understand why the smiles here are so frequent.

While it pushes a metaphor to its edge, i’ts not hard to understand why this country has embraced poker so fully. This is a game that can seem to be ever-drenched by rainstorms. The tournament life is as hard as the rain. Cash is hard to come by and a big score is nearly always elusive. There is that time, though, when the sun breaks through and all seems right with the world. That is what the 219 players who started here today were seeking.

At day's end, 38 players remained, a startling 83% of the field gone and looking for other more profitable activities. At the top of the field, a British player named Rob Woodcock. More on him in just a bit. First, we have to pay our respects to the fallen.

The $3,700 buy-in event promised and delivered a $1 million prize pool. Twenty-four players will walk away with at least $9,000. The field here featured dozens of PokerStars players and more than a couple Team PokerStars Pros. Local poker Godfather Humberto Brenes joined Victor Ramdin, and Brazilians Andre Akkari and Alex Gomes in the fight for their first LAPT title. It was not to be. All played a long hard day, but succumbed to the dark side of the game late into the evening.

Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes accepts his demise

The same fate met Vlademar Kwaysser, last season's LAPT San Jose champion. Though holding tough throughout the day, by the time the game broke for the night, the champion was gone.

The big stories of the day surrounded a group of young, tough players including a talkative Ryan Fee who roughed his way through a minefield and held the chip lead for most of day, in what he described as “just another day in the life.” He finished the day around 130,000.

It looked as though Fee would be the chip leader at day's end, but late in the evening, PokerStars player Rob Woodcock made a run to around 150,000, the last 30,000 of it coming courtesy an ace on the turn in his A-Q vs 9-9 battle. He knocked out Raymond Wu in the process.

Woodcock admitted that he got lucky early on today and then took to running good.

"It started off with a pretty good table. There were a few sit-outs, so I was able to chip up early and establish quite a loose image which got me paid off in a few nice spots," he said. "Then the table got progressively tougher and tougher. I had about forty big blinds at that point and got moved tables to a much weaker table and managed to get it in with eights against queens. That's how I got to 100K."

As humble as you'd ever want, Woodcock allowed that he ran well, something anyone in tournament poker needs from time to time.

"I definitely won a lot of pots without showdown to chip up, and then ran really well in all the big pots," he said. "I guess that's how you do well in these things."

With 38 players remaining, Tuesday looks to be a short day. Tournament poker being what it is, though, we're counting on nothing but the re-start at noon when we’ll play down to a final table of eight.

Photography by Joe Giron/IMPDI

It’s none stop. As soon as one tour ends another begins, and the one that ends starts preparing for its next season. That goes in the case of the Latin American Poker Tour which is close to starting its second year after a rip-roaring opener earlier in 2008.

The Latin America Poker Tour has announced the dates for the first LAPT stop of the second season. This year, in a slight change from season one, the LAPT will kick off in San Jose, Costa Rica and will run from November 3-5, 2008 at the Ramada Herradura.

It was only back in May when the man from Hungary Valdemar Kwaysser won the first San Jose event, winning $274,103 along the way. This year, the event promises to be even bigger and better.

While the LAPT full schedule hasn't been released yet, we've had an advance look at it and if all remains the same we're in for some great stops at several new exotic locations over the next several months. We'll bring you more on that when we have the information confirmed.

If you can get there we'll see you in Costa Rica, otherwise we’ll bring you all the details of the event as it takes place here, on the PokerStars.net blog.

All good things must come to an end, and now the first season of the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) is in the record books. After Julien Nuijten in Rio de Janeiro, Valdemar Kwaysser in San Jose, the third and final champion has also been crowned and is another European. His name is Jose Miguel Espinar, from Valencia, Spain.

The rain on the Spaniard: Jose Miguel Espinar emerges from the ticker tape as a champion

Espinar came through a tough final in Punta del Este, Uruguay and won an epic heads-up scrap against Team PokerStars Pro Alex Brenes of Costa Rica. But at the end, it came down to one big hand when both players got their level chip stacks in the middle with A-10 and A-9. Espinar had the advantage with A-10, and although Brenes thought he'd outdrawn the Spaniard when a nine flopped, the ten on the turn sealed the hand for Espinar.

Delight turns to despair as Alex Brenes outdraws but then is outdrawn on

That left Brenes with just 40,000 in chips, not even a small blind, and Espinar's king-three was enough to win it on the next hand.

The celebrations began, and music boomed out from the speakers. Espinar and his friends from Spain wiped away tears as he was crowned a worthy champion.

