Jose Ignacio Barbero

Jose Ignacio Barbero

Nicknamed ‘Nacho’, Jose Ignacio Barbero is one of the best poker players in Argentina with a string of top tournament results from around the world. Before taking up poker he was no stranger to high level competition, having represented the Argentinean national team in Magic: The Gathering tournaments. It was at those events he was exposed to Texas Hold’em, and after a big Magic win he was able to set himself up online, and started clocking the hours required to begin a professional poker career.

Jose plays the global live circuit. His early successes came in Europe, in the card rooms of Paris and Barcelona, before winning money in Las Vegas and going on to carve out results in his home region on the Latin American Poker Tour. He also has two cashes at the biggest live poker tournament in the world, the World Series of Poker* $10,000 Main Event, the second of which in 2008 was a top 100 finish – 89th for $64,333. In total he has six World Series cashes, including a final table appearance in 2009, a strong record for a player that hasn’t been playing on the big stage for long. In 2010 he claimed a landmark victory when he became only the second Latin American player to win an LAPT title, when he won Season 3 LAPT Punta del Este scooping $279,330 in prize money. The good run continued later in the year when Jose won his first PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) title in May, taking home $62,780 for beating the rest of the field in the $2,100 FLHE, High-level event. Next, he scored a tournament victory in Europe, winning the first-ever event of the France Poker Series in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, good for €40,123. Then in June he took down his second successive LAPT title - playing through a field of 384 runners in Lima to win $250,000 in first place prize money. He’s the first person to do it, and winning back-to-back major tour events marks him out as one of the world’s finest players. Jose’s next big result came with a 3rd place finish in the $10,300 8-Game event in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), good for $172,900, and his incredible year continued when he won the High Roller at EPT London, pocketing another £556,000.

Joining the PokerStars pro player roster has been a great honor for Jose. He's a regular on the LAPT and is a proud ambassador for poker in Argentina, representing his country at the biggest events worldwide. He is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and plays under the screen name ‘nachobarbero’.