After two days of stiff competition at the Mantra Resort in Punta play resumed with a typically formidable line-up. Leading the way was Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes, fresh from World Series success.

But not even Gomes could get away from a hand against Alex Brenes at about the mid-point of the day, when he flopped straight and flush draws but missed both. Brenes, in fact, hit his straight and sent Gomes out in fourth.

By then, we had already accounted for Brazil's Paulo Cesar Ribeiro, Argentina's Juan Jose Perez, Brazil's Sydney Chreem and Canada's Gylbert Drolet in an all-action opening couple of levels.

We were only five minutes in when Ribeiro was forced out: he got all his chips in with pocket jacks, but Espinar, whose king-queen had tripped up on the flop, had trapped him.

Out went the first Brazilian and Espinar was up and running

Next up for the guillotine was Argentinean Perez, who also ran into the immovable object Espinar. This time Espinar had a suited ace-jack and was behind against Perez's pocket aces. But the flop, turn and river got progressively straighter for the Spaniard and the king on the river ended it. We were down to six.

For a while, it was all Lisandro Gallo. The Argentinian busted Brazilian Sidney Chreem with pocket sevens against Q-10. Then Canadian Gylbert Drolet took the walk.

He had been card dead for the whole final and had been reduced to a small stack when he got it all-in with jacks. But the vibrant Gallo, the most vociferous around the table for the best part of two days, called with ace-queen and ended up making a flush.

Then it was time for Gomes to go, to leave Gallo, Brenes and Espinar to fight it out three handed. Gallo was the short stack and although he was up and down a couple of times he eventually ran a pair of sixes into a pair of jacks and then a nine high into aces. Gallo shrugged, smiled, shook hands and walked.

The heads-up battle pitched two of the most accomplished players against one another. Espinar is a familiar face from the European Poker Tour whilst Brenes had already been on an LAPT final table -- in Rio in March. This heads-up battle had been brewing and then we had what we wanted. They jabbed, they parried, they ducked and weaved.

It went on for more than three levels before that big hand with the ace-ten and the ace-nine. And after all the money had gone in and all the chips had been shipped, they shook hands, hugged and knew it would all happen again some other day.

The first season of the Latin American Poker Tour is over. But it will all start again in November.

Gracias y adios.

All photographs (c) Joe Giron/IMPDI

They began with 351 and now they’re down to eight. The final table for the LAPT event in Punta del Este, Uruguay, has been set. And here are the players who made it. Each is now guaranteed at least $17,025, although all will be eyeing the first prize of $241,735.

Alexandre Gomes, Brazil, Team PokerStars Pro, 763,000
Gylbert Drolet, Canada, PokerStars player, 691,000
Jose Miguel Espinar, Spain, 675,000
Lisandro Gallo, Argentina, 465,000
Alex Brenes, Costa Rica, 457,000
Paulo Ribeiro, Brazil, PokerStars player, 281,000
Juan Jose Perez, Argentina, 167,000
Sidney Chreem, Brazil, 93,000

You may notice one of those names leaping from the page, that of Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes. He earned a place on the team when he won a World Series bracelet this summer, becoming the first to do so from Brazil. Understandably he travelled home as something of a hero and his performances here have proven already that he is no flash in the pan.

Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes

Gomes started strong and finished stronger. He settled the final table late on when he made a mandatory value call against short-stacked Carlos Curi's pre-flop all in. Gomes managed to outdraw the Argentinian and we reached the last eight with his name at the top.

The other familiar face around tomorrow's felt will be Alex Brenes, brother of Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes, but an LAPT star in his own right after reaching the final table of the inaugural event in Rio de Janeiro in May. Back then he came fourth for $62,800.

Of course, in order to reach this point in the tournament, we have to have shed a great many others, and among the unfortunate fallers today were Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso, Humberto Brenes and Greg Raymer, who all had high hopes but came up just short.

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso

Rousso must be feeling especially disappointed after she seemed set for a stunning final table appearance but ran pocket nines into the aces of Jose Miguel Espinar to bust in tenth. But after a short cooling off period, Lady Maverick can look back on a spectacular showing here in Punta del Este. And she has $11,065 reasons to be cheerful.

Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes

Humberto Brenes also made the money, his first cash on the LAPT, and it meant a great deal to the Costa Rican poker legend. Amazingly, this was the first time the Team PokerStars Pro had cashed in a PokerStars-sponsored event, despite dozens of lifetime cashes in the World Series. Certainly worth the wait.

So it is that we'll reconvene here at noon tomorrow and prepare to play to a champion. The LAPT is almost done for its first season, but the grand finale tomorrow will surely be worth waiting for.

All the work from the video blog team, including an archive of previous coverage, can be found over a PokerStars.tv

All photographs (c) Joe Giron/IMPDI

Something like a month ago, the chances are that most poker players will have never heard of Punta del Este, Uruguay. Similarly, most residents of Punta del Este, Uruguay, probably didn't know that much about poker. But this week, thanks to the PokerStars Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT), the two have come together in a happy union.

The LAPT has already been a spectacular success story, and this the first day of the last event of the first season has been as good as any we’ve seen. The good news? There are still two more days of play.

It was expected that 300 players would begin today, but as midday came and went there were 351 players in line waiting, a line that stretched around the exterior of the Mantra Resort, Spa and Casino.

By 1pm though, each had put up the $2,500 entry fee, creating a prize pool of over $850,000. That makes the first prize $241,735 and 33 players will be in profit come the end.

The field included some of the heavyweights of the world game and some hardy locals aiming for a shot at the big time. In the first category were the Team PokerStars Pros Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, Humberto Brenes, Alexandre Gomes, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown and Andre Akkari. While the cards did not fall in the favour of Greenstein, Brown and Akkari, the first four of those big names are all still well in the hunt, with Raymer, in particular, enjoying the trip south.

The 2005 World Champion won a huge pot with kings against ace-king, then busted Akkari with aces against queens. That catapulted him to the chip lead with close to 85,000, a level kept up throughout the day.

Brenes, of course, loves playing poker and he loves playing it on Latin American soil better than anywhere else in the world. He struggled through the early levels, plunging to a low of about 5,000 in chips, but once the feature table had been assembled and he'd been invited to sit around it, the comeback began.

Brenes bagged up 53,000 at the end of the day, and the shark is well in the hunt.

(As a side point, that wasn't quite enough to be the most chipped-up Brenes in Punta del Este, however. That accolade went to Humberto's brother Alex Brenes, who is our probable overnight chip leader, with 110,000.)

World Series bracelet winner Alexandre Gomes has become a big attraction on the South American poker scene after his fantastically successful sojourn to Las Vegas this summer.

And the spotlight suits Gomes well: the most recent addition to Team PokerStars Pro was still sitting pretty among the 95 finishers, with 31,000.

Vanessa "Lady Maverick" Rousso, meanwhile, ended the day with just less than 20,000, no mean feat given that she played alongside the formidable Raymer all day.

Video blogs of the day’s action can be found over at PokerStars.tv

Tomorrow's fun starts at noon, when they will return to play level 10 with blinds at 600-1,200 and a 100 ante. They'll play down to the final nine. Be sure to join us.

All photographs (c) Joe Giron/IMPDI

The PokerStars European Poker Tour recently finished its fourth season in Monte Carlo, a glitzy place of razzmatazz and glamour and some of the best poker Europe has ever seen. But Europe isn’t the only place that poker increases in popularity year on year. As the Asia Pacific Poker Tour proved last year (and will do so again later this year) poker in South East Asia is rapidly expanding into all corners.

Now poker has reached another corner of the world where the poker boom is still ringing loud, the shores of South America, where the inaugural PokerStars Latin America Poker Tour event in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, played out last weekend and was won by 22 year old Dutchman Julian Nuijten, who took $222,940 back to Holland.

The event attracted 314 players from all over the world, including Team PokerStars Pros Andre Akkari from Brazil, Humberto Brenes, Vanessa Rousso, former world champions Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, Victor Ramdin, Isabelle Mercier and new team members Chad Brown and Gavin Griffin. They no doubt experienced some great poker but also the stunning views from the mountains, the shores of Copacabana beach and some welcome Brazilian hospitality.

"This first Latin American Poker Tour event in Rio has been a phenomenal success", said LAPT President Glenn Cademartori. "I have already seen how passionate Latin Americans are about poker, but even I was surprised by the jubilant atmosphere here at the Rio tournament and the tremendous enthusiasm of both the players and their supporters. Latin America is one of the fastest-growing poker regions in the world and, thanks to the PokerStars.net LAPT, the region now has a high-stakes championship poker tour of its own."

The next two stop on Season 1 LAPT are in San Jose in Costa Rica from May 22-24 and then Punta del Este in Uruguay from August 7-9.